Hidden Microbial Diversity Of The Sea: Testing A Novel Approach To Cultivating Presently Uncultivable Microbes

Northeastern University, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

The objective of this project is to gain access to the bulk of microbial biodiversity by developing approaches to cultivate presently uncultivable microorganisms. Uncultivable microorganisms make up 99% of all species from most environments sampled, and the riddle of uncultivable microorganisms has been recently recognized as the main challenge for basic and applied research in microbiology by the American Society for Microbiology. We propose an approach that is radically different from those traditionally employed for culturing microorganisms from environmental samples. We propose to culture the microorganisms in their natural habitat. We have designed a growth chamber that is separated from the environment by membranes that prevent cell migration and thus maintain purity of the inner space and yet enable full chemical contact between the inner space and the outside environment. Microorganisms incubated in the natural environment as we propose will be exposed to the complete suit of the outside environmental conditions and components. Our simulation of the natural environment may result in cultivation of a wider range of organisms, including those that have previously been considered as "uncultivable". Once we achieve microbial growth in the field-incubated growth chamber, we will use an array of molecular techniques to identify and verify the previously uncultivable component among the grown colonies. Even if our approach allows us to grow just a few novel isolates, this project, by the virtue of proving our concept, may become an important milestone toward solving one of the major problems of microbial ecology.