Uncultivated Microorganisms

ISBN-13: 9783540854647 / Angielski / Twarda / 2009 / 220 str.

Slava S. Epstein

Opis

The estimate for the number of existing microbial species is 105 - 106, but only some thousands have been isolated in pure culture and described. The principal reason for this gigantic disparity is that, mysteriously, over 99% of all environmental microorganisms refuse to grow in the laboratory. The phenomenon of microbial uncultivability has been recognized as one of the main challenges for basic and applied microbiology and finding a way to access this uncultivated microbial majority may change many aspects of biology and biotechnology as we know them today. This volume presents the discovery of the phenomenon, the current hypotheses on its molecular nature, state-of-the-art approaches of 'outsmarting' the uncultivated microorganisms and the principal applications of the new insights into medicine and biotechnology. Hopefully, it will be the key to the hidden universe of uncultivated microorganisms, their unparallel diversity and enormous applied potential.

Spis treści

Viable but Not Cultivable Bacteria.- General Model of Microbial Uncultivability.- Statistical Estimation of Uncultivated Microbial Diversity.- Detection and Characterization of Uncultivated Microorganisms Using Microarrays.- Persisters, Biofilms, and the Problem of Cultivability.- Metagenomics and Antibiotic Discovery from Uncultivated Bacteria.- Taking the Concept to the Limit: Uncultivable Bacteria and Astrobiology.- Single Cell Whole Genome Amplification of Uncultivated Organisms.- Physiological and Ecological Adaptations of Slow-Growing, Heterotrophic Microbes and Consequences for Cultivation.- Characterizing Microbial Population Structures through Massively Parallel Sequencing.- The Seabed as Natural Laboratory: Lessons From Uncultivated Methanotrophs.

Blurb

The number of existing microbial species may be in the millions, but only a few thousand have been isolated in pure culture and described. The principal reason for this tremendous disparity is that, mysteriously, over 99% of all environmental microorganisms refuse to grow in the laboratory. The phenomenon of microbial uncultivability has been recognized as one of the main challenges for basic and applied microbiology, and finding a way to access this uncultivated microbial majority may change many aspects of biology and biotechnology as we know them today.

This volume describes the discovery of the phenomenon, the current hypotheses on its physiological and molecular nature, state-of-the-art approaches to "outsmarting" the uncultivated microorganisms, and the importance of the uncultivated microbial majority in medicine and biotechnology. It reveals the hidden universe of uncultivated microorganisms, their unparalleled diversity and enormous potential for application.