Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
J Bacteriol. 2012 Aug;194(16):4151-60. doi: 10.1128/JB.00345-12. Epub 2012 Jun 1.
The bacteria that can be grown in the laboratory are only a small fraction of the total diversity that exists in nature. At all levels of bacterial phylogeny, uncultured clades that do not grow on standard media are playing critical roles in cycling carbon, nitrogen, and other elements, synthesizing novel natural products, and impacting the surrounding organisms and environment. While molecular techniques, such as metagenomic sequencing, can provide some information independent of our ability to culture these organisms, it is essentially impossible to learn new gene and pathway functions from pure sequence data. A true understanding of the physiology of these bacteria and their roles in ecology, host health, and natural product production requires their cultivation in the laboratory. Recent advances in growing these species include coculture with other bacteria, recreating the environment in the laboratory, and combining these approaches with microcultivation technology to increase throughput and access rare species. These studies are unraveling the molecular mechanisms of unculturability and are identifying growth factors that promote the growth of previously unculturable organisms. This minireview summarizes the recent discoveries in this area and discusses the potential future of the field.
在实验室中能够培养的细菌只是自然界中总多样性的一小部分。在细菌系统发育的各个层次上，无法在标准培养基上生长的未培养类群在碳、氮和其他元素的循环、合成新的天然产物以及影响周围生物和环境方面发挥着关键作用。虽然分子技术，如宏基因组测序，可以在不受我们培养这些生物能力的影响下提供一些信息，但从纯序列数据中了解新的基因和途径功能基本上是不可能的。要真正了解这些细菌的生理学及其在生态、宿主健康和天然产物生产中的作用，需要在实验室中培养它们。最近在培养这些物种方面的进展包括与其他细菌共培养、在实验室中重现环境，以及将这些方法与微培养技术相结合，以提高产量并获得稀有物种。这些研究正在揭示不可培养性的分子机制，并确定促进以前不可培养生物生长的生长因子。这篇小综述总结了该领域的最新发现，并讨论了该领域的未来潜力。
