[Progress in microbial co-culture--A review].

We reviewed the history and applications of microorganism co-cultivation in food, agriculture, industry and sewage purification, and summarized ecology relationships between co-culture microorganisms. Joint mixed culture, sequence mixed culture and immobilized cells mixed culture have been used widely and lots of achievements have been made, for example, obtaining metabolites that are difficult to achieve or too low production in pure culture, transforming traditional fermentation industry, producing energy substance, improving substrate utilization ratio, expanding the scope of substrates and degrading toxic substances. Research reports indicate there are many ecology relationships between microorganisms, such as collaborative metabolism, induction effect, quorum sensing and gene transfer. The ecological interplay mechanism of co-culture microorganisms should have a further research, which will lay the foundation for developing applications of microorganism co-culture.