| > Oceanography > Issues > Archive > Volume 20, Number 2 |
2007, Oceanography 20(2):62–69, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2007.49
New Cultivation Strategies Bring More Microbial Plankton Species into the Laboratory
Authors | First Paragraph | Full Article | Citation
Authors
Stephen J. Giovannoni | Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
Rachel A. Foster | Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA
Michael S. Rappé | Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, SOEST, University of Hawaii, Kaneohe, HI, USA
Slava Epstein | Department of Biology and Marine Science Center, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
First Paragraph
It is difficult to describe the properties of a microorganism without first cultivating it. There has been a great deal of effort and considerable success in predicting microbial metabolic activities from genome sequences, (i.e., functional genes), assembling genomes from metagenomic data, testing the activities of cells in situ, and from studying complex microbial assemblages in the laboratory. But, the fact remains that the most efficient way to gather information about a microorganism is to study it in culture and relate that knowledge to field observations. Genomes are easily determined from pure cultures, and cultures often offer the best possibilities to test hypotheses that emerge from genome sequences or ecological studies. Figure 1 illustrates some of these relationships.
Full Article
Citation
Giovannoni, S.J., R. Foster, M.S. Rappé, and S. Epstein. 2007. New cultivation strategies bring more microbial plankton species into the laboratory. Oceanography 20(2):62–69, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2007.49.