Archaeal hunting: cultivation of uncultured fastidious Archaea

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24687011
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Biodiversity/Systematics
• Research Institution: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: IMACHI Hiroyuki 独立行政法人海洋研究開発機構, 深海・地殻内生物圏研究分野, 主任研究員 (20361933)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: アーキア / 分離培養 / 16S rRNA遺伝子 / メタン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Cultured enrichments and isolates are important in developing our understanding of microbial physiology, genetics, and ecology. However, many microorganisms, particularly members of the domain Archaea, remain uncultured under laboratory conditions. In this study, I attempted to cultivate and isolate uncultured Archaea using a new cultivation technique I developed and molecular techniques. As a result, I successfully obtained three anaerobic methane-oxidizing microbial communities that contain phylogenetically diverse of uncultured archaeal groups. The single cell genome analysis for one of the enriched microbial communities revealed that an uncultured archaeal group might have a unique sulfur metabolism gene. Unfortunately, isolates of the uncultured archaeal group was not obtained during the period of this study, but the enrichments and single cell genome analysis provide new information about the uncultured archaea.

Free Research Field

環境微生物学