Enhanced microbial cultivation method bridges transition between native habitats and the lab

A 3D-printed continuous-flow cultivation plate has shown efficacy in helping to gradually transition bacteria from a native media (pondwater) to cultured media.

The enhanced domestication (EDEN) method developed by researchers at Imperial College, London, offers a potential advancement in this area as standard techniques often reduces cell cultivability. Moreover, conventional microbial culturing methods are inefficient, leaving “99 percent of microbes” uncultured, according to Morrison et al. and thus “the majority of their diversity unexplored”.

Notably, EDEN-acclimatised bacterial monocultures showed three-fold greater taxonomic diversity and tenfold more unique and likely-uncultured taxa. The researchers found that EDEN doubled the cultivability of agarose-encapsulated microcolonies. The team were also able to isolate a novel bacterial species with potent antimicrobial activity against drug-resistant pathogens.

The EDEN microwell plate…works by minimising microbial exposure to abrupt media and environmental transitions, thereby limiting potential nutrient shock effects”