Archaeal hunting : explore new metabolic functions of uncultured Archaea by using new culturing techniques

培养的富集和分离物对于发展我们对微生物生理学、遗传学和生态学的理解是重要的。然而，许多微生物，特别是微生物区的成员，仍然未培养。在这项研究中，我试图培养和分离未培养的葡萄球菌从各种环境样品使用新的栽培技术，我开发的。结果，我成功地培养和分离产甲烷和甲烷营养菌。这些结果有力地表明，我开发的培养方法是培养挑剔但具有生态重要性的古细菌物种的有效方法，否则这些古细菌物种将逃脱传统的隔离策略。同时，本研究所获得的分离物对了解地球上的碳循环和开发新的环保技术具有重要意义。

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. In this study, I attempted to cultivate and isolate uncultured Archaea from various environmental samples using new cultivation techniques I developed. As a result, I successfully cultivated and isolated methanogenic and methanotrophic Archaea. These results strongly suggest that the culturing methods I developed are effective ways to cultivate fastidious but ecologically important archaeal species that would otherwise escape conventional isolation strategies. Also, these isolates obtained in this study would promote to understand carbon cycle on earth and to develop new environmental technologies.