A Set of In Situ Informed Simulated Medium Formats for Culturing Environmentally Acquired Anaerobic Microorganisms

Summary

The focus of this paper is to detail best practices for making media for fastidious anaerobic microorganisms acquired from an environment. These methods help manage anaerobic cultures and can be applied to support the growth of elusive uncultured microorganisms, the "microbial dark matter."

Abstract

Culture-dependent research of anaerobic microorganisms rests upon methodological competence. These methods must create and maintain suitable growth conditions (e.g., pH and carbon sources) for anaerobic microorganisms while also allowing samples to be extracted without compromising the artificial environment. To this end, methods that are informed by and simulate an in situ environment can be of great aid in culturing microorganisms from that environment. Here, we outline an in situ informed and simulated anaerobic method for culturing terrestrial surface and subsurface microorganisms, emphasizing anaerobic sample collection with minimal perturbation. This protocol details the production of a customizable anaerobic liquid medium, and the environmental acquisition and in vitro growth of anaerobic microorganisms. The protocol also covers critical components of an anaerobic bioreactor used for environmental simulations of sediment and anaerobic liquid media for environmentally acquired cultures. We have included preliminary Next Generation Sequencing data from a maintained microbiome over the lifespan of a bioreactor where the active culture dynamically adjusted in response to an experimental carbon source.

Introduction

Most microorganisms remain uncultured; this is supported by the great disparity between cells observed through microscopy contrasted by the few microorganisms successfully cultured using agar plates. Staley and Konopka named this disparity the "Great Plate Count Anomaly"¹. The estimated unaccounted diversity is supported by metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data showing many novel genera distributed in rank abundance curves from several different environments². Microorganisms that have been observed (generally by random shotgun sequencing of a microbial community) but have not been cultured....

Protocol

1. Production of customizable anaerobic liquid medium

1. Medium for culture bottles (production of 500 mL)
   1. Measure and add compounds to a 1 L bottle and adjust the pH using the column in Table 1 corresponding to the reader's culture of interest (amounts in Table 1 are recorded for production of 1,000 mL, adjust accordingly). Mix compounds to homogeneity by swirling the bottle.
   2. Heat the liquid to boiling by microwaving the bottle for 5-.......

Discussion

The medium production section of this protocol (section 1) owes its structure to the modified Hungate technique of Miller and Wolin¹⁷, which has been widely used since its publication. The practicality of this expanded protocol comes from its descriptive nature and pairing with the in situ acquisition of microorganisms. Culture bottles containing environmentally informed and simulated media have been used to successfully culture the following in situ-acquired former members of th.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
General Materials
1 L borosillicate bottle	Fisher Scientific
1 mL syringe with slip tip	Fisher Scientific
10 mL glass pipette	Fisher Scientific
100 mL culture bottle	Fisher Scientifc
20 mm hand crimper	Fisher Scientifc
23 G needle	Fisher Scientifc
500 mL borosilicate bottle	Fisher Scientific
Aluminum seal	Fisher Scientifc
Cannula, 31.5 cm length	Fisher Scientific
Cannula, 6 cm length	Fisher Scientifc
Corer	Giddings Machine Company		Assembled from company parts
Gas manifold	Swagelok		Assembled from many different parts
Lighter	Lowe's
N2 gas	Airgas
Nitrile gloves	Fisher Scientific
Rubber stopper (for GL45 bottles)	Glasgeratebau OCHS
Rubber stopper (for culture bottles)	Ace Glass
Stirring hot plate	Corning
Trace minerals	ATCC
Vitamins	ATCC
Bioreactor-specific Materials
#10 rubber stopper	Ace Glass
#7 rubber stopper	Fisher Scientifc
1 mL syringe with luer lock tip	Fisher Scientifc
1/4" hose barb ball valve	Amazon
10 mL syringe with luer lock tip	Fisher Scientifc
3.5 L borosilicate bottle	Fisher Scientific
5/16" - 1/4" hose barb adapter fitting	Amazon
60 mL syringe with luer lock tip	Fisher Scientifc
8 L borosillicate carboy	Allen Glass
Angled hose connector for GL14 open top cap	Ace Glass	7623-20
Balloon	Party City
Borosillicate bioreactor	Allen Scientific Glass		Custom made upon request
Drill	Lowe's
Female luer lock adapter coupler	Amazon
GL14 open top cap	Ace Glass	7621-04
GL18 open top cap	Ace Glass	7621-08
GL45 open top cap	Ace Glass
PTFE faced silicone septum for GL14 open top cap	Ace Glass	7625-06
PTFE faced silicone septum for GL18 open top cap	Ace Glass	7625-07
Ring stand	Fisher Scientific
Ring stand chain clamp	Amazon
Ring stand clamp	Fisher Scientific
Silicone tubing; 1/4" id, 1/2" od	Grainger	55YG13
Silicone tubing; 3/16" id, 3/8" od	Grainger
Straight hose connector for GL14 open top cap	Ace Glass	7623-22
Three-way stopcock	Amazon
Two-way stopcock	Amazon
Ultra low flow variable flow mini-pump	VWR
Water bath	Fisher Scientifc
White rubber septum for 13-18 mm od tubes	Ace Glass	9096-49
Wire	Lowe's
Zip tie	Lowe's