Author Spotlight: Unraveling the Mysteries of Terrestrial Anaerobic Microorganisms in Uncharted Environments by In Situ Culturing

Our research focuses on terrestrial surface and subsurface microorganisms, culturing them and investigating their genomes and phenotypes. Of particular focus are microorganisms in environments that are not well understood, like those in the deep subsurface and in certain wetlands. Most of the microorganisms we culture are anaerobic, which means the culturing process generally requires more time and attention than processes for more commonly-used aerobic microorganisms.

We hope the audiovisual presentation of anaerobic medium preparation will help researchers new to the technique learn it relatively quickly and easily. This medium preparation is based on the modified Hungate technique of Miller and Wolin. Culturing fastidious microbes is tedious and problematic.

Having more tools to grow them is very welcome to the scientific community. Future research in general will be similar to our current research of understudied terrestrial microorganisms. There are still many new microbes to discover and study.