Diversity, Dynamics and Topographic Arrangement of Microorganisms are Essential Parameters that Identify a microbial Consortium

Abstract

Years ago it was already clear that elucidation of the microbial flora of complex ecosystems requires identification of microrganisms directly, in samples from the ecosystems, avoiding culture-isolation procedures (Colwell et al., 1985; Macario and Conway de Macario, 1982; Zambon et al., 1984; and references therein). The latter procedures have been, and will always be, extremely useful for the purification and characterization of the components of a microbial community, and to provide axenic cultures to the scientific community. However, culture-isolation is insufficient, and may even be misleading for studies in microbial ecology, inasmuch as it may reveal the microbes culturable in the media utilized, but not necessarily the most significant ones for the ecosystem under analysis. Therefore, for accurate characterization of microbial communities, culture-isolation must be complemented with direct identification and quantification, with minimal sample manipulation, to avoid artifactual distortion of the microbial flora.