The frequent discrepancy between direct microscopic counts and numbers of culturable
bacteria from environmental samples is just one of several indications that we currently …

▪ Abstract Since the delineation of 12 bacterial phyla by comparative phylogenetic analyses
of 16S ribosomal RNA in 1987 knowledge of microbial diversity has expanded dramatically …

Cultured soil microorganisms have provided a rich source of natural-product chemistry.
Because only a tiny fraction of soil microbes from soil are readily cultured, soil might be the …

A simple, rapid method for bacterial lysis and direct extraction of DNA from soils with minimal
shearing was developed to address the risk of chimera formation from small template DNA …

In 1909, H. Joel Conn (25) expressed the hope that methods would soon be at hand by
which the significance of the different bacteria present in any soil could be determined …

In situ hybridization with rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes has become a widely
applied tool for direct analysis of microbial population structures of complex natural and …

Here, the state of the art of the application of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis
(DGGE) and temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) in microbial ecology will be …

After nearly 10 years of PCR-based analysis of prokaryotic small-subunit ribosomal RNAs
for ecological studies it seems necessary to summarize reported pitfalls of this approach …

Phylogenetic surveys of soil ecosystems have shown that the number of prokaryotic species
found in a single sample exceeds that of known cultured prokaryotes. Soil metagenomics …

Over 100 years ago, Robert Koch introduced his ideas about how to prove a causal
relationship between a microorganism and a disease. Koch's postulates created a scientific …