DarkMicro – Exploring microbial dark matter with picoliter droplets
Modern sequencing techniques revealed the existence of a vast majority of microorganisms that are uncultured to date – the “microbial dark matter”. Bacteria belonging to these so-called candidate phyla (CP) often have small, reduced genomes and are likely living in symbiotic or parasitic relationships with other microorganisms. Using an innovative droplet-microfluidics platform, the project DarkMicro will analyze metabolic dependencies of CP bacteria from groundwater samples by co-cultivating them with putative hosts. The ultrahigh-throughput incubation of bacterial cultures in picoliter droplets opens new perspectives for studying the interactions in complex microbial communities and discovering the “microbial dark matter”.
Participating Scientists
Prof. Dr. Kirsten Küsel
Projektkoordinatorin
FSU · Aquatische Geomikrobiologie