Figure. 3. Advanced Microbial Culturing Techniques for Discovering Novel Natural Products:

Figure. 3. Advanced Microbial Culturing Techniques for Discovering Novel Natural Products: Innovative strategies for cultivating previously uncultured microorganisms are unlocking access to new natural products (NPs) they produce. (a) To mimic the complex environmental signals of native habitats, microorganisms can be cultured directly in their original environment using platforms like the iChip. This tool seeds diluted environmental samples into small chambers enclosed by semipermeable membranes, allowing natural interactions to occur. This approach enabled the discovery of teixobactin, a novel antibiotic effective against Gram-positive bacteria. (b) Omics-based techniques, such as metagenomics, offer insights into microorganisms present in environmental samples, enabling targeted cultivation. For instance, a reverse genomics workflow utilized genetic information to design antibodies for capturing specific bacteria, resulting in the successful cultivation of previously uncultured bacteria from the human oral cavity. This method led to the isolation of Saccharibacteria (TM7) species with their Actinobacteria hosts, as well as SR1 bacteria, representing a previously uncultured candidate phylum Giri et al. (2021).

图3 用于发现新型天然产物的先进微生物培养技术：针对此前未培养微生物的创新培养策略，正解锁其自身所产新型天然产物（Natural Products，NPs）的获取途径。(a) 为模拟原生栖息地的复杂环境信号，可借助iChip等平台直接在微生物的原始生长环境中开展培养。该工具将稀释后的环境样品接种至由半透膜包裹的小型培养室中，允许微生物与环境间发生自然相互作用。此方法助力发现了替西罗班肽（teixobactin）——一种对革兰氏阳性菌具有强效抗菌活性的新型抗生素。(b) 基于组学（Omics）的技术，例如宏基因组学（metagenomics），可解析环境样品中蕴含的微生物群落信息，从而实现靶向培养。例如，一项反向基因组学工作流程借助遗传信息设计抗体以捕获特定细菌，成功从人类口腔中分离出此前未培养的细菌类群。该方法成功分离到与放线菌（Actinobacteria）宿主共生的糖细菌（Saccharibacteria，TM7）物种，以及SR1细菌——后者隶属于Giri等人（2021）所报道的此前未被培养的候选门类群。