AD-culturomics

Metagenomic studies on microbial ecosystems provide in silico confirmation that these communities consist of thousands of microbial species of which the majority remains poorly characterised and/or uncultured. Specifically, in anaerobic microbial communities that govern conversion of organic matter to biogas, isolation approaches are limited. Following this notion, the project proposes to isolate, identify and archive novel microorganisms from anaerobic digesters (AD) using the isolation chips technique. “Artificial” seed communities could then be created to enhance energy recovery from AD systems by increasing production of biogas.