Biosensor Assisted Next-Generation Droplets High-throughput Screening Agent for Screening Vitamin B12 Producers from Soil

Soil represents a vast reservoir of microbial diversity, yet traditional cultivation methods fail to access its full potential, particularly for compounds produced by these microorganisms with complex synthesis pathways or inherent toxicity. Vitamin B12 (VB12) is a representative example where heterologous expression and metabolic engineering often yield suboptimal results due to its intricate biosynthesis. Metagenomic sequencing of soil samples uncovered an immense taxonomic diversity, revealing a limited number of bacterial strains predicted to be capable of VB12 synthesis. Droplet-based cultivation demonstrated significant advantages over conventional plate culture by enabling the isolation of strains that were undetectable in raw soil or unobtainable via solid-phase methods.