The phenomenon of microbial uncultivability

Abstract

Most of the microbial diversity on our planet cannot be cultivated, and remains inaccessible. To bring the missing species into culture, microbiologists have introduced over the past decade a number of innovations aiming to meet the demands of new microbes and better mimic their natural conditions. This resulted in a significant increase in microbial recovery yet the real reasons why so many microbes do not grow on artificial media remain largely unknown. The recently proposed scout model of microbial life cycle may provide a partial explanation for the phenomenon. It postulates that transition from dormancy to activity is a stochastic process originating in noise-driven bistability. The model helps explain several otherwise perplexing observations, and informs the future cultivation efforts.