A practical optical trap for manipulating and isolating bacteria from complex microbial communities

James G. Mitchell, Roland Weller, Maria Beconi, John Sell, Jack Holland

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    13 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A wide variety of naturally occurring bacteria cannot be isolated by classical microbiological methods, hindering study of microbial communities. To partially remove this limitation, a method using optical trapping was developed. It allows for one-step isolation of bacteria from a complex community to a pure culture. The method transfers a single bacterium to sterile culture medium using a non-destructive laser beam. The ease with which a previously unculturable cell was cultured by trapping suggests that competition may limit growth in some natural communities of bacteria.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)113-119
    Number of pages7
    JournalMicrobial Ecology
    Volume25
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 1993

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