Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-17-2007

Publication Title

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Volume

104

Issue Number

29

First Page

11889

Last Page

11894

DOI

10.1073/pnas.0704662104

Keywords

environmental microbiology, metagenomics, microfluidics, single-cell analysis

Disciplines

Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology | Pathogenic Microbiology

Abstract

We have developed a microfluidic device that allows the isolation and genome amplification of individual microbial cells, thereby enabling organism-level genomic analysis of complex microbial ecosystems without the need for culture. This device was used to perform a directed survey of the human subgingival crevice and to isolate bacteria having rod-like morphology. Several isolated microbes had a 16S rRNA sequence that placed them in candidate phylum TM7, which has no cultivated or sequenced members. Genome amplification from individual TM7 cells allowed us to sequence and assemble >1,000 genes, providing insight into the physiology of members of this phylum. This approach enables single-cell genetic analysis of any uncultivated minority member of a microbial community.

Comments

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2007 July 17; 104(29): 11889–11894. © 2007 BioMed Central doi: 10.1073/pnas.0704662104. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1924555/?tool=pubmed

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