Isolation of previously uncultured rumen bacteria by dilution to extinction using a new liquid culture medium

A new anaerobic medium that mimics the salts composition of rumen fluid was used in conjunction with a dilution method of liquid culture to isolate fermentative bacteria from the rumen of a grass-fed sheep. The aim was to inoculate a large number of culture tubes each with a mean of <1 culturable cell, which should maximize the number of cultures that develop from a single bacterium. This minimizes the effort that has to be put into purifying the resultant cultures. Of 1000 tubes, 139 were growth positive. Of the 93 that were able to be subcultured, 54 (58%) appeared to be pure cultures. The phylogenetic placements of these 54 cultures, together with another 6 cultures obtained from a preliminary study, were determined. Using a criterion of <93% 16S rRNA gene sequence identity to a previously named bacterium as a proxy for defining a new genus, 27 (45%) of the 60 cultures belonged to 14 potentially novel genera. Many of these had 16S rRNA genes that shared >97% sequence identity to genes of uncultured bacteria detected in various gastrointestinal environments. This strategy has therefore allowed us to cultivate many novel rumen bacteria, opening the way to overcoming the lack of cultures of many of the groups detected using cultivation-independent methods.