The phylum Acidobacteria is one of the most widespread and abundant on the planet, yet
remarkably our knowledge of the role of these diverse organisms in the functioning of …

Metagenomics (also referred to as environmental and community genomics) is the genomic
analysis of microorganisms by direct extraction and cloning of DNA from an assemblage of …

Our perspective on microbial diversity has improved enormously over the past few decades.
In large part this has been due to molecular phylogenetic studies that objectively relate …

▪ Abstract Since the delineation of 12 bacterial phyla by comparative phylogenetic analyses
of 16S ribosomal RNA in 1987 knowledge of microbial diversity has expanded dramatically …

In 1909, H. Joel Conn (25) expressed the hope that methods would soon be at hand by
which the significance of the different bacteria present in any soil could be determined …

▪ Abstract An increasing interest has emerged with respect to the importance of microbial
diversity in soil habitats. The extent of the diversity of microorganisms in soil is seen to be …

Recent progress in molecular microbial ecology has revealed that traditional culturing
methods fail to represent the scope of microbial diversity in nature, since only a small …

As a technique allowing simultaneous visualization, identification, enumeration and
localization of individual microbial cells, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is useful for …

Soil structure depends on the association between mineral soil particles (sand, silt, and clay)
and organic matter, in which aggregates of different size and stability are formed. Although …

The recent application of molecular phylogeny to environmental samples has resulted in the
discovery of an abundance of unique and previously unrecognized microorganisms. The …