A versatile medium for cultivating methanogenic archaea.

BACKGROUND: Methanobrevibacter smithii, Methanobrevibacter oralis, Methanosphaera stadtmanae, Methanomassilicoccus luminyensis and Methanobrevibacter arboriphilicus have been cultured from human digestive microbiota. Each one of these fastidious methanogenic archaea requires a specific medium for it...

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Main Authors: Saber Khelaifia, Didier Raoult, Michel Drancourt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3629087?pdf=render
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author Saber Khelaifia
Didier Raoult
Michel Drancourt
author_facet Saber Khelaifia
Didier Raoult
Michel Drancourt
author_sort Saber Khelaifia
collection DOAJ
description BACKGROUND: Methanobrevibacter smithii, Methanobrevibacter oralis, Methanosphaera stadtmanae, Methanomassilicoccus luminyensis and Methanobrevibacter arboriphilicus have been cultured from human digestive microbiota. Each one of these fastidious methanogenic archaea requires a specific medium for its growth, hampering their routine isolation and the culture. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A new culture medium here referred as SAB medium was optimized and tested to cultivate methanogens associated with human microbiota, as well as two mesophile methanogens Methanobacterium beijingense and Methanosaeta concilii. It was further tested for the isolation of archaea from 20 human stool specimens including 10 specimens testing positive for PCR detection of M. smithii. After inoculating 10(5) colony-forming-unit archaea/mL or 1 g stool specimen in parallel in SAB medium and reference DSMZ medium in the presence of negative controls, growth of archaea was determined by optical microscopy and the measurement of methane production by gas chromatography. While the negative controls remained sterile, all tested archaea grew significantly more rapidly in SAB medium than in reference medium in 1-3 days (P<0.05, Student test). Among PCR-positive stool specimens, 10/10 grew in the SAB medium, 6/10 in DSMZ 119 medium, 5/10 in DSMZ 322 medium and 3/10 in DSMZ 334 c medium. Four out of ten PCR-negative stool specimens grew after a 3-week incubation in the SAB-medium whereas no growth was detected in any of the reference media. 16S rRNA gene sequencing yielded 99-100% sequence similarity with reference M. smithii except for one specimen that yielded 99-100% sequence similarity with reference Methanobrevibacter millerae. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: SAB medium allows for the versatile isolation and growth of methanogenic archaea associated with human gut microbiota including the archaea missed by inoculation of reference media. Implementation of the SAB medium in veterinary and medical microbiology laboratories will ease the routine culture-based detection of methanogenic archaea in clinical and environmental specimens.
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spelling doaj.art-6c71154688d94e818ec7c6e2d12b792c2022-12-21T17:50:28ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032013-01-0184e6156310.1371/journal.pone.0061563A versatile medium for cultivating methanogenic archaea.Saber KhelaifiaDidier RaoultMichel DrancourtBACKGROUND: Methanobrevibacter smithii, Methanobrevibacter oralis, Methanosphaera stadtmanae, Methanomassilicoccus luminyensis and Methanobrevibacter arboriphilicus have been cultured from human digestive microbiota. Each one of these fastidious methanogenic archaea requires a specific medium for its growth, hampering their routine isolation and the culture. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A new culture medium here referred as SAB medium was optimized and tested to cultivate methanogens associated with human microbiota, as well as two mesophile methanogens Methanobacterium beijingense and Methanosaeta concilii. It was further tested for the isolation of archaea from 20 human stool specimens including 10 specimens testing positive for PCR detection of M. smithii. After inoculating 10(5) colony-forming-unit archaea/mL or 1 g stool specimen in parallel in SAB medium and reference DSMZ medium in the presence of negative controls, growth of archaea was determined by optical microscopy and the measurement of methane production by gas chromatography. While the negative controls remained sterile, all tested archaea grew significantly more rapidly in SAB medium than in reference medium in 1-3 days (P<0.05, Student test). Among PCR-positive stool specimens, 10/10 grew in the SAB medium, 6/10 in DSMZ 119 medium, 5/10 in DSMZ 322 medium and 3/10 in DSMZ 334 c medium. Four out of ten PCR-negative stool specimens grew after a 3-week incubation in the SAB-medium whereas no growth was detected in any of the reference media. 16S rRNA gene sequencing yielded 99-100% sequence similarity with reference M. smithii except for one specimen that yielded 99-100% sequence similarity with reference Methanobrevibacter millerae. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: SAB medium allows for the versatile isolation and growth of methanogenic archaea associated with human gut microbiota including the archaea missed by inoculation of reference media. Implementation of the SAB medium in veterinary and medical microbiology laboratories will ease the routine culture-based detection of methanogenic archaea in clinical and environmental specimens.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3629087?pdf=render
spellingShingle Saber Khelaifia
Didier Raoult
Michel Drancourt
A versatile medium for cultivating methanogenic archaea.
PLoS ONE
title A versatile medium for cultivating methanogenic archaea.
title_full A versatile medium for cultivating methanogenic archaea.
title_fullStr A versatile medium for cultivating methanogenic archaea.
title_full_unstemmed A versatile medium for cultivating methanogenic archaea.
title_short A versatile medium for cultivating methanogenic archaea.
title_sort versatile medium for cultivating methanogenic archaea
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3629087?pdf=render
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