Patent ID: 8158401
Filing Date: 2012-04-17
Classification: C12N

Abstract:
1. A method for isolating and culturing a pure clone of a previously unculturable microorganism, which comprises: (i) collecting a sample from an environmental source; (ii) counting/estimating the number of microorganisms in said sample; (iii) diluting said sample in an appropriate medium; (iv) adding a natural gelling agent and entrapping one or more microorganism(s) within a sphere of said gelling agent; (v) coating said spheres containing said entrapped microorganisms(s) with a synthetic transparent or opaque polymer selected from the group consisting of a polysulfone, an epoxy resin, a polyacrylamide, and silica gel to form a polymeric membrane; (vi) incubating said coated spheres in the original environment for an appropriate time; (vii) cutting said spheres and scanning for colonies of microorganisms; and (viii) isolating the microorganisms, and repeating steps (iii) to (vii) until a pure clone of said previously unculturable microorganism is obtained.