8 August 2002

Microbiology: Not all at sea

The marine bacterium SAR11 is one of the most abundant organisms
on Earth, but until now it has been known only from gene sequences detected in seawater. Now this previously 'uncultivable' microorganism has been isolated by high-throughput procedures and cultured in low-nutrient media. The crescent-shaped cells are the smallest free-living organisms known, at 0.01 μm³.

Cultivation of the ubiquitous SAR11 marine bacterioplankton clade
MICHAEL S. RAPP�, STEPHANIE A. CONNON, KEVIN L. VERGIN & STEPHEN J. GIOVANNONI
Nature 418, 630–633 (2002); doi:10.1038/nature00917
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