Integral structural-functional method for characterizing microbial populations

An original integral structural-functional method has been proposed for characterizing microbial communities. The novelty of the approach is the in situ study of microorganisms based on the growth kinetics of microbial associations in liquid nutrient broth media under selective conditions rather than on the level of taxa or large functional groups. The method involves the analysis of the integral growth model of a periodic culture. The kinetic parameters of such associations reflect their capacity of growing on different media, i.e., their physiological diversity, and the metabolic capacity of the microorganisms for growth on a nutrient medium. Therefore, the obtained parameters are determined by the features of the microbial ecological strategies. The inoculation of a dense medium from the original inoculate allows characterizing the taxonomic composition of the dominants in the soil community. The inoculation from the associations developed on selective media characterizes the composition of syntrophic groups, which fulfill a specific function in nature. This method is of greater information value than the classical methods of inoculation on selective media.