Scientists usually monitored water pollution by looking at changes in the activity of specific microorganisms.
Acquired resistance to specific microorganisms is in part attributable to antibodies, proteins that are formed in response to the entry into the body of a foreign substance (antigen).
To enhance seedling quality, the seedbeds or container media are inoculated with specific microorganisms that form symbiotic relationships with the seedlings.
PCR-based technologies are widely employed for the detection of specific microorganisms, and may be applied to the identification of non-indigenous microorganisms in 'pristine' environments.
The combination of these two techniques provide reliable and direct information about relationships between in situ microbial activity and the occurrence of specific microorganisms in biofilms.
Of primary concern here is that antibiotics can inhibit growth of specific microorganisms in biological processes of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) or in downstream ecosystems.
Different soil samples were cultured with a Pseudomonas selective medium to enrich specific microorganisms, and then the genomic DNA was extracted to serve as PCR templates.
However, in a study Li et al.92 sulfur spraying did not significantly alter the soil microbial community composition and function over the long term (48 years) some specific microorganisms, such as acidophilic bacteria, in the soil can use sulfur as an energy source and oxidize sulfur to SO42− accompanied with a decrease in soil pH which will persist over the years93.
Yet it is clear that although molecular surveys that describe the natural history of complex microbial systems can intimate which functions specific microorganisms or populations may perform, hypothesis-driven manipulative experiments are a critical follow-up step to enable quantitative associations between function and identity.
We emphasize the important new trends in "green production" of feedstocks, technologies for "green pretreatment" of biomass, and propose new concepts for tailored chemoprocessing databases/libraries customized for specific microorganisms applied to specific processes.
It is now possible to link processes to specific microorganisms in the environment, such as the detection of a new phototrophic process in marine bacteria, and to characterise the metabolic cooperation which takes place in mixed species biofilms.
