Continuous culture--making a comeback?
The heyday of continuous culture was in the 1960s, when its versatility and reproducibility were used to address fundamental problems in diverse microbiological fields such as biochemistry, ecology, genetics and physiology. The advent of molecular genetics in the 1970s and 1980s led to a decline in the popularity of continuous culture as a standard laboratory tool. The current trend of studying global proteomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics requires reproducible, reliable and biologically homogeneous datasets with which to approach a given problem. The use of continuous culture techniques can aid the acquisition of such data, and continuous cultures offer advantages over biologically heterogeneous batch cultures, where secondary growth and stress effects can often mask subtle physiological differences and trends. This review is intended to remind microbiologists of the value of continuous cultivation in a wide range of biological investigations, and describes some advantages and recent advances in applications of continuous culture in post-genomic studies.
Hoskisson
Paul A
PA
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Aberdeen, Institute of Medical Science, Foresterhill, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD, UK.
Hobbs
Glyn
G
School of Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK.
D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D003470:Culture Media; D040901:Proteomics; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003470:Culture Media