title: Progress in the development of gelling agents for improved culturability of microorganisms.
abstract: Gelling agents are required for formulating both solid and semisolid media, vital for the isolation of microorganisms. Gelatin was the first gelling agent to be discovered but it soon paved the way for agar, which has far superior material qualities. Source depletion, issues with polymerase-chain-reaction and inability to sustain extermophiles etc., necessitate the need of other gelling agents. Many new gelling agents, such as xantham gum, gellan gum, carrageenan, isubgol, and guar gum have been formulated, raising the hopes for the growth of previously unculturable microorganisms. We evaluate the progress in the development of gelling agents, with the hope that our synthesis would help accelerate research in the field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: Nabajit
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: Naveen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tripathi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: Srijoni
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Basu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: Chandra
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bose
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology University Bhubaneswar, India.
authors.forename: Susmit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maitra
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: Sukant
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khurana
keywords: agar; carrageenan; gelatin; gellan gum; guar gum; isabgol; katira gum; xanthan gum