# Microbial partner (MiPner) analysis

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method called MiPner to identify and isolate bacteria that interact with each other, focusing on those that are hard to culture.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is the development of a technique using cell-cell binding to isolate microbial partners.

## Key findings

- MiPners were enriched for Sphingobium and Caulobacter genera.
- Some isolated MiPners could not grow without the presence of Serratia marcescens.
- The method shows promise for culturing previously recalcitrant bacteria.

## Abstract

Although a few bacteria have been studied in great depth, relatively little is known about the characteristics of microbe-microbe interactions that occur within ecosystems on a daily basis. A simple, robust technique was developed to set up the foundation for investigating pairwise bacterial-bacterial interactions, using cell-cell binding as a self-selective mechanism to identify interesting bacterial species pairs.

Using a Serratia marcescens strain (SMC43) isolated from Georgia soil as a “bait”, specific bacteria were purified by their specificity in binding SMC43 bacteria that were themselves attached to a wooden applicator stick.

The isolated Microbial Partners (MiPners) were greatly enriched for members of the genera Sphingobium and Caulobacter. Two streaked MiPners were unable to grow on the plates employed after separation from SMC43to be separated from, and grow on the plate type tested without, SMC43.

This suggests that the MiPner technology will be one strategy for purifying bacteria that were previously recalcitrant to culturing.