Deciphering and Accessing the Mostly Uncharted Microbial Diversity

Total prokaryotic diversity amounts to 109 species, of which only 0.001% are characterized. Current molecular techniques allow the analysis of the ecological niches of the unknown bacteria and yield insights into the evolutionary mechanisms of their diversification. Pre-viously unculturable, new types of bacteria have subse-quently been recovered through novel media fomulations and cultivation methods. Since the biochemical and physiological novelty resides mostly in the underexplored phylogenetic lineages of prokaryotes, the latter not only represent valuable model organisms for systematics and future basic research in general, but also offer many opportunities for applied research.

Jörg Overmann received his PhD from the University of Konstanz. After a postdoc at UBC, Vancouver, and the Habilitation at the ICBM, Oldenburg, he became Professor of Microbiology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Since 2010 he is Director of the Leibniz-Institut DSMZ and Professor of Microbiology at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. Jörg Overmann has published over 150 articles, received the Ph.D. award of the VAAM, and was Inaugural Douglas Leigh Lecturer of the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology in 2013. He is member elect of the review panel of the German Science Foundation, and serves in Editorial Boards and several scientific advisory boards.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Thomas Schweder