The microbial communities associated with marine sediments are critical for ecosystem function yet remain poorly characterized. While culture-independent (CI) techniques capture the broadest perspective on community composition, culture-dependent (CD) methods can select for low abundance taxa that are missed using CI approaches. This study aimed to assess microbial diversity in tropical marine sediments at five shallow-water sites in Belize using both CD and CI techniques. The CD methods captured approximately 3% of the >800 genera detected across all sites using the CI approach. Additionally, 39 genera were only detected in culture, revealing rare taxa that were missed with the CI approach. Significantly different communities were detected across sites, with rare taxa playing an important role in distinguishing among communities. This study provides important baseline data describing shallow-water sediment microbial communities, evidence that standard cultivation techniques may be more effective than previously recognized, and the first steps towards identifying new taxa that are amenable to agar plate cultivation.

中文翻译：

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使用依赖培养和不依赖培养的技术评估热带海洋沉积物中的微生物多样性

与海洋沉积物相关的微生物群落对生态系统功能至关重要，但特征仍然很差。虽然与文化无关 (CI) 技术可以最广泛地了解群落组成，但文化相关 (CD) 方法可以选择使用 CI 方法遗漏的低丰度分类群。本研究旨在使用 CD 和 CI 技术评估伯利兹五个浅水地点热带海洋沉积物中的微生物多样性。CD 方法捕获了使用 CI 方法在所有站点检测到的 >800 个属中的大约 3%。此外，仅在培养物中检测到 39 个属，揭示了 CI 方法遗漏的稀有分类群。在不同地点检测到显着不同的群落，稀有类群在区分群落方面发挥着重要作用。