Untapped Bounty: Sampling the Seas to Survey Microbial Biodiversity

Abstract

Being invisible to the naked eye, microbes managed to escape scientifi c scrutiny until the mid-17th century, when Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope. These cryptic organisms continued to thwart scientists efforts to probe, describe, and classify them until about 40 years ago, owing largely to a limited morphology that defi es traditional taxonomic methods and an enigmatic physiology that makes them notoriously diffi cult to cultivate.