A group of bacteria (containing several taxa/genera), with ability to degrade a contaminant under specific conditions (pH, temperature), was screened from soil (environmental sample) through sequential transfers and sub-culturing in liquid growth medium. What should I say it, a mixed culture or consortium?
The main important word here is "association" (association without any harm) and these microbes conducted a common function more effectively and efficiently than on an individual population basis. Such associations may be termed microbial consortia.
Consortium is function base, mixed culture is functiona independent.
If there are a no. of bacteria then it would be difficult to say that it is a consortium..or else, you can say it a consortium, if they are all cooperative in their behavior.
Good Luck,
Garima
Microbial consortium: is two or more microbial groups living symbiotically. Consortiums can be endosymbiotic or ectosymbiotic. Symbiosis is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic. The organisms may be of the same or of different species.
Symbiosis can be:
obligatory: one or both of the symbionts entirely depend on each other for survival.
facultative (optional): they can generally live independently.
Mixed-culture consists of two or more organisms. Mixed cultures can consist of known species to the exclusion of all others, or they may be composed of mixtures of unknown species. The mixed cultures may be all of one microbial group—all bacteria—or they may consist of a mixture of organisms of fungi and bacteria or fungi and yeasts or other combinations in which the components are quite unrelated. Soil, for example, is a mixed-organism environment with protozoa, bacteria, fungi, and algae growing in various numbers and kinds, depending on the nutrients available, the temperature, and the pH of the soil.
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