A Short Review about Using MicroResp Method for the Assessment of Community Level Physiological Profile in Agricultural Soils

MicroResp is a colorimetric method developed by Campbell et al., (2003), used for assessing the community level physiological profile of the microbial population. MicroResp can be used to assess soil health, pollution induced community tolerance, also for toxicity testing, pesticide degradation profiles, bioremediation evaluation and water ecology and toxicity. The aim of the present review was to look over the results of recent papers and to highlight the importance and efficiency of the MicroResp method in assessing the physiological profile of the microbial community. The method advantages and limitations were also assessed. We focused on agricultural soil in order to deepen our understanding about changes of microbial community induced by agricultural practices. To achieve this goal, academic literature was analyzed using an academic database. There were set a total of six keywords, used to make a search algorithm, achieving five search terms. For each search, the first four articles of interest were chosen to be reviewed. After the searches for each of the terms, between 72 and 210 articles were found, 20 of them being chosen for final evaluation. Following the undertaken research, it can be stated that MicroResp method is an important tool to assess the physiological profile of the microbial community, featuring a series of advantages that place it ahead of other competing methods.

Carbon substrate utilization as a method of studying biofilm development

The aim of this work was to study the community level physiological profile of a developing oral biofilm. Mixed-species biofilms, derived from human saliva, were grown in a constant-depth film fermentor for up to 240 h. Biolog GP2 microplates were inoculated with saliva or homogenized biofilms and incubated at 37 °C. The results showed that a biofilm community could utilize a range of substrates more diverse than those of their planktonic counterparts. Following the construction of dendrograms, a temporal relationship was demonstrated between the inoculum and biofilms, and the difference in communities over time was also resolved by using an eight-digit code of positive carbon sources. The diversity of the populations could be determined through the use of the community level physiological profile and the treatment of the data may augment the interpretation of the results. Methods such as community level physiological profiling may provide a valuable insight into the composition of biofilm communities associated with oral health and disease.