Window’s Within: Underground Microbial Diversity of Earth

 By Juanita Gonzalez

 Figure 1: Time-lapsed images of soil microorganisms encapsulated in microfluidic droplets.(Adapted from Dai et al.2025)

            Soil microbes were grown inside microfluidic droplets over 14 days. The images show how different culture media affected microbial growth, highlighting that the droplet method helps cultivate a wide variety of soil bacteria.

        In today’s World microbes are vital to everything we know today. From planting and growing food to curing and finding medicine for sickness, microbes aid in all aspects. Most microbes known by science are grown in a laboratory to be studied. Scientists, approximate 1% of microbes can be grown using typical batch culture. This implies that there is vital information on accounted for.

        In a study published in 2025, Dai’s team performed a new approach in soil microbes they believed would count for the 1% that usually go unobserved. They began using droplets of water to act like test tubes to hold microbes then to make this replication more ecologically precise they mimic the underground surroundings with the soil nutrients and other compounds microbes would encounter. Within water, microbes were free from competition and had controlled space. After growth scientist determined the bacteria present using sequencing. The results depicted 1.5 more species of microbe richness with more than 1.7 unique phyla And 11 more unique genrera compared to bulk culture. 

        This gives us a rare glimpse into the world of Microbial species of untypicality. By having access to these microbes, scientist can uncover mysteries surrounding these non-typical microbial. The next steps would be the application of this technique being Applied to various soils, then determining how certain functions apply to which microbe and focusing studies across ecosystems entirely of unseen, microbial diversity. This could change how we understand microbes and it’s use in climate, agriculture, technology and drug development.

Original Article:

Dai J, Ouyang Y, Gupte R, Liu XJ, Li Y, Yang F, Chen S, Provin T, Van Schaik E, Samuel JE, Jayaraman A, Zhou J, Han A. Microfluidic droplets with amended culture media cultivate a greater diversity of soil microorganisms. Appl Environ Microbiol. 91: e01794‑25 (2025).