Submitted Abstract
Cloacimonetes belong to a newly described eubacterial phylum that until now cannot be cultured by conventional methods. Our team research efforts deployed to unravel the diversity of the anaerobic digestion (AD) microbiota provided evidence that these microbes might offer resilience towards volatile fatty acid intoxication to the complex AD microbial process. This research project has thus the ambition to characterize Cloacimonetes candidates using cutting edge omics, thus culture-independent approaches, to determine the microbial social status, main activities and nutritional and environmental requirements of these organisms. Based on this new information, specific enrichment and culturing/co-culturing strategies will be deployed to cultivate Cloacimonetes of interest and tentatively test their properties as beneficial “implant” to AD reactors.