A selective genome-guided method for environmental Burkholderia isolation

Abstract The genus Burkholderia is an emerging source of novel natural products chemistry, yet to date few methods exist for the selective isolation of strains of this genus from the environment. More broadly, tools to efficiently design selection media for any given genus would be of significant value to the natural products and microbiology communities. Using a modification of the recently published SMART protocol, we have developed a two-stage isolation protocol for strains from the genus Burkholderia. This method uses a combination of selective agar isolation media and multiplexed PCR profiling to derive Burkholderia strains from environmental samples with 95% efficiency. Creation of this new method paves the way for the systematic exploration of natural products chemistry from this important genus and offers new insight into potential methods for selective isolation method development for other priority genera.