Toward High-Throughput Fungal Electroculturomics and New Omics Methodologies in 21st-Century Microbiology and Ecology

Introducing multifactorial electroculturomics: Alternating Current Electric Pulses, combined with mild thermal treatment, exhibit antimicrobial or stimulatory effects on bacterial pathogens and enteroviruses, implying prospects for targeted microbiomics applications

“…Conductive amenities, where electric current is directed through the cells/organisms, result in a targeted, efficient treatment with low residual energy to the environment. Ohmic effects, both to the target and its environment, including but not limited to growth substrates (Davis et al, 1992;Kambouris et al, 2014;Siamoglou et al, 2020;Stathoulias et al, 2020), offer advantageous conditions for suppressive purposes, thus suggesting synergy with thermal amenities.…”

“…Electrical modalities have been tested for more than a century to regulate microbial growth in order to induce specific growth routines but also to decontaminate objects (Kermanshahi and Sailani, 2005; Valle et al ., 2007; Petrofsky et al ., 2008). An extensive, though not cohesive, body of research has been conducted with vastly different cultures, organisms, equipment and objectives and it clearly substantiates the potential of such an approach (Kambouris et al ., 2014, 2017; Stathoulias et al ., 2020). Conductive amenities, where electric current is directed through the cells/organisms, result in a targeted, efficient treatment with low residual energy to the environment.…”

“…Conductive amenities, where electric current is directed through the cells/organisms, result in a targeted, efficient treatment with low residual energy to the environment. Ohmic effects, both to the target and its environment, including but not limited to growth substrates (Davis et al ., 1992; Kambouris et al ., 2014; Siamoglou et al ., 2020; Stathoulias et al ., 2020), offer advantageous conditions for suppressive purposes, thus suggesting synergy with thermal amenities. Exposing cells and organisms to electric current for time, charge and intensity values below thresholds of ohmic damage can be beneficial for the microbe in stimulating growth routines (Kambouris et al ., 2014, 2017; Stathoulias et al ., 2020), such as multiplication, expansion, primary and secondary metabolite production, and self-healing; the latter is of vital importance in infection control and in sterilization, as it may undermine the effect of other amenities used in parallel or in tandem.…”

“…Ohmic effects, both to the target and its environment, including but not limited to growth substrates (Davis et al ., 1992; Kambouris et al ., 2014; Siamoglou et al ., 2020; Stathoulias et al ., 2020), offer advantageous conditions for suppressive purposes, thus suggesting synergy with thermal amenities. Exposing cells and organisms to electric current for time, charge and intensity values below thresholds of ohmic damage can be beneficial for the microbe in stimulating growth routines (Kambouris et al ., 2014, 2017; Stathoulias et al ., 2020), such as multiplication, expansion, primary and secondary metabolite production, and self-healing; the latter is of vital importance in infection control and in sterilization, as it may undermine the effect of other amenities used in parallel or in tandem. Treatment of microbial cultures with conductive amenities causes low electromagnetic pollution compared to respective fields and microwaves while allowing manipulation of the growth of different microbiota, especially during propagation, as dividing cells are more susceptible to ES than growing, stable or static cells (Siamoglou et al ., 2020; Stathoulias et al ., 2020).…”

“…Treatment of microbial cultures with conductive amenities causes low electromagnetic pollution compared to respective fields and microwaves while allowing manipulation of the growth of different microbiota, especially during propagation, as dividing cells are more susceptible to ES than growing, stable or static cells (Siamoglou et al ., 2020; Stathoulias et al ., 2020). Previous experience shows that the results of ES on microbial growth may be highly diverse by microbe and not following linear correlations (Stathoulias et al ., 2020). The ability to affect the growth of microbes, in either dynamic or kinetic terms, may offer operational options beyond the chemical and genetic regulation of microbes for agro-industrial, food and pharmaceutical applications.…”