Abstract
Many different kinds of bacteria are normally found in the intestines of healthy humans and animals. To study the ecology and function of these intestinal bacteria, the culture method is the basic technique. Suitable agar plates such as non-selective agar plates (BL agar and EG agar) and several selective agar plates have been developed. Furthermore, the roll-tube, glove box, and plate-in-bottle methods have also been developed for the cultivation of fastidious anaerobes which predominantly colonize the intestine. In addition, genomic analyse such as the FISH method, the PCR method, the clone-library method, the DGGE/TGGE methods, the T-RFLP method and metagenome analysis have been used for the investigation of intestinal microbiota in recent years. This paper summarizes the progress and present status of the methods of analysis for intestinal microbiota.
