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"Research on the indigenous microbiota of the skin has mainly focused on metagenomic analysis, which does not involve culture methods, or on the analysis of individual bacteria in pure culture. However, since multiple bacteria interact with each other in the actual skin environment, we thought that a model culture system that reproduced the interaction relationship was necessary," notes Dr. Furuyama.

They produced a pure culture of this new bacterial strain, in which they were finally able to identify the key enzyme that triggers the oxidation of phosphite to phosphate.

But what Hokusai and his successors affirm over and over is that there’s no such thing as a pure “culture” divisible from others — not even the culture of a shogunate whose subjects couldn’t leave on pain of death.

“If we had a pure culture, it would be a lot easier” to test ideas about cell metabolism and environmental influences on conductance, says the center’s Andreas Schramm.

To ferment most beers, brewers tend a culture of microbes and add it to each batch: typically a “pure culture” of brewer’s yeast, or in the case of many farmhouse and sour beers, like Jester King’s core offerings, a mix that includes yeast and bacteria isolated from the wild.