Importance of microbial diversity

Microorganism are centIal core to biosphere sm1ainablity and biogeochemical cycles on this earth. Most of food, medical and pabamceutical new materials through biotechnology are derived from many kinds of microorganisms. Microorganisms are important resources of biotechnology. Beside these, micorbial diversity is key to explore the frontiers of knowledge about the strategies and limits of life. Through the micorotganisms, we can monitor the environmental changes and conditions. Moreover, the microorganismsms play a role in conservation and restoration of higher plants and animals. And we can get a lot of ecological, evolutionary knowledges from microbial models. In spite of these importances, the microbial diversity is not properly evaluted because of their unculturablity. Only 0.001 - 3 % of total bacteria in natural habitats are cultumble and the rest are viable but uncultumble. Only 3,100 species are listed up in the Bergey's Manual. Considering the symbisis and estimated numbers of insect are more than 800,000, the symbiotic microorganisms are about 1,000,000 species. Recently, by using the genetic and molecular technics, the microbial diversity is now unveiled. In this symposium, the genetic, species and ecological diversity will be given. given.