metabolite display methodology

[Micah I. Krichevsky]

Ken,

This is a classic problem that bacteriologists have dealt with almost
since the beginning of bacteriology since we ran out of shapes for the
common bacteria very early in the game. If it wasn't a rod, sphere,
or spiral, it wasn't! Of course there are major exceptions to this rule
such as the myxobacteria, actinomyctes, etc. The strategy that was
available and adopted was to describe the bacteria by their biochemistry
and physiology. Therefore, I would suggest looking at how we manage
our information.

Rather than give you a short course in the context of this forum, I suggest
you contact Jim Staley in the Dept. of Microbiology at U. of Washington.
He and I are in contact on methods for doing pretty much the same kind
of work to describe isolates of bacteria from the Antarctic. Also, he is
a member of the Bergey's Manual Trust. The Bergey's Manual is a (the)
compendium of descriptions of the known species of bacteria.

If there is interest in further open discussion of these matters, I will ge
happy to expand on these remarks. Also, you can correspond directly
to: micahk at helix.nih.gov

Good luck with this, it is entirely doable!

Micah Krichevsky