“…Metagenomic data indicated the ubiquity of Planctomycetes in diverse ecosystems (Wiegand et al, 2018), encompassing soil (Stackebrandt et al, 1993; Wang et al, 2002; Buckley et al, 2006; Ivanova et al, 2016;), plant rhizosphere (Lei et al, 2023; Ravinath et al, 2022), seawater (Schlesner, 1994; Wiegand et al, 2020), freshwater (Schlesner, 1994; Wang et al, 2002; Dedysh et al, 2020), chlorinated water (Aghnatios and Drancourt, 2015), the human gastrointestinal tract (Cayrou et al, 2013), and very frequently in association with several algae (Bengtsson and Øvreås, 2010; Lage and Bondoso, 2011, 2012; Wiegand et al, 2020). However, the cultivation of Planctomycetes in pure axenic cultures has proven to be challenging, primarily attributed to their recalcitrance to grow on synthetic media and their inherently slow growth kinetics (Kaboré et al, 2020).…”