The diversity of micro-organisms like bacteria is poorly studied and categorized. Preserving them like plants and animals is extremely difficult as these tiny organisms cannot be observed with the naked eye. Moreover these organisms cannot be classified solely based on their phenotypic characters therefore various methods are being employed to access the diversity of these unculturables. The attempts are being made to understand the biology of the unculturable bacteria by using tools of metagenomics, creating artificial environment in the laboratory, co-culturing in combinations with microfludics devices etc. While metagenomic study provides culture independent access to whole microbial communities based on their genetic material recovered directly from an environment, it is highly difficult to get information about physiology of an organism. The present review discusses the reasons for un-cultivability of these organisms and advances in molecular ecology to culture the same
