Robert Hungate

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Robert E. Hungate
Born(1906-03-02)March 2, 1906
Hungate tubes
SpouseAlice Elizabeth Hungate (née Wolcott)
Scientific career
FieldsAnaerobic microbiology
Doctoral advisorC. B. van Niel
Signature

Robert Edward Hungate (1906 – 2004) was a pioneering American microbial ecologist who developed the first techniques for the culturing of anaerobic microbes in his study of the bovine rumen.[1][2]

Early life

Hungate was born on March 2, 1906, in

high school level, but abandoned his plan after his first quarter at Stanford due to his dislike of pedagogy courses and his fellow education students, and instead completed an A.B. in biology magna cum laude in 1929.[1][2]

Hungate had not yet selected a research topic for his

termites as his thesis topic, investigating their role in cellulose digestion.[2] However, he was unsuccessful in his attempts to isolate cellulolytic bacteria from the termite gut because culturing techniques for anaerobic bacteria had not yet been developed, a result that spurred his continued efforts to find methods to do so after he received his Ph.D. in 1935.[1][3]

Work and discoveries

Termite biology

Hungate continued his work on the biology of termites after his appointment as lecturer in the

fermentation product in worker termites, and undertook a study of nitrogen fixation in experimental termite colonies.[2]

Rumen microbiology

The "Hungate" method

While investigating the role of

Clostridium cellobioparum, but the difficulty in observing the cellulose clearings they produced in shake tubes spurred him to develop a culturing method using thin agar layers in roll tubes.[1][4][5]

The "Hungate" tubes

Anaerobic culture Hungate tubes are gas tight and

atmospheric oxygen has been removed. The tube can be easily inoculated and microbial samples retrieved after growth using a syringe with a sharp needle.[4][6][7]

When Hungate tubes are filled with an opaque agar media, it displays zones of clearance upon successful anaerobic microorganisms cultivation.

Washington State University, Pullman

At the end of the World War II in 1945, Hungate accepted the offer to join the Bacteriology Department at Washington State College (now Washington State University). Hungate’s laboratory at Washington State University was the first to isolate methanogens using H
2 – CO
2 as an energy source.[1]

University of California, Davis

Hungate accepted the appointment as Chairman of the Bacteriology Department, University of California, Davis, in 1956. He held his chairmanship until 1962. Here, Hungate mentored many doctoral students, postdoctoral scholars, and visiting scholars.[1]

See also

Selected bibliography

  • Hungate, Robert E. (October 1934). "The cohesion theory of transpiration". Plant Physiology. 9 (4): 783–794.
    PMID 16652917
    .
  • Hungate, Robert E. (December 1960). "Microbial ecology of the rumen". Bacteriological Reviews. 24 (4): 353–364.
    PMID 13716827
    .
  • Hungate, Robert Edward (1966). The rumen and its microbes. New York, London: Academic Press. p. 533.
    ISBN 9780123616500
    .

References

  1. ^
    PMID 16887593.Closed access icon
  2. ^
    PMID 386919.Closed access icon
  3. ^ Chung, King-Thom; Bruce Hungate; James Russell (2005-01-31). "Robert E. Hungate". American Society of Microbiology Newsletter. p. 34. Retrieved 2013-01-27.
  4. ^
    ISSN 0580-9517
    .
  5. JSTOR 20111550
    . Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  6. doi:10.1093/ajcn/25.12.1318
    .
  7. PMID 35208865
    .
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