Although new technological developments used in the isolation and identification of anaerobic bacteria arouse interest, this bacterial group still does not receive sufficient attention in medical microbiology laboratories in our country.

The workload they bring to laboratory, lack of adequate staff and the empirical treatment applications in infections with anaerobic bacteria in the clinical approach, could all be the possible reasons of this insufficient attention.

There is an ongoing standardization problem in anaerobic bacteria laboratories in the world and in our country. With the introduction of the matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS) method in the identification of anaerobic bacteria in routine laboratories in recent years, the identification of anaerobic bacteria has become easier, and it contributed to standardization. However, due to the limitations of the economic standards, this technique is not common and therefore, standardization is still an important problem in laboratories for anaerobic bacteria detection.

In this review, the current transportation, isolation and identification procedures of anaerobic bacteriasuspect materials in the laboratory were summarized from simple to complex, with an aim to contribute to the standardization in anaerobic bacteriology laboratory. In addition, characteristics of the newly defined genera and species of anaerobic bacteria, which are the members of commensal microbiota mentioned in current clinical studies, was presented as well.