r.england (r.england at uclan.ac.uk) wrote:
: Can anyone recommend a medium for Haloferax and Halococcus?
I worked with Haloferax volcanii for 3 years, using DSM medium 372
to grow them. If you don't have a DSM catalogue to hand, the recipe
is (per litre):
NaCl 200g
MgSO4.7H2O 20g
KCl 2g
FeCl2.4H2O 36mg
MnCl2.4H2O 0.36mg
Na3-citrate 3g
Na-glutamate 1g
Yeast extract 5g
Casamino acids 5g
Adjust to pH 7.2 and grow at 37C with good aeration. For plates just
add your usual amount of agar to solidify. This medium has a lot of
Mg2+ because Haloferax likes it (it's a Dead Sea isolate, after all)
and less NaCl (it more of a moderate than a really extreme halophile).
The NCIMB catalogue has a similar medium for both strains which has
250g NaCl, 2g KCl, 7.5g casamino acids and 10g yeast extract, pH7.4
(otherwise as above).
: Do they prefer liquid rather than agar media?
They grow pretty well on both.
: How fast/slow do they grow?
They're both quite slow growers compared to E.coli. Probably 2-5 days
to get a good, dense culture.
: Any useful tips about working with these organisms?
Keep the plates wrapped in parafilm as they are very prone to drying
and crystallising. The bugs don't mind this, but it can make picking
off colonies/ streaking out tricky.
--
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Keith James PhD - k.james at bangor.ac.uk PGP 2.6.2i Key ID 469A9FA1
Biodegradation Group *Encrypt and Survive*
School of Biological Sciences Nightmare: Quake me up now!
University of Wales, Bangor, UK
-------http://oracle.bangor.ac.uk/sbs/research/biodegradation/-------
