Growing cyanobacteria in flasks will definitely require some sort of aeration for growth, but in small culture volumes is this needed? If cyanobacteria are grown in small culture volumes (lets say 200ul in a 96 well plate) do they need to be shaken? What are the consequences of not shaking?
It depends on how long you are programming to keep them in such small volume and also what do you need them for, if you need to do a growth inhibition test they might need aeration but if its a short time period maybe it is not necessary. For green algae in 2 mL 24-well plates I usually aerated them with a pipette every 24 h or I put the multiwell on an orbital shaker with gentle agitation (but I don't know if that would work on a 96-well plate given the small volume) but some algae grow well also without any kind of agitation/aeration for 72 h. I suggest you to try it and see if the growth is good if that is your endpoint.
Hi,
Based on my observation for algae even in larger volumes it is enough for shaken them 3-5 times per week. But if you only observe a small number of cells and not for long time you do not need shake them but you need to be prepared that thay settle on the bottom.
I grow algae (cyanobacteria, chlorophytes and other) 30 ml, in 250 ml erlenmeyers without shaking, that goes well.
The purpose of shaking the algal culture medium is to move the cells for proper lighting and aeration. At a volume of 200 microliters, because the thickness of the culture medium is small, light and air reach the cells equally and there is no need to shake.
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