Hi Catarina,
a good medium for the isolation and culturing of Anabaena and other Nostocales is Z8 medium. You can find the recipe on http://www-cyanosite.bio.purdue.edu/media/table/media.html. Some of the micronutrients are however not so easy to get.
It can happen that in culture the morphology of the filament changes. Heterocysts and akinets will often also dissappear. By using a N free medium you will get a nice growth of heterocysts.
Some people also use BG11. According to my experience the isolation of Nostales strains does not work so well with BG11.
If you have other questions don not hesitate to ask me.
Regards
Andreas
Hi Catarina & Andreas,
I always use BG11 to isolation of nitrogent fixing microalgae as Anabaena and Nostoc but make it free nitrogen by NOT adding NaNO3
I'm agree with you Andreas as it is slow for growth and give a colony visible by naked eye after about 3 weeks not less but contamination is very limited
http://www-cyanosite.bio.purdue.edu/media/table/BG11.html
Regards
Eladl
I also use BG11 N-free (agar medium) and it works well. However I cannot count the culture using cfu unit because the colony is difficult to breakdown. Do you have experience how to count filamentous nostocales?
Thank you all for the answers, I'll try to use the sugested media :)
Hi, may I know the reason why is Anabaena is commonly cultivated in N free media? Thanks
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