I'm trying to isolate cyanobacteria from fresh water and soil. I've plated several dilutions of my samples into BG11-agar plates and I have a mixture of green colonies/halos and brown stains which are diatoms.
The thing is that when I see the green colonies under the microscope, I see green round-shaped cells which could be unicellular cyanobacteria but also microalgae (they remind me of Chlorella, for instance - I've attached a picture). Could you tell me of any method to differentiate them? Is there any compound I can add to the medium in order to inhibit eukaryotic growth so I can make sure that my colonies are bacteria?
Thank you in advance.
For the BG11, just omit the NaNO3, incubate at 25C, and you should be able to knock out most of the eukaryotes, then serial dilute and isolate. For differentiation, of mixed cultures, depends on what equipment you have access to, but this imaging technique looks pretty interesting for adoption in labs without too much fancy stuff: Article Quantification of cyanobacterial cells via a novel imaging-d...
These might be helpful:
Article The effects of fermentation with lactic acid bacteria on the...
Article Free ammonia inhibition in microalgae and cyanobacteria grow...
Thank you all for your suggestions! I'll read carefully your articles.
Kind regards.
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