I would like to isolate actinomycetes from sponge. It is impossible to work with the collected samples immediately. Is that okay to freeze the sponge samples at -20 C until lab processing.
Like Bakkiyaraj Dhamodharan pointed out actinomycetes are spore forming bacteria and so freezing wouldn't affect isolation per se. After all, if you are employing pre-treatments such as heat or phenol you are targeting the spores rather than vegetative cells and so I see no issues with freezing.
However, freeze-thawing can damage spores. You might want to consider how you plan to thaw your samples. And also not to repeatedly thaw and return to freezer.
Not all actinomycetes are heat resistant spore former,there are some genera (other than streptomycetes, streptosporangium etc.) like Nocardae are poor spore former and fastidious they are difficult to grow. your motive to isolate actinomycetes from sponges if for isolation of rare ,novel species then you should not wait for longer periods.
My suggestion is,
isolation of actinobacteria from sponge samples should be on spot. If not possible don't freeze the sponge samples as such.You may loose many indigenous forms. I am working with sponge actinobacteria for years. And I succeeded in isolation of new forms. I suggest you to follow the protocol:
Pre-processing
1. Foremost step to follow is (On spot process), immediately after collecting the sponges wash with sterile native sea water and macerate with sterile 20% glycerol (20% glycerol prepared with sterile native seawater to avoid osmotic shock) using pestle and mortar and store the suspension -20 °C. Transport to the laboratory and serially dilute for isolation. If these all not possible,
2. collect the sponges, put it in 20% sterile glycerol (This will protect the microbial cells from freeze-thaw damage) and store -20 °C. Transport to the laboratory.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Microbiology