Does anyone know what microbe we are dealing with in our cell culture lines? We are thinking yeast but are not sure. Vero cells seem very susceptible to it.
Hello Hannah Lynne Murphy
Yes, you are right. It is yeast contamination.
In early stages of contamination, yeast do not typically cause pH changes in the medium. However, as infection increases cell culture medium will become cloudy to the naked eye. Has the culture medium turn turbid?
At 100x magnification, you will notice that yeast contamination appears as separate round or ovoid particles or in chains of two to four or more particles and sometimes they may start to form multi-branched structures which I can see a few of them in the image. This appearance of chains is due to the most common form of replication called budding in yeast.
You may want to refer to the link below to confirm the finding.
https://unclineberger.org/tissueculture/contaminant/yeastcontam/
If the culture is not precious, I would suggest you discard it as soon as possible. Do not treat the contaminated culture with antimycotic agents as the contamination seems to have spread all over. It may not help.
Best.
Your culture has been contaminated with yeasts. In this case, it's important to take steps to minimize the risk of contamination in the future. Thoroughly review your procedures to ensure that you're following best practices for maintaining a sterile environment. Once a yeast contamination has occurred, it can be very difficult to recover your culture, so starting over from scratch may be the best course of action. I hope this helps!
Determining the specific microbe in your cell culture lines requires proper laboratory analysis. While yeast contamination is one possibility, it is difficult to confirm without conducting appropriate tests. To accurately identify the microbe, you should consider consulting with a microbiologist or utilizing microbiological techniques such as microscopic examination, culturing on selective media, or molecular methods like polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or DNA sequencing. These methods will provide reliable information regarding the presence and identity of the microorganism affecting your Vero cell culture lines.
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