Premium
Quantitative Surface Plating of Coccoid Blue‐Green Algae
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
journal of phycology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1529-8817
pISSN - 0022-3646
DOI - 10.1111/j.1529-8817.1965.tb04550.x
Subject(s) - biology , algae , chelation , agar , neutral red , agar plate , microbiology and biotechnology , catalase , plating efficiency , growth medium , botany , biochemistry , bacteria , cell , cytotoxicity , chemistry , in vitro , enzyme , inorganic chemistry , genetics
SUMMARY Inability of single cells of coccoid blue‐green algae to form visible colonies on an agar medium has long been a puzzle, especially in view of the high growth rates characterizing coccoid blue‐green algae as a group. With Anacystis nidulans growing on a medium containing citrate as chelating agent, single cells never grew unless catalase was added at time of plating. On a very similar medium but containing EDTA as chelator, single cells of Anacystis produced visible colonies.With two other coccoids, both marine isolates, on an EDTA medium (ASP‐2), reasonably quantitative colony counts were obtained. The data are interpreted as a lethal peroxide formation by single cells in light and air by an, as yet, unspecified pathway. Detoxification or reversal of the lethality of small amounts of peroxide, cellularly produced, presumably by the EDTA in the medium, suggests a new role for EDTA in algal media. The data present an insight into the reason (s) for the anaerobic or microaerophilic character of blue–green algae so often observed in nature.