Culture Conditions
All cultures in the CPCC are grown in defined media (see Culture Media). Information on the appropriate medium and the complete history for each isolate is available from the Curator.
Cultures are grown in controlled environment chambers primarily at 20°C; a small number of strains are kept at 10°C. All are grown under low lighting (~15-30 uE/m2/s) using fluorescent Cool-White or Daylight lamps and a Day:Night cycle of 12:12. All cultures are currently maintained by serial transfer. Duplicate cultures are kept in a back-up environmental chamber for each of the two temperatures in use.
Please note that these conditions are designed to keep the cultures healthy while maintaining them at a slower growth rate. While this may be in direct opposition to the goals of the majority of our users who might wish to grow their cultures at a much faster rate, this is the only way the CPCC can keep the cultures viable with limited staffing and resources. When you first receive your new cultures, it is recommended that they be kept under similar environmental conditions as at the CPCC until the culture are well-established at your own facility. Please read the section on Culture Acclimation and contact the Technical Curator if you have any further questions.
We are using cryopreservation in liquid nitrogen for some of the valuable isolates to further ensure their long-term maintenance and genetic stability.
More detailed culturing information will be available online in the future.