Bram Vekeman
Ghent University, Belgium
Title: Preservation of microbial pure cultures and mixed communities
Biography
Biography: Bram Vekeman
Abstract
Microorganisms are a valuable and irreplaceable resources for scientific research and biotechnological innovation and should be safeguarded. Therefore, systematic preservation of isolated pure cultures, enriched mixed cultures or environmental samples should become an integral part of good research practice. Cryopreservation of biological material is a low-tech, widely applicable way of long-term and stable storage. Its success is mostly dependent on the cryoprotective agent, used to protect cells from mechanical injuries due to ice formation, the stability of the freezing temperature, and the correct manipulations before and after storage. Although cryopreservation success can be organism-dependent, the protocol distilled from our work (freezing at -80°C using 5% (v/v) dimethyl sulfoxide as cryoprotective agent) proved successful for the preservation of various fastidious pure and mixed cultures. Numerous parameters of the protocol can be changed or optimized to develop a custom-made cryopreservation protocol.
