Dissolving Nitrogen in A.borkumensis Living Medium

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

You have some good ideas for agitating the water. You might also consider using an aquarium pump aerator. That would provide lots of oxygen without disturbing the sample too much. Again, the agitation of the water is one of your controlled variables, so your control and samples should all be treated the same way.

Donna

[LanceJaDumbly]

I am planning on conducting an experiment on A. Borkumensis' ability to degrade crude oil. Will I be able to make this happen by using an artificial seawater solution like Nature's Ocean Nutri-Sea Water, or would I have to do something else? If someone could help me determine whether or not using an artificial seawater solution would produce realistic conditions, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

It sounds like you are working on an excellent project. Alcanivorax borkumensis and grows in water with salt concentrations from 1 to 12.5%, so should grow well in instant ocean, or diluted instant ocean. This organism uses long carbon chain molecules as a carbon source, but you will need to add nitrogen and phosphorus in addition to the oil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcanivorax

Please let us know if you need any additional information.

Donna Hardy

[LanceJaDumbly]

I am planning on ordering a freeze-dried culture of A. borkumensis to use in an experiment that will test its ability to degrade crude oil. I need to know what to do with the bacteria before I can introduce it into a living medium of seawater. I have been looking at the ATCC product information page for a while now, and I am having a hard time understanding it. Nobody at my school has had experience with this process and it would be very helpful if someone could explain this to me. Thank you!

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

You will need to open the culture tube and transfer the contents to a suitable growth medium. For information on basic microbiology techniques, please refer to the microbiology section in the reference materials from this website. You will find information on growing and storing microorganisms.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... nces.shtml

Please refer back to your original topic and look at the article that discusses optimum growth for this microbe. You will want to maintain the bacterium using optimum growth conditions.

viewtopic.php?t=16544

I will ask the moderator to merge this topic with the original. Please post additional questions on that topic so you the experts following your topic will be notified immediately.

Donna