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How to Inoculate Algae Into 1-Percent Agar

Inoculating algae into agar allows scientists to grow and maintain a controlled, sterile algae colony. Growing algae provides laboratory workers with the means to study algae and the creatures that feed off it. Agar provides a stable medium in which you can dissolve seawater mimicking culture media.

Things You'll Need

Petri dishes
Autoclave
Sterile thermometer
Agarose
50x Concentrated f/2 medium
Seawater
0.22 um Millipore filter unit
Algae cells
Sterile cell spreader or inoculation loop

Instructions

- 1
  Filter the seawater using the Millipore filter unit.
- 2
  Add 1-percent weight per volume of agarose to the filtered seawater.
- 3
  Autoclave the agarose/seawater mixture on a liquid cycle for 15 minutes at 121 degrees Centigrade.
- 4
  Monitor the temperature of the mixture with the sterile thermometer until it reaches 50 degrees Centigrade.
- 5
  Divide the total volume by 50 and add the resultant amount of f/2 concentrated medium to the mixture.
- 6
  Pour the mixture into sterile petri dishes to cover the bottom of the dish.
- 7
  Allow the plates to harden at room temperature for two hours.
- 8
  Spread algae cells across the surface of the hardened agar using a sterile cell spreader or inoculation loop.
- 9
  Store the plates at 25 degrees Centigrade with a 12-hour light cycle.

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