Improve Research Reproducibility A Bio-protocol resource
- Protocols
- Articles and Issues
- For Authors
- About
- Become a Reviewer
Categories
Phycology Blue-green algae
Cell analysis
Chloroplast
DNA Nuclear transformation
Physiology
Protein Plant biochemistry Plant breeding Plant cell biology Plant developmental biology Plant immunity Plant metabolism Plant molecular biology Plant physiology Plant transformationTop Starch Plating Method for the Efficient Cultivation of Unicellular Red Alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae
The unicellular red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae has been used as a model photosynthetic eukaryote for various basic and applied studies, and several of these molecular genetics techniques have been reported. However, there are still improvements to be made concerning the plating method. The conventional plating method often generates diffuse colonies and single colonies cannot be easily isolated. To overcome these problems, we established a novel plating method for C. merolae, making use of melted cornstarch as the use of top agar plating in bacterial genetics. This method improved the formation of defined colonies in at least 4-fold higher efficiency than the conventional method, and made the handling procedure much easier than the previous method.