Make microalgal cultures axenic again - a fast and simple workflow utilizing fluorescence-activated cell sorting
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Updated: Nov 3, 2025
Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting for the Isolation of Scleractinian Cell Populations
Published on: May 31, 2020
Philipp Doppler1, Ricarda Kriechbaum1, Benedikt Singer1
1Research Division Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical, Environmental and Bioscience Engineering, Technische Universität Wien, Gumpendorfer Strasse 1a, 1060 Vienna, Austria.
Abstract:
Since the removal of contaminations in microalgal cultures is extremely laborious and time-consuming, we developed a rapid workflow to obtain axenicity by a combination of fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and plate spreading. During method development, several cyanobacteria and green algae strains were successfully made axenic. At the end, method transferability to another FACS device was demonstrated. Our workflow offers great time-savings with less hands-on laboratory work compared to conventional isolation techniques.
