[Coral-List] A thought on experiments with Symbiodiniaceae cultures

[Thomas Krueger]

Hi everyone,

I just came back from a  great microbial symbiosis meeting and the talks 
and discussions with people afterwards reminded me that experimental 
results always have to be viewed in the context of the experimental 
settings used. As such I thought it might be a good reminder for my 
fellow Symbiodinaceae aficionados that the experimental results from 
cultures will always be biased towards the high nutrient environment 
they came from, because the commonly used media are all highly enriched 
for nitrogen and phosphorus (with Daigo's IMK-medium peaking at an 
astonishing 2.3 mM total nitrate concentration plus 50 uM ammonium). I 
uploaded a recipe table for the five most commonly used media (f/2, K, 
L1, ASP-8A, IMK) for comparison and consideration 
(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338012961_Media_recipes_commonly_used_for_Symbiodiniaceae_cultivation). 
While these media were clearly developed to permit or improve 
culturability of most of these critters, results from comparative 
studies that use cultures to assess e.g. stress responses (including my 
own antioxidant work on cultures), trans-generational acclimation 
potential, and in culture vs. in hospite performance have to be 
considered in the environmental context in which these observations took 
place.

All the best,

Thomas

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*Thomas Krueger */Research Associate/

Waller Lab | Department of Biochemistry | University of Cambridge

*P: *+44 (0)1223 768942