Bristol Media provides all essential nutrients for Algae growth.
Introduction:
Algae are aquatic organism found in lakes, rivers, ponds, and snow and also found on moist land. They may be free floating or attached to some surface. They are diverse group that contains from unicellular to multicellular organism. The well known unicellular algae is cyanobacteria, which is also called as blue green algae. The Cyanobacteria lacks nucleus and hence it is prokaryotic. On the other side, the algae also contains eukaryotic organism like seaweed.
Algae contain chlorophyll pigments that allow them to carry photosynthesis. Due the presence of pigment, they are green, yellow, red or brown in color. Their nutrition mode is autotrophic; they reduce environmental Carbon dioxide to Carbohydrate in presence of light and water. The diverse group of algae shows both sexual and asexual type of reproduction.
Principle of Bristol Media:
The nutritional requirement of algae is similar plants because they both carry out photosynthesis. To grow algae in-vitro, nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) are provided in the media like plant fertilizers. Along with NPK, the media is also supplied with trace elements, Iron and vitamins. The media can be prepared in solid, semi-liquid or liquid media.
Requirements:
Composition of Bristol Media for Algae
| NaNO3 solution (25 g/L) | 10 ml |
| CaCl2·2H2O solution (2.5 g/L) | 10 ml |
| MgSO4·7H2O solution (7.5 g/L) | 10 ml |
| K2HPO4 solution (7.5 g/L) | 10 ml |
| KH2PO4 solution (17.5 g/L) | 10 ml |
| NaCl solution (2.5 g/L) | 10 ml |
| Agar | 15 gm |
| Iron(III) chloride solution, | 1% |
| Deionized water to | 1L |
- Alcohol
- Bunsen burner
- Conical flask
- Pipette
Procedure for Bristol Media preparation:
- Weigh all the ingredients as mentioned in the composition of Bristol media.
- Dissolve all the salts individually in 400 ml of distilled water.
- Measure and add 10 ml of all dissolved salts to 900 ml of distilled water.
- Add one drop of 1% of Iron (III) chloride to media
- Make the volume up to 1L and autoclave it
Result:
The ingredients are dissolved and Bristol media was prepared.
Conclusion:
The Bristol media contains all the required nutrients that are required for growth of algae.
