I do a lot of work with unicellular cyanobacteria. I have found that
chloramphenicol and kanamycin work well at killing cyanos. If you want
something very short-lived, try tetracycline--it rapidly photodegrades.
Dave
CMAXWELL at TRENTU.CA wrote:
> Dear Microbiologists,
>> I am growing ttwo types of moss crusts on sand trays, with the purpose of
> testing the resultant crusts in a wind tunnel. Of necessity the trays are
> large..2m by 30cm. In total I have 3reps of each moss...and plan to test
> the ability of moss protonema to withstand wind erosion. unfortunately ,
> despite my best efforts, I have a cyanobacterial contaminant... probably a
> species of Nostoc, ( which is a good sand binder) . The sand was autoclaved
> for 50mins in a shallow pan. The deionized water also runs through a U/V
> light system. All equipment was sterilized or where appropriate washed down
> with a strong soln of Chlorox. The trays are in a large plastic tent and
> misted at regular intervals.
>> One of the mosses is Pohlia which prefers an acdic environment, so I can
> spray with a medium which is pH 3.5. This seems to inhibit the Nostoc.
> The other moss is Tortula, whch dies at a similar pH.
>> I was thinking of treating the Tortula crust with Streptomycin, until I
> found out that it is stable, but also toxic to humans. There is a lot of
> dust generated in the wind tunnel and I am afraid of causing problems to
> the people who work there now and in the future!
>> Does anyone know of an antibiotic that is not particularly stable but is
> effective against cyanobacteria? or alternatively does anyone have any
> suggestions ?
>> Any help would be gratefully welcomed.
>> Christine
