Yeast Standard Medium (SM) for Spizellomyces sp., Rhizopus,
yeast, S. pombe ...
- 1 % yeast extract, 3 % glycerol, 1 g/l K2HPO4
- for plates add 1.7% of agar
- instead of glycerol, one can also take glucose, but the glucose has
to be added from a steril 50% stock, not sterilized together with the yeast
extract (gets dark, growth is reduced)
- it is essential to shake cultures at about 100 rpm, room temperature,
up to 32 degrees Celsius. We prefer cultures in 2 l Erlenmeyers that
contain about 500-600 ml medium each.
- Spizellomyces takes a while to 'get used to' growing on glycerol and
it is adviced to keep the strain on such medium (plates are easier to
control for contaminants). We have observed that such glycerol-trained
cells produce copious amounts of mitochondria and lots of very nice mtDNA
and mtRNA (!), much better than with glucose.
Note: Spizellomyces cells look like big round spheres that
produce rhizoids. Depending on growth conditions there are occasional bursts
of zoospores (increase in turbidity). These will grow out to normal cells
in little time and can be used to inoculate new cultures.