First, GFAJ-1 cells grow well in liquid AML60 medium supplemented with 10 mM glutamate.
Second, they don't grow much at all if I omit the phosphate from the AML60 medium.
Together this means that I now have conditions for investigating whether the cells can incorporate arsenic into their DNA when phosphate is limiting.
But I first need to now do some careful growth curves. This will be relatively easy because I've realized that Halomonas are nutritionally quite versatile, and I can get good colonies on agar plates overnight if I supplement the AML60 medium with tryptone or yeast extract.
(still no tungsten...)
Cool. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWohoo!
ReplyDeleteWere you able to see if the cells grow in sodium phosphate (instead of potassium)?
Just curious to understand how (apparently) serious the use of sodium arsenate (as opposed to potassium) was in the original paper...