Principal functions
Maintenance and supply of living cultures of Baltic and freshwater algae from Poland.
Research and environmental applications, provision of educational materials and algal depository.
General information
The CCBA is part of the University of Gdańsk which covers all staff costs and provides culture rooms and laboratories. CCBA at Institute of Oceanography UG maintains the strains of Baltic and a more limited number of freshwater microalgae and small multicellular seaweeds collected from a wide range of habitats. The culture collection specializes in the Polish region and conducts continuous enlargement of the resources by addition of new strains. The cultures are unialgal, mostly non-axenic. Strains are available for research and education purposes without any fee. They are available for purchase by commercial enterprises. Some of them are available for distribution, while other are still in the process of being described or studied. We do not distribute strains that originate from other collections. All strains have a serial number (CCBA) in the list. Please use this number when referring in publication or requesting any strain of the collection. The strains could be used without restrictions by all interested persons and organizations. Full particulars on cultures (availability, order, delivery etc...) could be obtained at the Collection Curator. The Collection together with its equipment for cultivating algae under controlled conditions could serve as favourable environment for experimental work on such topics as algal ecophysiology, taxonomy and phylogeny.
Specification
The CCBA contains both the original strains isolated by ourselves and strains received from the world culture collections. There are currently available about one hundred original isolated strains of Baltic algae and about one hundred strains introduced from other algal collections. The collection occupies three thermostatic (10°C - 30°C) rooms with light/dark cycling. Gases could be supplied. There are also four small incubators with light/dark cycling, capable of maintaining constant temperatures (±1°C) between 5°C and 40°C. There are two laminar flow cabinets for aseptic works. LM, HPLC, AA spectrophotometer, Coulter counter, microrespirometer and PAM fluorimeter are general facilities associated with the core activities of CCBA.
Skills
- isolation and culture of microalgae strains
- bacteria-free culture techniques
- growth optimisation and ecophysiological characteristic of algae
- measurements of biomass production, photosynthesis and respiration
CCBA Content
- now the collection contains tens of original strains isolated from the coastal waters of the Southern Baltic
- the strains represent cyanobacteria, green algae, diatoms and microflagellates
- the strains show marine, brackish and fresh water character
Objectives
- creation of the first and modern algal culture collection in Poland;
- isolation of new strains from Baltic and Polish inland waters; special attention is paid to algal species threatened by extinction, rare, harmful or typical of Polish region;
- extension of the knowledge of algal biodiversity;
- preservation of microbiological and biological resources of the region;
- utilization of the strains from the collection for research, educational, industrial and commercial purposes;
- investigation of different environmental factors to determine optimal conditions for algal growth;
- exploitation of the Baltic strains in ecophysiological and ecotoxicological studies.
