Back to: Building a Gametophyte Seed Bank

It is a good idea to check and record the health of your cultures macroscopically during monthly media refreshments. Every third month you should perform a microscopic health check on your culture by taking a small amount of biomass and staging it on a slide. When looking at a culture macroscopically, you will be able to see if your culture has any colored or larger contamination or if the biomass is discolored (ie. light brown rather than dark brown). However, you won’t be able to see protozoa, early stage contamination, cell health, or the life stage that your culture is at. The microscopic check will often allow you to catch contamination at its early stage, while it is still treatable, and get a good sense of the health of the gametophyte cells. Reference the to learn more about what healthy gametophytes look like and gametophyte life stages and the Contamination Identification for Gametophyte Cultures and Contamination Treatment charts to learn more about different types of contamination and how to treat them.