Lab Report 5 Tse Justin Chung Heng

20611518
Image of culture

Tube1 Final

Tube2 Final

Tube3 Final Tube4 Final

Image 1: Culture medium composition

Environment: All tube is keep in room temperature and with sufficient light.

Tube1(Negative control)
Composition Volume

Water 4500uL
 culture 500uL

Tube2(Culture Formula from other successful group)

Composition Concentration

MgSO4 10mM

CaCl2 20mM

KCl 5mM

NH4NO3 10mM

Water Volume: 2250uL

culture Volume: 500uL

Tube3
Composition Concentration Reason

MgSO4 0.6mM Mg is crucial to synthesis of chlorophyll, which absorbs light

to provide energy for photosynthesis. However, we know that
N,P,K is three most important element for many plant which
also do photosynthesis like alga, therefore we think Mg might
not be the most important element for the organism in our
culture, so we only include a rather small amount.

KH2PO4 1.25mM It is the source of both K and P, which are two important
element for algae growth. P is important in many process in
algae. For example, phosphate group is an building block of
DNA and RNA, which means P is required for DNA synthesis
and thus cell replication.

NH4NO3 1.25mM NH4NO3 is a source for N, which is building block for amino
acid(protein) and DNA. It is also needed to make chlorophyll
in plants.

NaCl 0.4mM Source for Cl, which required for photosynthesis.

CaCl2 0.2mM Source for Ca, which required for building cell wall.

FeCl3 0.1mM Source for Fe, required for synthesis of chlorophyll.

Water Volume:
3776uL
culture Volume:
500uL

pH+1 Volume:
adjustment 500uL
solution

Tube4
Composition Concentration Reason

MgSO4 0.6mM As above

KH2PO4 1.25mM As above

NH4NO3 1.25mM As above

NaHCO3 0.2mM Try to see if Na would make any difference to the growth of
organism.

MnSO4 0.6mM Source for Mn, which is required for synthesis of chlorophyll

Glucose 1mM Try to add glucose to see if more organic carbon provide to
the organism will increase the rate of cell growth.

Water Volume:
3795uL

culture Volume:
500uL

pH+1 Volume:
adjustment 500uL
solution

Result: Cell density count

Count1 Count2 Count3 Count4 Mean S.D

Tube1 9 8 8 6 7.75 1.25

Tube2 10 7 6 10 8.25 2.06

 Tube3 12 13 23 12 15 5.35

Tube4 7 24 19 18 17 7.16

Discussion of result:

Comparing the growth of tube3 and tube4, we cannot draw much conclusion if the addition of
glucose have any effect to the organism growth since we are not sure if the difference is
significance.

Comparing the growth of tube 1 and other tube, we can conclude that the culture in tube2,3,4 do
not stop the growth of the algae. Also it is possible that substance like MgSO4,KH2PO4 and
NH4NO3 can improve the growth rate of algae, which is as expected since Mg,K,P,N is known
to be important to plant growth.

Reference:

1. http://site.iugaza.edu.ps/mwhindi/files/Lab1-Algal-Culture-media.pdf
2. https://fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A2721/datastream/OBJ/view/Microalgae
_culture_protocol.pdf
3. http://www.floridagardener.com/misc/fertifacts.htm