Myolaimus sp.

CGC strain code:

PDL0023

Old codes:

None

Locality:

Dark soil just below the litter layer of a garden compost heap at Kasteellaan 21, Landegem, Belgium. Collected by Paul De Ley in March, 1996.

Classification:

Secernentea - Rhabditida - Cephalobina - Myolaimoidea - Myolaimidae

Culture conditions:

Xenic: Kept on "semi-wet plates": E. coli on 1% pure agar + 4 ml P-buffer pH 7.3 (removed again prior to nematode transfer) + 5 µg/ml cholesterol. Other bacteria have not been removed (may even have been essential).

Inoculation procedure:

E. coli are spread out over FRESH plates the day before transfer of nematodes as follows.

pipette 4 ml P-buffer (0.05M KH2PO4/K2HPO4 to pH 7.3) onto a 9 cm plate,
add 3 drops of E. coli with a narrow Pasteur pipette,
stir the plate gently, and then incubate the plate for a night at RT (this allows the E. coli to form a thin mat on the agar).
POUR OFF WATER the next day, and leave plates to evaporate on a flow bench for max. 30 mins (surface should still be fairly wet).
transfer Myolaimus by washing off in P-buffer or by cutting agar with a cluster of adults from an old plate and applying it to the new plate. This probably transfers some necessary unknown bacteria, because inoculations with needle-picked individuals usually fail.

Long-term storage:

Lost! (again, dagnabbit!)

Availability:

Freely available on agar.

Descriptions:

Cobb, N.A. (1920). One hundred new nemas (type species of 100 new genera). Contributions to a Science of Nematology, 9: 217-343.

Identification:

Paul De Ley.

Note:

Males common, actively mating without spicules! This Myolaimus strain grows much more reliably in petri plates than the lost strain PDL0009.

Last Updated: 27 March 1998