Axenic Culture
Axenic Culture - Related Videos
09:34
Rearing the Fruit Fly Drosophila melanogaster Under Axenic and Gnotobiotic Conditions
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Cited by 128 •
2016
A method for rearing Drosophila melanogaster under axenic and gnotobiotic conditions is presented. Fly embryos are dechorionated in sodium hypochlorite, transferred aseptically to sterile diet, and reared in closed containers. Inoculating diet and embryos with bacteria leads to gnotobiotic associations, and bacterial presence is confirmed by plating whole-body Drosophila homogenates.
08:26
Culturing Caenorhabditis elegans in Axenic Liquid Media and Creation of Transgenic Worms by Microparticle Bombardment
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Cited by 20 •
2014
C. elegans is usually grown on solid agar plates or in liquid cultures seeded with E. coli. To prevent bacterial byproducts from confounding toxicological and nutritional studies, we utilized an axenic liquid medium, CeHR, to grow and synchronize a large number of worms for a range of downstream applications.
06:56
Preparing and Rearing Axenic Insects with Tissue Cultured Seedlings for Host-Gut Microbiota Interaction Studies of the Leaf Beetle
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Cited by 6 •
2021
To obtain an axenic insect, its egg surface is sterilized, and the hatched larva is subsequently reared using axenic leaves. This method provides an efficient way for axenic insect preparation without administering antibiotics or developing an artificial diet, which can also be applied to other leaf-eating insects.
05:58
Rearing Axenic Delia antiqua with Half-Fermented Sterile Diets
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Cited by 3 •
2023
A simple procedure for rearing axenic Delia antiqua with half-fermented sterile diets is described. Only one Wolbachia strain was detected in each instar of axenic D. antiqua using PCR.
05:55
In Vivo Imaging of Leishmania infantum-infected Hamsters by Gingival Inoculation of Axenic Amastigotes Expressing Luciferase
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2025
Here we present a longitudinal evaluation of golden hamsters infected intraperitoneally (IP) or via intragingival (IG) with L. infantum-Luc by bioluminescent imaging and by PCR. Hamsters were evaluated 1 day post infection (1 dpi), 1 week after infection (8 dpi), and 3 weeks after infection (22 dpi) and euthanized at the 50th dpi and 8 months post infection.
FAQs
In genetics, removing other microorganisms reduces biological variables that could alter growth, phenotype, mutation, or gene function measurements. This controlled setting helps investigators associate an observed trait more confidently with the target organism or cell type rather than with interactions or metabolites from undetected contaminants. The result is greater experimental reproducibility and clearer interpretation of genetic effects.
Defined media provide a controlled nutritional environment, while aseptic handling limits the introduction of unwanted organisms during transfers and maintenance. These practices work together rather than serving as substitutes: controlled nutrients reduce environmental variation, and sterile technique protects the culture’s composition. Routine contamination checks then help determine whether the intended conditions have been preserved.
A mixed sample contains multiple organisms whose combined activities can influence measured traits, making it difficult to assign an outcome to one population. Axenic culture removes that ambiguity by providing material associated with a single known organism or cell type. This distinction is especially important when linking phenotype, growth, mutation, or gene function to a particular genetic background.
Selection can be evaluated against a more controlled biological background when competing or interacting microorganisms are absent. Researchers can therefore characterize naturally occurring or engineered strains without attributing changes to an unidentified contaminant. The resulting comparisons support clearer assessment of strain-specific phenotypes and improve the reproducibility of experiments involving genetic variation.
The target population is first isolated from the mixed material, commonly by initiating the culture from a single colony or by purifying the desired population. It is then maintained with defined media and aseptic handling. Routine contamination checks provide ongoing verification that the recovered material remains suitable for genetic analysis and controlled experimentation.
Contamination checks are used repeatedly rather than only at the point of isolation. They help detect whether organisms other than the intended population have entered or persisted in the culture during handling and maintenance. This verification is essential because genetic measurements, phenotypic comparisons, and growth observations become less reliable if the culture’s composition changes unnoticed.
These cultures provide controlled material for examining growth, phenotype, gene function, and mutation. They also allow researchers to characterize engineered strains alongside naturally occurring strains under defined conditions. Because the biological background is constrained, differences observed across genetic variants can be evaluated with fewer confounding effects from other microorganisms.
They provide a controlled starting material in which the target microorganism’s genetic properties can be examined without additional microbial populations complicating the system. This makes it easier to relate a strain’s phenotype or gene function to interaction-related observations. Such control supports more reproducible investigation of how genetic differences influence host-microbe interaction studies.