Das Lehrgebiet BioVT publiziert zusammen mit der TH Bingen in Algal Research neueste Ergebnisse im Bereich der EPS-Analytik.

A colorimetric sulpho-phospho-vanillin method was developed for the quantification of total lipids in small sample volumes. The developed method is easy to perform and can be used for high throughput analysis of lipid contents in 96-well microplates. In contrast to previous studies, solvents had a great influence on the surface of microplates. Different solvents were tested, but methanol was the only one, which did not show an impact on surface material. Therefore, it was used to dissolve the extracted lipids quantitatively, which were then transferred to the microplates for further processing. In this study, the method was used to quantify the total lipid amounts in extracts of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from terrestrial cyanobacteria. These extracellular lipids are of great interest, especially with regard to the production of antimicrobial substances. The two strains Trichocoleus sociatus and Nostoc muscorum were cultivated under heterotrophic conditions with glucose as additional carbon source. The lipid content of the two strains differed during the cultivation period. On average, the amount of lipids reached the highest value in the beginning of heterotrophic cultivation. Although, the experiments were conducted under submerged conditions, cyanobacterial cells showed a surface-associated growth. The fluctuations in lipid content might express the different stages of biofilm formation.

A. Schwarz, D. Hornung, M. Witthohn, D. Strieth, R. Ulber, K. Muffler; A modified method for colorimetric quantification of lipids from cyanobacteria; Algal Research (2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2020.102015