Re: where can I obtain two different strains of denitrifying bacteria?

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the question. Basically, you have 2 options. The long and difficult option is to try and isolate strains of denitrifying bacteria yourself. The second option is to get in touch with a culture collection and see if they can supply you with the strains. I'll tell you a little about each option.

To isolate bacteria yourself, you will need access to petri dishes, growth media for denitrifying bacteria and a way of incubating the dishes at 30- 37 degrees celsius in the absence of oxygen. You can buy sealed containers and catalyst packs in which you can incubate dishes without oxygen. However, this would require quite a bit of research and expense on your part and I wouldn't recommend it, unless you can easily get hold of these things and are prepared to learn a few microbiological techniques!

The easier option would be to contact a culture collection. There are many such organisations around the world, which maintain stocks of all kinds of bacterial strains for researchers to use. Have a look at this web page for a list of them (and microbiology-direct.com is a great resource for other things too). One of the largest and best known is the American Type Culture Collection, or ATCC, who have a website here. You can browse their catalogue and look for the strains that you want. I assume that you are looking for specific strains whose names you already know.

There may be a charge for the service, and I don't know what their policy is regarding "independent scientists", as they normally supply strains to researchers working in universities. But it's worth finding out, I don't see why there should be a problem for schools if you can get someone official to make the request.

I hope your research goes well, let me know if I can advise you further,
Neil