title: Methods involving light variation for isolation of cyanobacteria: characterization of isolates from central australia.
abstract: We report the isolation of organisms belonging to a range of cyanobacterial genera from the remote arid region of central Australia, together with a preliminary characterization of their temporal modes of nitrogen fixation. We rendered unialgal Dermocarpa and Myxosarcina spp. (Section II organisms), LPP group B: type X (Section III), and Scytonema and Nostoc spp. (Section IV). We developed an isolation procedure based on a combination of published methods and applicable to a broad spectrum of cyanobacterial genera. We found light intensity to be a critical variable in our methodology; it was also an important determinant of the proportions of different organisms growing in stable mixtures.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Australian National University, GPO Box 4, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: de Chazal
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Smaglinski
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Smith