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Three New Synthetic Algal Culture Media to Grow Them All †

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Communication Open Access

Three New Synthetic Algal Culture Media to Grow Them All †

Barbara Melkonian Michael Melkonian *

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Department of Plant Microbe Interactions, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Carl-von-Linné-Weg 10, 50829 Cologne, Germany
*
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†
Dedicated to the memory of Harold Charles Bold (1909–1987), whose basal culture medium (BBM) revolutionized the cultivation of chlorophyte algae from freshwater and terrestrial environments.

Received: 14 January 2026 Revised: 06 February 2026 Accepted: 19 March 2026 Published: 26 March 2026

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© 2026 The authors. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Biobreeding 2026, 1(1), 10005; DOI: 10.70322/biobreeding.2026.10005
ABSTRACT: Three new synthetic algal culture media are described that have been used to cultivate ~12,000 diverse strains of (micro)algae, one culture medium for marine and brackish-water algae (ASP-MEL (Artificial Seawater Provasoli-MELKONIAN)), and two culture media for freshwater/terrestrial algae (SFM (Synthetic Freshwater Medium) and W-MEL (Waris-MELKONIAN)). The genesis of the three media since their original formulation and the rationale for modifications of these media over the past 50 years are outlined. A complex trace element mix derived from an enriched natural seawater culture medium (L1) is used in all three media, and allows the omission of soil water extract from one freshwater culture medium (W-MEL). It is suggested that the inclusion of selenite renders soil extract in algal culture media superfluous. Prospects and limitations of the three synthetic algal culture media as general-purpose media for large collections are discussed.
Keywords: Algae; Synthetic culture media; ASP-MEL; SFM; W-MEL; Culture collections; Selenite
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