Chapter 32
Cryopreservation of Algae
Estefania Paredes, Angela Ward, Ian Probert, Le ´ na Gouhier,
and Christine N. Campbell
Abstract
Cryopreservation has been successfully used in the banking and maintenance of cultures of microorganisms,
from bacteria to yeasts, since the onset of cryobiology. Biobanking of marine biological resources is crucial
for development of scientific knowledge as researchers rely on guaranteed access to reliable, stable
resources. Culture collections play a key role in the provision of marine biological resources as they ensure
long-term ex situ storage of biological resources that are made available for public and private sector
research and education. In this chapter, we provide protocols for cryopreservation of different types of
algae cultures.
Key words Microalgae, Macroalgae, Cryopreservation
1 Introduction
Cryopreservation has been successfully used in the banking and
maintenance of cultures of microorganisms, from bacteria to yeasts,
since the onset of cryobiology. For microalgae, cryopreservation
has been increasingly widely applied in recent decades, providing an
alternative to the continuous culture of strains [1, 2], saving time
and space, and increasing the capacity of collections while avoiding
the morphological and physiological modifications that can occur
during continuous active culture. While there is no such a thing as a
general cryopreservation protocol that can be successfully applied
to all microalgal types with guaranteed survival [2–6], there is a
more or less standardized method that is routinely applied (notably
by culture collections) across large sections of microalgal diversity.
For microalgae, cryopreservation success is influenced by many
parameters, such as type of strain [7], cell size and cell form
[8, 9], culture age [10], and presence of gas vacuoles [11–
13]. Cryopreservation protocols can be specifically optimized for
each species or strain, but many microalgae have still never been
successfully cryopreserved (cryo-recalcitrant species), including, for
Willem F. Wolkers and Harrie ¨ tte Oldenhof (eds.), Cryopreservation and Freeze-Drying Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology,
vol. 2180, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0783-1_32, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021
607
Cryopreservation of Algae
Estefania Paredes, Angela Ward, Ian Probert, Le ´ na Gouhier,
and Christine N. Campbell
Abstract
Cryopreservation has been successfully used in the banking and maintenance of cultures of microorganisms,
from bacteria to yeasts, since the onset of cryobiology. Biobanking of marine biological resources is crucial
for development of scientific knowledge as researchers rely on guaranteed access to reliable, stable
resources. Culture collections play a key role in the provision of marine biological resources as they ensure
long-term ex situ storage of biological resources that are made available for public and private sector
research and education. In this chapter, we provide protocols for cryopreservation of different types of
algae cultures.
Key words Microalgae, Macroalgae, Cryopreservation
1 Introduction
Cryopreservation has been successfully used in the banking and
maintenance of cultures of microorganisms, from bacteria to yeasts,
since the onset of cryobiology. For microalgae, cryopreservation
has been increasingly widely applied in recent decades, providing an
alternative to the continuous culture of strains [1, 2], saving time
and space, and increasing the capacity of collections while avoiding
the morphological and physiological modifications that can occur
during continuous active culture. While there is no such a thing as a
general cryopreservation protocol that can be successfully applied
to all microalgal types with guaranteed survival [2–6], there is a
more or less standardized method that is routinely applied (notably
by culture collections) across large sections of microalgal diversity.
For microalgae, cryopreservation success is influenced by many
parameters, such as type of strain [7], cell size and cell form
[8, 9], culture age [10], and presence of gas vacuoles [11–
13]. Cryopreservation protocols can be specifically optimized for
each species or strain, but many microalgae have still never been
successfully cryopreserved (cryo-recalcitrant species), including, for
Willem F. Wolkers and Harrie ¨ tte Oldenhof (eds.), Cryopreservation and Freeze-Drying Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology,
vol. 2180, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0783-1_32, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021
607