what kind of contamination is this? (photos inside) - contamination in cell culture with HeLa (Apr/02/2008 )

I have experienced cocci bacterial contamination before, but this one is much bigger.

The photos are taken from a HeLa flask. If you look closely you can see round vibgyor-colored (rainbow-colored) beings beside the HeLa cells.

these round bastards did not cause much cloudy media. even the pH was alright but they are spreading very fast. cocci are very small, you need a deeper zoom to see them, but these round cells (bacteria, yeast, fungi or whatever) are almost as big as HeLa cells.

I don't know what they are and how to kill them, and I know they won't die easily. sorry if such topic has been posted before.

Thanks
Curtis

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very pretty

i think i'll call them "fred"

now send fred and his minions to the deepest circle of hell (bin) and continue the experiment in his absence

dom

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it's been already done, don't worry

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for your information; I was just told that it was yeast contamination.

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so fred was on the bread and beer diet - you're better off without him

god luck with the next batch

dom

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not beer but maybe bread or other food...possibly not me, we are 7 people and 1 incubator. not a big surprize if we have contamination.

I'm washing the cells every 12 hours, 3X PBS...with no antibiotic.

Curtis,

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twas a joke - both contain yeast

kinda ruins it when you have to explain

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To be honest I looked at the pictures and Yeast don't look like that at all!!!!!!!

I did enjoy your joke though but went over some people's head

Regards as always

Rhombus

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why fred? just curious

it doesnt look yeast at all! no budding formation. I am think it is some sort of bacteria perhaps. I am not sure! but too big for a bacteria.

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Don't think we are talking about Fred Y. Fungus either.

Could be aggregations or microcolonies of bacteria (endospore-forming I would guess...as you have so much contrast at the cell walls)....
And Bacilli can grow quit big! So my tip for Fred's ID would be some sort of Bacillus....

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