I am doinig an antibiotic selection with g418 on my adherent chinese hamster cells. i need my cells to grow slowly and for a long time. can i use normal untreated petri dish instead the cell culture treated plates in which the cells grow like mad? Also could the material at the bottom of the treated ones detoxify the antibiotic? I am using v79 derived cells that are adherant type.

Thanks
Aby

The short answer is no.

Adherent cells will not take well to being grown without being attached. If you are trying to save money, you could collagen or gelatin coat the ordinary petri dishes - so long as they are sterile.

G418 should be fine in all the treated culture dishes that I have come across. If you are having problems with the antibiotic decaying, make up some fresh and keep it in the dark and frozen is probably best unless the data sheet says specifically not to freeze. Usually freeze thaw is bad too, so aliquot.

You may need to titrate your antibiotic to give a reasonable kill rate - follow the data sheet with this one.