Select UTEX Algal Collections

Freshwater Diatom Collection

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David B. Czarnecki began collecting and studying freshwater diatoms as a graduate student. His collection moved with him to Loras College in 1984, where it was named and recognized universally among freshwater diatomists as the Loras College Freshwater Diatom Culture Collection. The Collection was maintained through grants to Loras College from the Iowa Science Foundation and the Iowa College Foundation.

In February 2006 Dr. Czarnecki requested that The Loras College Freshwater Diatom Collection be transferred from Loras College to UTEX. Loras College subsequently donated the entire collection to UTEX as a gift. Dr. Czarnecki died in May 2006. Strains from his collection that are maintained at UTEX will continue to be listed as the Loras College Freshwater Diatom Culture Collection in memory of Dave Czarnecki's service to the community of freshwater diatomists.

Published works about this collection can be found at:

Czarnecki, D.B. 1987. The freshwater diatom culture collection at Loras College. Notulae Naturae Philosophical Academy of Natural Science. 465: 1-16.

Czarnecki, D.B. 1994. The freshwater diatom culture collection at Loras College, Dubuque, IA. In Kociolek, J. P. [Ed.] Proceedings of the XI International Diatom Symposium, San Francisco. Memoirs of the California Academy of Science, San Francisco, CA, USA, No. 17: 155-73.

Czarnecki, D.B. & Ross, M.J. 1988. The Itasca State Park Algal Culture Collection at Loras College. Journal of Minnesota Academy of Science 53: 27-32.

Extreme Environment Collection

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Extreme Environment Algae are strains of terrestrial algae collected from various extreme environments such as Antarctica and the Gobi Desert. This collection maintained by Dr. Imre Friedmann has been deposited in the Culture Collection of Algae at The University of Texas. These strains have now been cryopreserved and are maintained in indefinite storage under liquid nitrogen. Some of them are well documented and their characteristics described; others have only been identified to family. Information on the documented strains will be added to this web site as time permits.

Upon request, a living culture of the requested strain will be thawed and shipped in agar, in the same 2-mL cryovial in within which it was cryopreserved. The identifying number of the requested strain should be prefixed with "EE". The requested culture may be ordered in the same way as other cultures are ordered. Representative photos of EE 150 are displayed as thumbnails below. The extreme environment algae collection was deposited in 2003 and formally accessioned into UTEX February 2005.

Snow Collection

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The culture collection of snow algae maintained by Dr. Ron Hoham at Colgate University has been deposited in the Culture Collection of Algae at the University of Texas at Austin. The strains in this collection have all been isolated from snow and have been maintained at temperatures below 6 °C since their isolation. This collection includes isolates from eastern and western North America collected over a 35-year time period, and also includes isolates from Antarctica. Multiple isolates of the same taxon are maintained to permit research at the population level.

Most of the algae in this collection are members of Chlorophyta, but several strains are yellow-green algae (Xanthophyceae) and a few are golden algae (Chrysophyceae). Nearly all strains in the collection have been cryopreserved and in the future will be maintained at UTEX only at liquid nitrogen temperature.

Upon request, a living culture of the requested strain will be thawed and shipped in agar, in the same 2-mL cryovial in which it was cryopreserved. These strains will survive transport at room temperature and that is the most reliable way to ship, but there is concern from the depositor that allowing them to warm during shipment may select for genotypes that are not as cold-adapted. Cultures will be shipped at room temperature unless an ice pack is requested by the customer.

Salt Plains Collection

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The Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Oklahoma, USA is a moist soil habitat characterized by highly fluctuating salinity (ranging from freshwater to NaCl saturation) and temperature extremes (sometimes exceeding 50 °C). A broad range of halotolerant soil algae occur in this habitat, sometimes within microbial mats or in shallow pools.

A diverse range of Chlorophyceae, Bacillariophyceae and Cyanophyceae have been isolated and provided tentative identification by Dr. Andrea Kirkwood, and representative strains have been deposited in UTEX by Dr. William Henley. These strains have now been cryopreserved and are maintained at UTEX in indefinite storage under liquid nitrogen. An additional strain (UTEX 2795 Picochlorum oklahomensis) is maintained under serial culture.

National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bio-products (NAABB) Collection

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The National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB), a consortium of universities, research institutions, and companies funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, has made 30 of their best performing strains available to the public through UTEX. These strains are well characterized for lipid production and growth kinetics.

The strains can be accessed withg a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA). Please note that it can take anywhere from 4-6 weeks for The City University of New York (CUNY) to approve the MTA.