Cheap sources for bacterial strains

[Patrik D'haeseleer]

Most of you know that you can order some bacterial strains from Carolina Biological for around $10 per strain. If you wanted to order those strains from, say, ATCC, you'd wind up paying $295-354 - if they'll even sell it to you as an individual.

I decided to put together a little list of other educational sources of strains that are useful resources for DIYbio. If you know of any others, please let me know! I'm especially interested in sources for bioluminescent strains (Photobacterium phosphoreum, anyone?) I also added some links to specific sets I'm tempted to get for BioCurious, just to play around with:

Carolina

• Pigmented Bacteria Set: Micrococcus luteus (yellow) , Serratia marcescens D1 (red) , Sarcina aurantiaca (orange-yellow) , Rhodococcus rhodochrous (pink)
• Vibrio fisheri
• Slime Mold Cultures

Flinn Scientific

• Bacterial Pigmentation Set: Chromobacterium violaceum (violet), Serratia marcescens (red), Micrococcus luteus (yellow)
• Slime molds

Fischer Scientific

Ward's Natural Science

• Luminescent Bacteria Set: Azotobacter vinelandii and Vibrio fischeri
• Pigmented Bacteria Set: Kocuria rhizophila (yellow), Kocuria roseus (rose), Sarcina aurantiaca (orange), Serratia marcescens (pink-red)

eNasco

• Chromogenic Bacteria Set: Chromobacterium violaceum (purple), Sarcina aurantiaca (orange-yellow), Micrococcus luteus (yellow), and Serratia marcescens (red)

Sargent-Welch

• Basic Pigmented Bacteria Set: Kocuria rosea (rose), Serratia marcescens DI (red), Kocuria rhizophila (yellow), and Sarcina aurentiaca (orange)

Patrik