Background
The microorganism can be used for producing various products such as enzyme preparations, organic acids, amino acids, antibiotics, vitamins, hormones, ethanol, biological materials and the like, and the excellent strain is the foundation for realizing the high yield of the microbial fermentation. Both mutagenesis and high-throughput editing can generate a large number of candidate strains, and high-throughput screening is an important means for efficiently and rapidly screening more excellent strains from a plurality of candidate strains.
In the High Throughput Screening (HTS) technology for microorganisms, a pore plate or an agar plate is used as a culture carrier of a strain, an advanced modern automatic operating system is used for executing an experimental process, a sensitive and rapid detection instrument is used for collecting experimental data, a large number of microbial strains are cultured and tested in a short time, and a more excellent strain is found.
Biomass is an important factor of fermentation, and the fermentation performance of the plate method test microorganisms is closely related to the biomass in the wells, and if the biomass is not uniformly distributed to the same batch of plate, the comparability of the fermentation result is poor, and thus, the uniformity of the biomass in each well should be ensured.
However, uniform picking and distribution of hyphae/mycelium is a bottleneck for high throughput screening of actinomycetes, filamentous fungi and macrofungi (the patent collectively refers to actinomycetes, filamentous fungi and macrofungi as "filamentous fungi"). Due to the morphological characteristics of the filamentous fungi, instruments and methods suitable for single cells, such as the existing liquid transfer workstation, the flow cytometry technology, the microfluidic technology and the like, can not realize uniform picking and distribution of hyphae. Some methods adopt a method of picking up hyphae of filamentous fungi by winding a hypha picking thread and then distributing the hyphae into a deep hole plate, and the winding mode cannot realize uniform picking and distribution of the hyphae.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above problems, a first object of the present invention is to provide a cutting head capable of uniformly cutting hyphae or mycelia. Another object of the present invention is to provide a hypha cutting method, which can uniformly cut hypha, put into a pore plate for a contrast experiment, and further screen out and find out the optimal bacterial strain.
In order to achieve the purpose, the invention adopts the following technical scheme:
in a first aspect, the present invention provides a cutting head, which includes a cutting part and a connecting part, wherein the cutting part is connected to a bottom end of the connecting part, a cutting edge is formed at the bottom end of the cutting part for performing a cutting operation, and the connecting part is used for connecting with a mechanical arm.
Further, the cutting head body is made of resin or plastic.
Further, the cutting head body is a hollow cylinder.
Furthermore, the inside of the hollow cylinder body is also provided with a filter layer, and the filter layer can only be used for air to pass through and is used for filtering microorganisms in the air, so that the sterile state is realized.
Further, the diameter of the cutting portion is different from the diameter of the connecting portion.
The cutting head comprises a cutting head body and is characterized by further comprising an outer layer cutting sleeve sleeved outside the cutting head body, the inner wall of the outer layer cutting sleeve is attached to the outer wall of the cutting head body, the outer wall of the outer layer cutting sleeve and the outer wall of the cutting head body can rotate mutually, and a cutting edge is formed at the bottom of the outer layer cutting head body.
In a second aspect, the present invention also provides a method for cutting a hyphae, based on the cutting head, comprising the steps of:
mounting the cutting head on an automatic cutting machine, and aligning a cutting part of the cutting head to one area of the edge of the bacterial colony;
cutting a circular plate from the bacterial colony together with the culture medium to form a bacterial colony plate, and simultaneously extracting gas in the cutting head body to form negative pressure in the cutting head body so as to prevent the bacterial colony plate from falling off;
moving the cut colony piece with the cutting head to a culture hole or an agar plate to be inoculated, introducing a small amount of air into the cutting head pipe, and blowing the colony piece into the culture hole or onto the agar plate;
repeating the operation to cut and distribute hyphae.
Furthermore, the cutting head also comprises an outer layer cutting sleeve sleeved outside the cutting head body, the inner wall of the outer layer cutting sleeve is attached to the outer wall of the cutting head body, the outer layer cutting sleeve and the outer wall of the cutting head body can rotate mutually, and a cutting edge is formed at the bottom of the outer layer cutting head body;
the step of cutting a disc from the bacterial colony together with the culture medium to form a bacterial colony specifically comprises the following steps:
through the arm court the bacterial colony pushes down the cutting head to through cutting head body or outer cutting sleeve rotate in order to ensure to cut off the hypha.
Due to the adoption of the technical scheme, the invention has the following advantages:
the cutting head provided by the invention has the advantages that as the inner diameters of the cutting parts are the same, the diameters of cut wafers are the same, and uniform cutting and distribution of hyphae are realized;
the cutting head provided by the invention comprises a cutting head body and an outer layer cutting sleeve sleeved on the outer side of the cutting head body, and relative rotation is formed between the cutting head body and the outer layer cutting sleeve, so that hyphae can be cut off by the rotation of the cutting head body or the outer layer cutting head body in the cutting process.
The invention can be used for transferring filamentous fungi, and hyphae are cut and inoculated into agar plates/pore plates/deep pore plates/test tubes/triangular flasks or other suitable culture containers. Or transferring the cut hyphae to a test tube/a freezing tube/an ampoule tube to carry out the automatic operation of strain preservation.
Detailed Description
In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention clearer, the following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the embodiments described are only a few embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that the terms "upper", "lower", "inside", "outside", and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are only for convenience in describing the present invention and simplifying the description, but do not indicate or imply that the system or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed in a specific orientation, and be operated, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and the like, are used to define elements only for convenience in distinguishing between the elements, and unless otherwise stated have no special meaning and are not to be construed as indicating or implying any relative importance.
In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless otherwise explicitly specified or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," and "connected" are to be construed broadly, e.g., as meaning either a fixed connection, a removable connection, or an integral connection; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be connected directly or indirectly through intervening media, or they may be interconnected between two elements. The specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood in specific cases to those skilled in the art.
The embodiment of the invention provides a cutting head and a hypha cutting method, which can realize uniform cutting and distribution of hypha, uniformly distribute biomass into a pore plate, ensure the consistency of the biomass in each pore, improve the comparability of fermentation results and find out an optimal strain by a high-throughput screening method of microorganisms.
Example 1
The cutting head provided by the embodiment 1 of the invention comprises a cutting head body 1, wherein the cutting head body 1 is a hollow cylinder, the cutting head body 1 comprises a cutting part 11 and a connecting part 12, the cutting part 11 is connected to the bottom end of the connecting part and is used for executing cutting action, and the connecting part 12 is used for being connected with a mechanical arm (not shown in the figure).
The cutting head body 1 is preferably made of resin or plastic, and the cutting head body 1 may be made of stainless steel or other materials.
The cutting head body 1 is preferably a hollow cylinder. It is understood that the cutting head body 1 is not limited to a hollow cylinder, but may be a square or polygonal cylinder.
The cutting head body 1 has a cutting portion 11 at the bottom thereof, and the cutting portion 11 has a sharp tip, and is capable of pressing a culture medium and colonies under a certain pressure and cutting the colonies together with the culture medium.
In order to avoid pollution caused by microorganisms and the like in the process of cutting and transferring hyphae, a filter layer 2 is fixedly arranged in the hollow cylinder, and the filter layer 2 can be used for filtering the microorganisms in the gas through the gas.
The top of the connecting portion 12 is connected to a robot arm (not shown) which performs the cutting and transferring actions on the cutting head. The top of the connecting part 12 and the mechanical arm may be connected by bolts, plugs or other detachable connections, preferably plugs.
As one embodiment, the diameter of the cutting portion 11 is different from the diameter of the connecting portion 12, and as shown in fig. 2, the outer diameter and the inner diameter of the cutting portion 11 are both larger than the outer diameter and the inner diameter of the connecting portion 12.
Based on the above cutting head, another embodiment of the present invention provides a method for cutting hyphae, comprising the steps of:
(1) inoculating spores or hyphae of the candidate strain on an agar plate;
(2) growing the candidate strain into a colony on an agar plate;
(3) mounting a cutting head on a mechanical arm of an automatic cutting machine;
(4) aligning a cutting head to an area at the edge of a bacterial colony, cutting a round plate (called as a bacterial colony plate) from the bacterial colony together with a culture medium, and simultaneously extracting gas in the cutting head body 1 to form negative pressure in the cutting head body 1 so as to prevent the bacterial colony plate from falling off;
(5) the cutting head carries the cut bacterial colony sheet to move to a culture hole or an agar plate to be inoculated, a small amount of air is introduced into a cylinder body of the cutting head, and the bacterial colony sheet is blown into the culture hole or blown down on the agar plate;
(6) repeating the operation, finishing the cutting and distribution of hyphae, replacing a sterile cutting head every time, and selecting a hyphae area with the same or similar density at the edge of a bacterial colony every time through digital photography and machine vision so as to ensure that the biomass of the cut bacterial colony is the same or similar.
When the density of the mycelia at the edges of the colonies is different, the percentage of the mycelia on the colony sheets to the area on the colony sheets is controlled to realize the same or similar biomass on each cut colony sheet. If the density of mycelia at the edge of the colony is too low, two or more pieces may be cut so that the biomass obtained from the strain is the same as or similar to that of other bacteria.
It should be noted that the automatic cutter is mainly composed of a mechanical arm, etc., and can automatically change the cutting head according to the program to cut the fungus drop at the edge of the colony selected by digital photography and machine vision. The mechanical arm of the automatic cutting machine controls the falling force (the pressure contacting with the flat plate) of the cutting head through the spring and/or the lever, so that the cutting head is cut to the surface of a vessel below the agar flat plate to complete the cutting of a bacterial colony sheet, and the action, the transfer and the force of the cutting head are controlled in detail, which belongs to the prior art in the field, and therefore the details are omitted.
The above-mentioned excised colony pieces are used for inoculation into agar plates/well plates/deep well plates/test tubes/flasks or other suitable culture vessels. Or transferring the cut colony slices into a test tube/a freezing tube/an ampoule tube to carry out the automatic operation of strain preservation.
The cutting head and the cutting method of the hyphae provided by the invention can realize the uniform cutting and distribution of the hyphae, uniformly distribute the biomass into the pore plates, ensure the consistency of the biomass in each pore, improve the comparability of a fermentation result, and find out the optimal strain by a high-throughput screening method of microorganisms.
The invention has the advantages that the operation is greatly simplified, the uniform sampling and the uniform distribution of the hyphae are realized, and simultaneously: (1) because the strain is not required to grow spores, the method is suitable for strains which do not produce spores; (2) the strain does not need to grow spores, so that the culture time of the strain on an agar plate is short; (3) hyphae at the edge of a colony are cut, and the part of hyphae is new hyphae, so that the mycelium fermentation of different strains is easy to realize synchronization; (4) because the biomass on each sliced colony slice is the same or similar with the assistance of digital photography and machine vision, the biomass in each fermentation pore plate can be consistent, and parallel experiments or comparison of different experiments can be implemented; (5) cross contamination is not easy to occur; (6) in the subsequent fermentation stage, the spore germination stage is not needed, so that the experimental period of fermentation is shortened.
Example 2
The difference between embodiment 2 and embodiment 1 of the present invention is that the cutting head in this embodiment is a double-layer cutting head, an outer layer cutting sleeve 3 is further sleeved on an outer layer of the cutting head body in embodiment 1, an inner wall of the outer layer cutting sleeve 3 is attached to an outer wall of the cutting head body 1, the inner wall and the outer wall can rotate with each other, and a bottom of the outer layer cutting sleeve 3 is sharp.
Therefore, in the hypha cutting process, the cutting of a disc from the bacterial colony together with the culture medium to form a bacterial colony sheet specifically comprises the following steps:
through the arm court the bacterial colony pushes down the cutting head to it is rotatory cutting head body 1 or outer cutting sleeve 3 are in order to ensure to cut off the hypha.
Therefore, in the invention, the cutting head is arranged to be of a double-layer structure sleeved inside and outside, so that hyphae can be cut off by rotating the cutting head body 1 at the inner layer or rotating the cutting sleeve 3 at the outer layer.
Finally, it should be noted that: the above examples are only intended to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, but not to limit it; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and such modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.