Picocyanobacteria are among the smallest light-harvesting (photosynthetic) organisms found in lakes where they provide energy to larger organisms. As part of the Lakes380 project, University of Otago PhD student Lena Schallenberg (now graduated) studied their distribution in lakes across Aotearoa and established a culture collection of 25 isolates
Her recently published manuscript Isolation and characterisation of monoclonal picocyanobacterial strains from contrasting New Zealand lakes describes the collection. This diverse group of freshwater picocyanobacterial cultures will provide a valuable new resource to study how these critically important microbes function and respond to changing environmental stressors.
