ABSTRACT
Heterotrophic flagellates are no exception to the maxim, and much of our understanding of flagellate biology has come from laboratory-based studies of cultured species. Laboratory studies of heterotrophic flagellates have provided baseline ecological data on a wide variety of species. Very little specialized equipment is needed for enriching and isolating most heterotrophic flagellates. Common bacteriological and phycological equipment and media are sufficient. Many different types of culture media have been employed to culture heterotrophic flagellates. They range from simple organic substrates added to natural seawater, to rather complex, chemically defined media. The use of precultured bacteria as prey for bacterivorous flagellates has some advantages over simply enriching the natural bacterial assemblages. This chapter describes several simple methods for the enrichment, isolation, and maintenance of heterotrophic flagellates. The micromanipulative method appears to be the most commonly used means of establishing clonal cultures of flagellates.
