Foam in Cell Culture - (Jan/05/2012 )

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask and maybe this is too easy for any of you but I couldn't find the explanation anywhere else.

When I culture my cell using LB Broth and induced with IPTG, shaking at 37 degree Celcius overnight, sometimes there will have foams formed on top of the broth. Anyone could explain why is that so? And will it affect the protein production?

Thank you.

You might be better off in the microbiology subforum. However, as a guess I would say that your bugs are producing something which is capable of forming bubbles when agitated. It may be that what you are seeing is actually your protein being produced and the agitation of the cultures is causing it to form a foam. E.coli do tend to form some sort of mucous like secretion, if you look at your cultures closely you will see that they are not homogenous, but seem to form string like structures (can't really describe it, and I don't have any cultures on hand to take a photo), which I suspect is the mucous like stuff.