Morphological quantification of pellets in Streptomyces hygroscopicus var. geldanus fermentation broths using a flatbed scanner.

An image analysis technique has been developed to allow high throughput morphological characterisation of microbial fermentation broths containing spherical pellets greater than 100 microm in diameter. Images of stained Streptomyces hygroscopicus var. geldanus culture samples at three different inoculum levels were captured using a flatbed scanner, at a resolution of 21 microm per pixel (1200 dots per inch) and subsequently analysed leading to the generation of a morphological profile of each sample. The time taken for image capture and analysis of a prepared sample, containing approx. 2000 particles, was 3 min 6 s.