Contamination by "black jelly worms" is a frequently discussed issue. Currently, there is no unified standard in the scientific community for determining the characteristics of contamination by black jelly worms. The contamination characteristics are generally summarized as:

1)Active swimming, rotating or vibrating in place (as shown in Videos 1, 2, and 3);

Video 1 Active Swimming


Video 2 Rotating Movement


Video 3 Vibrating in Place

2)Presenting as rod-shaped, spherical, or oval;

3)The culture medium is not turbid;

4)Contamination often occurs during revival or passage, and it shows an inverse relationship with cell growth.

We have sequenced and identified multiple black jelly worm samples, here are two typical identification results to share:

Figure 1 Sphingomonas (Sphingomonas sp.) single cell and colony image

We have consulted a vast amount of literature, and it has been over a decade since related studies were conducted, many of which identified the contaminant as bacteria, such as the following article^[1]:

Figure 3 Screenshot from customer's literature

This article describes the process of isolating black jelly worms from contaminated cell samples, extracting genomic DNA for sequencing and analysis, and identifying the black jelly worm as a member of the Achromobacter genus.

Bacteria have existed on Earth for over 300,000 years, presenting various shapes, primarily classified into three categories: cocci, bacilli, and spirilla (including vibrio, spirillum, and spirochaetes) (Figure 4). Flagella are thread-like locomotive organs attached to the surface of bacteria. Due to their fine structure, flagella can only be observed under an optical microscope using special staining techniques. They have a diameter of 12-25nm and a length of 3-12μm, and are flexible and wavy (Figure 5).

 

Flagella exhibit three types of movement: swimming in liquids, sliding on solid surfaces, and rotating or vibrating in liquids. It is no wonder that the black jelly worms we observe are either actively swimming or rotating in liquids, which corresponds with the identification of black jelly worms as bacteria.

Black jelly worm contamination is stubborn. How to eradicate it? We have a secret recipe—Black Jelly Worm Remover, which contains peptide active ingredients that are more effective than traditional antibiotics in clearing black jelly worms; it has a short clearance period, typically 3-6 days to effectively eradicate depending on the level of contamination; it has a broad spectrum, effectively clearing common mycoplasmal contamination.

Please continue to follow our WeChat public account for the next installment on black jelly worms.

[1] Jennifer Sue Gray, Janette Marie Birmingham, Jenifer Imig Fenton. Got black swimming dots in your cell culture? Identification of Achromobacter as a novel cell culture contaminant[J]. Biologicals, 2010, 38(2):273-7.

Note: Images are sourced from the internet and customers, for educational purposes only.

Absin Bioscience Inc. Email: worldwide@absin.cn

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