JPH0510916Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed explanation of the idea] [Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a test tube used for shaking culture, and the present invention relates to a test tube that is suitable for increasing the contact area between the culture solution in the test tube and air and incorporating oxygen into the culture solution, especially when culturing aerobic microorganisms. This relates to culture test tubes.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, industrial use of microorganisms has become active, and a wide variety of microorganisms are being cultured in laboratories for purposes such as searching for and propagating microorganisms. The culture methods can be roughly divided into two types: a static culture method in which the culture is performed under static conditions, and a shaking culture method in which the culture is performed while shaking the liquid medium. The present invention relates to a test tube used in the latter shaking culture method. This shaking culture method is a method of efficiently culturing aerobic microorganisms by shaking the culture medium to actively dissolve oxygen from the air into the culture medium and creating an environment suitable for microorganisms to breathe. It is. There are various types of shaking culture devices depending on the purpose. For example, there are those that are used to culture relatively large quantities using flasks and the like, and those that are used to simultaneously culture many types of microorganisms using test tubes. The present invention relates to a test tube used in a shaking culture device used to simultaneously culture many types of microorganisms, albeit in small quantities. Usually, in the shaking culture method using this test tube as a culture vessel, a rod-shaped test tube as shown in FIG. 2 is used. This test tube is often used with a capacity of about 40 ml, and after filling it with about 5 ml of culture solution and incubating the seed microorganisms, the test tube is capped with a cotton stopper or silicone stopper for ventilation. , placed in a shaking culture apparatus. Shaking culture is carried out at room temperature or constant temperature conditions for about 1 to 3 days while continuously shaking. The test tubes used in conventional shaking culture are commercially available, such as straight rod-shaped tubes as shown in Figure 2, or T-shaped tubes as shown in Figure 3. Each was used depending on its purpose. For example, the rod-shaped test tube shown in Figure 2 is fixed in a test tube stand dedicated to a shaking culture device as shown in Figure 4.
The test tube stand is directly attached to a shaking culture apparatus and subjected to shaking culture. In this case, many test tubes could be attached to the same shaking culture device, making it possible to culture many types of microorganisms at once. On the other hand, the T-shaped test tube shown in Fig. 3 is attached to the shaking culture apparatus via the T-shaped test tube stand with the bottom 2 held horizontally.
The contact area between the culture solution and air can be increased, and oxygen can be sufficiently supplied to the culture medium. Therefore, some of them were excellent in culture efficiency. However, the T-shaped test tube as shown in Figure 3
When attached to a shaking culture apparatus, it is bulky due to the large area occupied by the bottom part 2, and has the disadvantage that a large number of test tubes cannot be attached to the same apparatus at once. In addition, a rod-shaped test tube as shown in Figure 2 is
Due to the small occupied area of the bottom part 2, it is possible to attach a large number of test tubes to the same device, but the cross-sectional area is small compared to other culture vessels, and therefore,
Since the contact area between the culture solution and air was small, there was a natural limit to the culture efficiency. Therefore, the inventors of the present invention attempted to attach a large number of test tubes at the same time and to increase the contact area with the air by attaching the test tubes at an angle and performing shaking culture. Normally, to install test tubes diagonally, arrange the test tubes in an orderly manner in a test tube stand dedicated to a shaking culture device, as shown in Figure 4, and then set the test tube stand at an angle. This can be achieved by fixing it to a shaking culture device via a tube attachment device. As a result, the contact surface between the culture solution and air becomes elliptical, and as the inclination angle increases, the contact area between the culture medium and air increases, and oxygen can be taken into the culture solution more actively. However, the increase in the contact area by simply tilting the rod-shaped test tube is due to the fact that the culture solution is scattered in the direction of the upper opening 1 of the test tube due to the vibration of the shaking culture device, and the cotton plug applied to the opening 1 Or, the silicone stopper, etc. may be contaminated, and in extreme cases, the breathability of the cotton plug, etc. may be obstructed, and the air inside the test tube and the outside air may be cut off, making it impossible to achieve the intended purpose of aerobic culture. was often hot.

[Problem that the idea aims to solve]

Therefore, the problem that the present invention aims to solve is to increase the contact area between the culture solution and the air by tilting the test tubes when performing shaking culture in which a large number of cultures are simultaneously performed using test tubes as described above. To provide a test tube capable of suppressing scattering of a culture solution even when culturing.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a test for shaking culture that can be bent into a dogleg shape, with a bending point 4 closer to the opening than an intermediate point 3 between the upper opening 1 and the bottom 2. It provides a tube. At this time, the length of the upper bent part 6 from the upper opening 1 to the bending point 4 is made larger than the diameter of the opening, and the bent angle α of the dogleg shape is 110° to 160°. By doing so, a more effective test tube for shaking culture can be provided. That is, by bending the test tube in a dogleg shape, the lower bent part 7 of the test tube can be tilted obliquely while the upper bent part 6 of the test tube is held substantially vertically. Therefore, the liquid level 5 of the culture solution
By keeping the test tube below the bending point 4, the liquid level is tilted obliquely to the center line of the lower bend 7 of the test tube, increasing the contact area with air. It can be attached to. Here, the bending point 4 of the test tube is the midpoint 3 of the test tube.
By locating it closer to the opening 1 and increasing the length of the lower bent portion 7 of the bottom 2' of the test tube from the bending point 4, it is possible to change the inclination of the test tube significantly. As a result, it is possible to adjust the contact area between the culture solution and air as necessary, which is very convenient. Further, it is preferable that the length of the upper bent portion 6 from the upper opening 1 to the bending point 4 is larger than the diameter of the opening 1. Of course, this upper bent part 6 must have a part for inserting a cotton plug or the like, but the larger the diameter of the test tube, the more the culture solution splashes out due to vibration during shaking culture, so it is difficult to prevent this. It is also preferable to have the upper bent portion 6 of this degree. On the other hand, the bending angle α of the test tube of the present invention is 110° to 160°.
It is more preferable that it is in the range of . Bending angle α is 110°
If the test tubes are smaller, not only will it be difficult to clean the test tubes after culturing, but it will also be impossible to remove the overlap between adjacent test tubes when they are lined up in a test tube rack. Similar to the shape of a letter-shaped test tube, each test tube occupies a large area, making it impossible to apply many test tubes to the same shaking culture device at the same time. Furthermore, when the bending angle α becomes larger than 160°, the effect of bending becomes small, and it becomes difficult to obtain a large angle of inclination of the test tube. In this way, the test tubes of the present invention, which are bent into a dogleg shape, are arranged in an orderly manner in a test tube stand dedicated to a shaking culture device as shown in Figure 4, and the test tubes of the present invention are arranged in an orderly manner as shown in Figure 5. The test tube stand is attached to a shaking culture apparatus so that the upper bent portion 6 is substantially vertical, and subjected to shaking culture. In this way, the present invention has made it possible to conduct a large number of efficient shaking cultures at once using test tube stands designed to have the same or slightly wider spacing between test tubes. be.

[Effect of the idea]

As explained above, the present invention allows the same shaking culture device to be equipped with approximately the same number of test tubes as before, and to increase the contact area between the culture solution and air, which was not possible with conventional test tubes. By making it possible to increase the supply of oxygen to the culture medium,
This can improve culture efficiency and contribute to industries that utilize microorganisms.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an example of a test tube for shaking culture according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of a conventional rod-shaped test tube for shaking culture, and FIG. 3 is a side view of a conventional test tube for shaking culture. FIG. 4 is a side view of a test tube, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a test tube stand used in a shaking culture apparatus, and FIG. 5 is a test tube for shaking culture according to the present invention attached to the test tube stand shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the test tube arranged so that the upper bent portion thereof is substantially vertical. The meanings of the symbols in the diagram are as follows: 1...Top opening of the test tube, 2...Bottom of the test tube, 3...Midway point between the top opening and bottom of the test tube, 4...Bending point.
5... Liquid level of the culture solution in the test tube, 6... Upper bent part of the test tube, 7... Lower bent part of the test tube, 8...
Upper outer frame of test tube, 9... Middle outer frame of test tube, 10... Lower outer frame of test tube, 11... Upper test tube gripping frame of test tube, 12... Middle outer frame of test tube. Middle test tube gripping frame, 13...wire mesh for holding the bottom of the test tube stand, 14...breathable test tube stopper, α...angle formed by the upper and lower bent parts of the test tube.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] 1. The test tube is characterized by having a bending point 4 closer to the opening than the intermediate point 3 between the upper opening 1 and the bottom 2, and being bent in a dogleg shape. Test tube for shaking culture. 2. The shaking culture test tube according to claim 1, wherein the length of the upper bent portion 6 from the upper opening 1 to the bending point 4 is greater than the diameter of the opening. 3. The test tube for shaking culture according to claim 1, wherein the bent angle α of the dogleg shape is 110° to 160°.