Abstract

Studies to increase the recoverability of antagonistic bacterial strains carried out from soft coral species Sinularia was cultured in a varied combination of low to high nutrient media. Each of the media was supplemented with sodium pyruvate. This study was aimed to find out whether the addition of sodium pyruvate to all solid media could significantly increase the recovery of microbes. Microorganisms on maltose amended seawater agar (2.1±0.1X10⁴), followed by Free Lunch Medium (0.98±0.07X10⁴) and OLIGO medium (1.61±0.4X10⁴) which were highly recovered in the supplemented media than in non-supplemented media. These findings suggest that the addition of sodium pyruvate to solid growth and isolation media may improve recoverability of microorganisms from soft coral. The results also indicated that the higher percentage of the antagonistic bacteria was found on supplemented media when compared to that of the non-supplemented media. Hence, the highest percentage of antagonistic bacteria was found to be exhibited by the supplemented media of MA+SE media, which are isolated from  Sinularia sp. was (24.89%).

Key words: Improved recoverability, antagonistic, sodium pyruvate, Sinularia sp.