Salt Tolerance of TIPTOPP Aquaculture Strains Over Time
The majority of TIPTOPP Aquaculture strains tested (TTA 1–5 and TTA 7) are salt tolerant up to at least 80 ppt, while TTA 6 remains viable up to 40 ppt. This broad tolerance range confirms the robustness of these strains for potential applications in diverse aquaculture environments, including high-salinity conditions. The contamination observed at 5 ppt underscores the importance of stringent aseptic protocols but does not impact the core finding that all strains exceed the minimum salt tolerance threshold.
A controlled laboratory study was conducted to assess the salt tolerance of seven individual TIPTOPP Aquaculture bacterial strains (TTA 1–7) using optical density (OD₆₀₀) measurements over 32 hours at varying salinities (5, 10, 20, 40, and 80 ppt). The test medium was LB broth (5 g/L NaCl baseline) supplemented with additional NaCl to reach target salinities, incubated at 30 °C with pH between 6.8–7.2.
Trial highlights
- All strains except TTA 6 demonstrated strong growth up to 80 ppt salinity.
- TTA 6 grew consistently up to 40 ppt, with reduced performance above this level.
- Samples at 5 ppt were excluded from analysis due to contamination; this did not affect interpretation as all strains tolerate salinity above 5 ppt.
- Flocculation was observed in most strains at 32 hours, which was taken as the experimental endpoint.
- Growth patterns indicated high adaptability of most strains to elevated salinity conditions.
