Documentation
How this documentation works
Before we dive into this documentation, let me have a word. This documentation is interactive and responsive. This means the following: I included a lot of example pages that change their layout with the screen size (just as the original pages will do) and that include some additional explanations. Basically, all the stuff that is highlighted in green gives you some further explanation once you hover over it.
If you still have questions after reading this documentation, feel free to ask me.
Table of contents #
Media components #
A medium generally consists of various building blocks, which we call solutions. Each medium contains at least one solution, but it can also contain over ten solutions. A solution, in turn, may contain ingredients as well as other solutions. In addition, solutions often contain instructions on how to prepare them and what to pay attention to.
The following is a brief explanation of the most important types of solutions.
Main solution
Each medium contains a main solution. It is the starting point for preparing a medium, always comes first in the recipe, and serves three important functions:
- The main solution contains all the steps, ingredients and solutions needed for the medium itself. For example, if a medium contains many solutions, they are gathered here and indicated in what quantities they are used. This is to simplify the preparation of the medium.
- Strain-specific adjustments are mainly made here. If a strain requires additional ingredients, they will be added to the recipe at this point. This is important because some other solutions are used for multiple media, but the customization is only for one specific strain. The main solution is unique for each medium.
- From the main solution, in turn, you can reach all other solutions. This is important for the calculation of the media composition, which is done automatically.
Normal
solutions
These are all other solutions that have no special role in BacMedia. They can be connected to many different media.
-
Medium-
Main solution-
Solutions-
|
|
-
|
|
-
Ingredients -
Steps
-
-
Meta data
-
Database structure #
The above structure resulted in the following database schema:

The medium overview page #
This page is the center piece of BacMedia. It displays basically every information we have for the selected medium, e.g. all corresponding solutions, the recipes, and instructions.
A toolbox on top helps you navigate through media or download the medium recipe as PDF. On the left-hand side, the medium recipe is listed. It consits of a list of all solutions needed to prepare this medium. This list starts with the main solution. From here on out, all other solutions and ingredients are listed, meaning if you want to prepare a medium, this is the right place to start. On the right-hand side, additional information is given, e.g. metadata on pH and media type, strains that grow on this medium, the final medium composition, cultivation metadata and the gas composition. If you have tipps or remarks for the medium, you can also leave a comment.
If you have questions regarding the media or the interface, feel free to contact me.
ExampleFind media based on components #
This tool helps you to find a medium based on its ingredients. You can also define concentration ranges for each compound. Only media that fulfill all your requirements are shown.
ExampleIn the following example, we are searching for all media containing 2 – 10 g/L glucose and any concentration of MgCl2:
Medium finder
Compound | Min. conc. | Max. conc. | Unit | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Glucose | 2 | 10 | ||
MgCl2 |
Search result
Your search received 7 results.
42: Medium name
Compound | Amount [g/L] | Concentration [mM] |
---|---|---|
Glucose | 1 | 5.55 |
MgCl2 | 10.5 | 110.0 |
100: Another medium
Compound | Amount [g/L] | Concentration [mM] |
---|---|---|
Glucose | 1.5 | 8.3 |
MgCl2 | 0.33 | 3.463 |
Find solutions with the solution finder #
This tool helps you to find a solution based on its ingredients. You find the button to toggle the Solution finder on the Solutions page in the toolbar on the top:
All solutions
When you click on this button, a modal opens. You can enter one to many different compound names that should appear in the solution. When you start typing, you get suggestions from all compounds we have in the database.
The result is a list of solutions filtered by your selection. On top you can find a list of ingredients that you used for filtering.
ExampleThe solution comparison tool #
Many solutions are referenced in more than one medium (e.g. Trace element solution SL-10). However, it often happens that solutions have the same name while their ingredients differ significantly. This tool should help, comparing two solutions with each other and depicting the differences at one glance.
Why is it useful to reference solutions instead of defining them over and over again?
Good question. On one hand, data redundancy is always not good since curation requires more work.
For example, if one common trace element solution changes, it has to be changed in many media recipes. To avoid this, the solutions are cross-referenced.
On the other hand, shared data allow more analysis possibilities. And if you create a new medium, you don't have to copy-paste established solutions in the document.
Compare Solutions
Ingredients
Steps
Used in the following media
Strain-mods #
ExampleCompare Solutions
Ingredients
Steps
Used in the following media
Download content #
There are multiple ways to download content from BacMedia. Where you find the download buttons and which formats are supported depends on the item you like to download.
Download a medium recipe
The most common use case is that you are searching for a media recipe because you want to cultivate a microorganism and need to prepare the medium in your lab. We got you covered! In the button toolbar on top of each medium recipe is a button named Download. This button will generate a PDF document from our database. You can save it on your computer or print it directly from the browser.
Download a solution recipe
In some cases you are only interested in one special solution. Maybe you want to test different trace element solutions? Whatever it is, there are two ways to download a solution: you can either click on the download button in the header of the solution (on the medium page), or download them directly from the solution search via the following steps:
- Click on the solution you are interested in to open the info box.
- On the right you find a button with a symbol.
- Choose a format to download the solution.
Solutions can be downloaded as PDF file (recommended for printing), CSV files (for MS Excel), or JSON files (for data scientists and other experienced users).
Download a molecular medium composition
If you are e.g. interested in metabolic modeling, you are likely not interested in media recipes. Instead, you might be more curious about the final medium compositions. In this case, you can check out the table on the right-hand side of each medium, named Molecular composition. You find all compounds and their weight (g/L) and molecular (mmol/L) composition here. And on top of that, you can also download the whole table as CSV or JSON file by using the buttons right beneath the table.
Download data using the API:
We also have a URL-based API for downloading content. The link is as the following:
https://bacmedia.dsmz.de/download/<type>/<id>/<format>
containing the following elements:
- type: defines what kind of item will be downloaded. Possible values are
composition
,solution
, ormedium
. - id: the database ID of the item that should be downloaded. Normally an integer value, except for medium IDs that can contain letters, e.g.
1194a
. - format: defines the format of the returned. Possible values depend on the type, e.g.
pdf
,json
, orcsv
.
Examples:
- Medium 194a as PDF: download/medium/194a/pdf
- Composition of medium 1 as CSV: download/composition/1/csv
- Trace element solution SL-10 (ID: 218) as JSON: download/solution/218/json
Link to BacMedia #
You want to link to BacMedia content or maybe even use content on your own side? Please contact us!
You can use our logo that exist in four different versions, with a normal appearance and one that is optimized for inline display, each one for dark and light backgrounds.