Deb Wessels is wrong - HL5 was developed before Harvey started working 
with Dicty. (~ 1976)
Marcus is wrong - I would know if the L stood for Loomis.
I have a hazy memory that HL stands for Heavy/Light - but it might have 
come down from Balmouth's medium.

Several years ago Dictybase was also interested in this question - see 
http://dictybase.org/strain_history.htm

In 1966 DdB was inoculated into Balmouth's medium optimized for growth 
of Naegleria. It had embryo extract and calf serum in it. Ax1 grew out 
of this after several months.
Watts and Ashworth did not sub-culture Ax-1 to get Ax-2 as stated on 
Dictybase, but selected Ax-2 from an NC-4 inoculum after multiple serial 
dilution in serum/embryo extract free HL5.
In 1971 I referred to the medium in which I selected AX3 as HL5.


Bill






On 1/22/14 12:34 PM, Knecht, David wrote:
> I am in Dicty intro teaching mode and wondered if anyone knew who coined the term HL5 (the first reference I have found so far called it HL/5) and what the HL stands for?  Bonus points for inaccurate but humorous answers.  Cheers- Dave
>
> David Knecht, Ph.D.
> Professor and Head of Core Microscopy Facility
> Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
> U-3125
> 91 N. Eagleville Rd.
> University of Connecticut
> Storrs, CT 06269
> 860-486-2200
> 860-486-4331 (fax)
>
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