English

Noun

preculture ‎(plural precultures)

1. (biology) A preliminary culture; a culture prepared in advance of the main experiment
   • 2008 December 5, Ulf Riebesell et al., “Comment on "Phytoplankton Calcification in a High-CO₂ World"”, in Science, volume 322, number 5907:

     Second, some of the precultures used by Iglesias-Rodriguez et al., particularly those in high-CO₂ treatments, may have experienced nutrient limitation at the time of transfer to the experimental flasks.

Verb

preculture ‎(third-person singular simple present precultures, present participle preculturing, simple past and past participle precultured)

1. (biology) To culture in advance, such as before the main phase of an experiment
   • 2001, T.B. Darr & A. Hubel, “Postthaw Viability of Precultured Hepatocytes”, in Cryobiology, volume 42, number 1:

     For fresh, nonfrozen hepatocytes precultured for 24 h prior to being plated on collagen, the albumin secretion rate was 0.88 ± 0.62 mg/ml/h.