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Solid and Semi-Solid Media: Discussion: Transfer Culture Inoculation

This document discusses growing bacterial cultures on solid and semi-solid media. Solid media like agar plates allow viewing of colonial characteristics but cultures dry out quickly. Agar slants and stabs allow longer term growth, with viability from weeks to months when refrigerated. Students will apply aseptic techniques to grow and maintain bacterial cultures, and evaluate motility by observing growth along stab lines in semi-solid agar. Motile bacteria will disperse cloudily from stab lines while non-motile bacteria only grow along the line.

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Leena Muniandy
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106 views

Solid and Semi-Solid Media: Discussion: Transfer Culture Inoculation

This document discusses growing bacterial cultures on solid and semi-solid media. Solid media like agar plates allow viewing of colonial characteristics but cultures dry out quickly. Agar slants and stabs allow longer term growth, with viability from weeks to months when refrigerated. Students will apply aseptic techniques to grow and maintain bacterial cultures, and evaluate motility by observing growth along stab lines in semi-solid agar. Motile bacteria will disperse cloudily from stab lines while non-motile bacteria only grow along the line.

Uploaded by

Leena Muniandy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DISCUSSION:

transfer culture inoculation

Solid and semi-solid media


Growing cultures of bacteria on solid media (agar plate or slant) permits us to view
and identify colonial characteristics, and also provides a way to separate bacteria in a
mixed culture. Cultures grown on agar plates usually don’t survive for long, since
Petri dish lids are not tight fitting and the media (and bacteria) dehydrate. Cultures
grown on agar plates should always be handled “bottom-up” to prevent condensation
—which often accumulates on the lid of the dish during incubation—from dripping
down on the culture.

Bacteria may be grown in agar slant or stab media in tubes if the purpose is to
maintain them in a longer term culture. Generally, bacteria grown on slants will
remain viable for a few weeks to a few months, and sometimes longer if stored in a
refrigerator.

In this laboratory, you will be introduced to aseptic techniques and basic lab skills
needed to grow and maintain bacteria in culture. You will be applying these skills
often, so mastery is important.

Look closely along the stab line in the media in the tube. Do you see evidence of
bacterial growth? If yes, describe and/or sketch how it appears.

Semisolid agar of the type used in this exercise can be used as a way to evaluate if a
bacteria is motile, meaning in possession of one or more flagella that facilitates
movement through liquids or semisolids. The way to evaluate motility is to look
closely at the line of inoculation you created when the tube was stabbed. Nonmotile
bacteria will grow along the stab line only. If they are motile, they will be able to
move through the semisolid agar (like swimming through jello), and you won’t be
able to see a distinct line in the agar—just cloudiness surrounding the stab line.

 Based on your observation of the bacteria in the stab culture, is there evidence
that the bacteria are motile?
 For bacteria, the ability to move (motility) requires that they have which
specific cellular structure?

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