MICRB 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Gelidium, Microorganism, Polysaccharide
Document Summary
Soil, human mouth) contain microbes in complex associations. To maintain and keep track of such small research subjects, microbiologists usually have to grow them under artificial (and thus distorting) conditions. Microbes are everywhere, and undesirable ones can be introduced into your experiment, causing misleading results. Observable growth visible in the medium is the culture. Clinical specimens for determining cause of infectious disease are obtained from bodily fluids, discharges, anatomical sites, or diseased tissue. Other specimens are soil, water, sewage, foods, air, and inanimate objects (2) incubation: container of medium is placed in a temperature-controlled chamber (incubator) to encourage multiplication. Can control gases such as oxygen and co2. Growth in liquid medium materializes as cloudiness, sediment, scum, or color. Growth on solid media is the appearance of colonies (3) isolation: requires that a small number of cells be inoculated into a relatively large volume or over a large area of medium.
