Isolation of Bacteria (Pure Culture in a Streak Plate)

Today the class took the bacteria out of the fridge to see how much it had grown. We looked at them closer under a microscope as well. My bacteria that was isolated from my throat was white colonies and were raised off the agar plate like little half bumps. There were also a couple yellow colonies by the white colonies. This signifies at least two bacteria types on the plate. Since there is more than one type we needed to create a select one and create a pure culture of it. I chose to create a pure culture of the white bacteria since there was more of it. To create a pure culture we took a inoculating loop and sterilized it with a Bunsen burner. Than we took a swab of one type of bacteria from our petri dishes and created a streak plate. We split the plate into four quadrants and spread the bacteria in a clockwise manner until it was spread out in the petri dish in the four quadrants. The purpose of this was to isolate the bacteria and to make it a pure culture. Once the petri dish was properly spread we labeled it with the date, name and type of sample (environmental). It was than set in the incubator at 25 degrees Celsius.

Master Bacteria Sample (that we took bacteria from for the new streak plate)

The new sample should grow into individual colonies and thus isolate one type of bacteria for a pure culture. This is important because in one speck of bacteria on the plate there are actually millions of bacteria growing there. The spread plate technique also is useful because with each quadrant the bacteria sample becomes more spread out and more isolated.

A Look At The Bacteria Through A Microscope

Streaking The New Petri Dis

Separating The Petri Dish Into Quadrants

Dr. Joseph Sterilizing The Loop In Between Streaking

Hope You Enjoyed,

Annie B

Isolation Of Bacteria At FUS

Annie B's Throat Sample #1

Every student in our Medical Microbiology Course #217 collected a bacteria sample from the first floor of Cosmos & Damian at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Using cotton swabs, each student first dipped the swab in chicken broth and then swabbed an area where they thought interesting bacteria would accumulate. Some students chose bathroom door handles, some chose cell phones, others chose I.D. cards and one student even selected a mysterious boy's bike seat. I chose to do my sample on my own throat bacteria. Since I was placing the swab inside of my mouth, which is already moist with saliva and therefore the bacteria would adhere to the swab without a problem, I did not dip the swab into the chicken broth beforehand. Dr. Pathakamuri helped me swab the inside of my throat and than I rubbed the swab thoroughly into an agar plate and closed the lib. I then labeled the sample with my name, what the sample contained and the date of the sample. The sample was than stored at 25 degree Celsius.

The Test Tubes of Chicken Broth

This lab is interesting because I do not often think of the places where bacterium resides. The study of microbiology is based on the Greek words 'micros' meaning 'small' & 'bios' meaning 'life'. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbiology). This is fitting because the small life is everywhere in our daily lives yet because it is so tiny we do not fully appreciate the mystery of the microworld. This lab is also teaching me how to properly take a swab sample and to place it in a peteri dish and keep it as uncontaminated as possible. This procedure is important as nurses to take samples to test in the labs to test for bacteria that cause diseases such as to test for strep throat (caused by a baterium called streptococcus). This procedure is also necessary in order to begin to take a pure culture of bacteria and determine which bacterium actually causes which diseases and where in our daily world they are found!

Annie B Placing Bacteria From Swab Into A Peteri Dish

This lab was very enjoible and at the end we even took check swabs and looked at our check cells through a microscope!

Swabbing of The Throat



Cool Microbiology Websites I Found While Researching The Root Of The Word 'Microbiology':

Microbe World

The Microbe Zoo

Molecular Muse

and my personal favorite:

Microbe Kombat

Until My Next Bacteria Sighting,

Annie B

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