What are the 3 types of agar plates we can use for identifying specific bacteria species?

Types of Agar Plates

• Blood Agar Plates. Blood agar plates (BAP) are made by adding five to ten percent sheep or horse blood to the nutrient medium.
• Nutrient Agar Plates. Nutrient agar grows the largest variety of microbes, typically fungi and bacteria.
• MacConkey Agar Plates.
• Other Kinds of Agar Plates.

What are the different agar plates used for?

Types of agar plates

• Blood agar – contains blood cells from an animal (e.g. a sheep).
• Chocolate agar – this contains lysed blood cells, and is used for growing fastidious (fussy) respiratory bacteria.
• Neomycin agar – contains the antibiotic neomycin.
• Sabouraud agar – used for fungi.

Why is agar used to grow bacteria?

Agar is an ideal solidifying agent for microbiological media because of its melting properties and because it has no nutritive value for the vast majority of bacteria. These bacteria would eventually grow and flourish if the medium were not sterilized, that is, if these unwanted microbes were not destroyed.

What is agar and why is it used in microbiology?

Agar is commonly used in the laboratory to help feed and grow bacteria and other microorganisms. It acts as a culture that provides nutrients and a place for these items to grow, but since it is indigestible to the microorganisms, they cannot eat and destroy it.

Why is agar medium used in petri dishes?

Agar plates are the standard solid support material for growing microorganisms. Microbial growth media contains nutrients and an energy source to fuel the microbes as they grow, and agar to keep the media in a semi-solid, gel-like state.

Why is agar used for growing bacteria?

What three characteristics are bacteria classified?

There are three notable common traits of bacteria, 1) lack of membrane-bound organelles, 2) unicellular and 3) small (usually microscopic) size.

How do you identify bacteria on a petri dish?

Bacteria. Each distinct circular colony should represent an individual bacterial cell or group that has divided repeatedly. Being kept in one place, the resulting cells have accumulated to form a visible patch. Most bacterial colonies appear white, cream, or yellow in color, and fairly circular in shape.

What are the different types of agar?

These types of agar include blood agar, which is made from sheep’s blood; and chocolate agar, which is a blood agar containing additives that help fastidious bacteria, or bacteria with greater environmental and nutritional requirements, to grow.

Why are agar plates used?

Agar plates are used to grow microorganisms in the lab. The plates are often stored in the refrigerator, which can cause condensation on the lid. Agar plates should be kept inverted whenever possible to prevent water from dripping onto the agar surface.

Why is agar used in Culture Media?

Agar is used to gel bacteriological broths (liquid media) to form slants, and to avoid sloushing so oxygen can’t easily get to the bottom of the medim. Agar is obtained from seaweeds called kelps. There are many different grades of agar and most were developed for use in human food.

What are the different types of media in microbiology?

Different types of media are used for growing different types of cells. The two major types of growth media are those used for cell culture, which use specific cell types derived from plants or animals, and microbiological culture, which are used for growing microorganisms, such as bacteria or fungi.