Identifying Bacterial Growth Essay Assignment

Identifying Bacterial Growth Essay Assignment

This experiment was about isolating a single bacterial colony from a soil sample and identifying which genus it belongs in. This is especially important for functions such as agriculture, as knowing whether a specific soil has a high concentration of nutrient producing bacterium is essential to being able to harvest good crops. Another key component of soil bacterium, is that they tend to be high in nutrient recycling organisms. As well there tends to be a high number of varying phylum in soil bacterium that was previously unknown, as in 2003 Joseph et al. managed to isolate 350 different bacterium which were assigned into 9 different phyla. As well approximately 27% of the isolated bacterium belonged to unnamed families, and were located in very poorly studied phyla. (Joseph et al. 2003)

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Identifying Bacterial Growth Methods:

The experiment began by subculturing a bacterial colony identified from a myriad of soil bacterium isolated in an agar plate. Then this bacterial colony was observed through a microscope, as well as tested for whether it was gram positive or gram negative. Then the bacterium was re-cultured into varying solutions to test for specific nutrient use. Identifying Bacterial Growth Essay Assignment. First it was subcultured onto an agar plate rich in starch, incubated, and tested for starch hydrolysis via the use of lugol’s iodine, to see if there was starch remaining in the area of the bacterial colony. Then a deep rich in sulfur was inoculated with the bacterium, and observed for whether motility was displayed, or whether hydrogen sulphide was produced. Then the bacterium was inoculated in a peptone broth, to test for production of ammonia, through the addition of Nessler’s Reagent, an ammonium sulphate broth and a nitrite broth, to test for the ability to nitrify compounds using Nessler’s reagent; Trommdorf’s Reagent; diphenylamine; and Sulfuric acid, and a nitrate broth to test for the ability to denitrify compounds using indicated reagents. Then the bacterium was placed into a thioglycollate medium to test the oxygen tolerance of the bacterium. Next the bacterium was subcultured onto a normal agar plate, to test for the presence of catalase and oxidase. Finally the bacterium was subcultured on plates with varying NaCl concentrations, and inoculated in tubes of varying pH’s and tubes with varying temperatures. (Robertson and Egger, 2010). Identifying Bacterial Growth Essay Assignment.