Breath-taking Bacteria growth!!!

Thursday May 16, 2013

Lab day: #3

            Today, we three looked again at our streak plate for a pure colony. The reason for the streak plate is to spread out the bacteria so as to isolate an individual colony for accurate identification. Luckily, we did obtain ONE pure colony from the “Love Potion.” Wahoo!

            By getting a pure colony, we were able to identify specific characteristics of our bacteria and come even closer to positively identifying it.

            Our bacteria has the following characteristics:

           

FORM: Filamentous

            PIGMENTATION: Between rose and red

            MARGIN: Entire

            ELEVATION: Raised

            APPEARANCE OF SURFACE: Smooth and glistening

            AGAR SLANT: Filiform

            BROTH MEDIUM: Sediment

Next, we tried to once again collect a sample from an outside source to see what kind of bacteria would grow from them. We believe that the medium in the bottom of the petri dish was contaminated or defective the first times we tried to collect bacteria, so we were compelled to try it again. We collected from a dollar bill, a penny, an IPhone, and an ID card. We are pretty sure that we are going to have some kind of visible results next lab session.

Dr. Pathakamuri took another group’s bacteria and spread bacteria-eating virus on it in the form of “JMJ.” Viruses can be classified into several forms, one of which is a bacteriophage: a virus-eating bacterium. We will be able to see what happens next lab.

YAY!  Sucess!

Growth in both the slant-tube and in the broth culture

Our lovely pure culture

Dr. P looking at our culture

Under the microscope

Swabbing for bacteria

More bacteria!

The clear spots are plaque where the viral bacteriophage has destroyed the bacteria

Friday, May 17, 2013

Lab day: #4

Breathtaking Bacteria Growth

            Welcome back! Today, I must admit that we did not complete much in the lab. We checked our outside samples we collected but didn’t find any growth, so we placed it back inside the incubator in hopes that Monday we will find something. Fingers crossed!

            We also checked another sample of our fuchsia bacteria. Our brave fellow nursing students across the lab bench decided to smell their bacteria samples…let’s just say that they experienced quite a breathtaking noseful!