MLAB 225

Clinical Bacteriology
Laboratory

Cultivation of Microorganisms:
Use of differential, selective
and enriched media

Raymond El-Hajj, M.Sc.

Why Cultivating Microorganisms?

Culturing clinical specimens in non-selective

and selective medium is done routinely in
order to isolate and differentiate
microorganisms.
Cultural Characteristics of
Bacteria
 BAP

Types of Culture Media

Nonselective Culture CHOC

Media

Thio

MHA
Types of Culture Media LJM Mac

Selective Differential
Culture Media
MSA / Chap CHROM

SSA
Sab
 Types of Culture Media
Specialized Culture Media
Experiment 1
Cultivation of Bacteria
Materials
• Microbiology Loop
• Bunsen Burner
• Sterile Blood Agar Plate
• MacConkey Agar
• Culture plate of Staphylococcus epidermidis
• Culture plate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Experiment 1
Cultivation of Bacteria
Procedure
• Working with agar plates is bit different than working with
media in tubes in that you have a wide lid instead of narrow
cap. This means there is a greater surface area of sterile media
that can be exposed to contaminations in the atmosphere. The
key is to keep as much of the lid over (covering) the open agar
plate as possible. Never set the lid down on the lab bench when
in an open contaminating environment.
• Appropriately label the bottom of each plate
• Blood agar (four quadrant)
• MacConkey agar (four quadrant)
• Using aseptic technique, inoculate the Blood agar and
MacConkey agar with the designed organism by making three-
or four-way streak of inoculation of each organism in its
appropriate section (check picture below). Be sure to close the
petri dish and flame the inoculating needle between
inoculations of the different organisms

Watch the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kPe8SFUROE
Experiment 1
Cultivation of Bacteria

Results
• Observe and describe the colonies and comment on
your inoculation technique
Thank You