NAME; FABIAN OSIR OTIENO

REG NUMBER; PS32/00154/21

COURSE; BSC. LABORATORY SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL; KISII UNIVERSITY MAIN CAMPUS
UNIT; BIOTECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS
UNIT CODE; BSLT 334
PHONE NUMBER; 0795172798
EMAIL; FABIANSOIR321@GMAIL.COM

TOPIC: BASIC CULTURING OF MICROORGANISMS

Introduction

 Culturing involves multiplying microorganisms in a controlled way and under laboratory

conditions. In order for culturing to work, scientists must be able to mimic the
environmental conditions needed for these microorganisms to not only survive but also
grow in a lab setting. Everything the microorganism needs must be provided and
controlled to optimized standards. Conditions that must be controlled for successful
microbial cultures include:

1. Temperature
2. pH
3. Sterility
4. Nutrients

Methods of culturing microorganisms

The two most common methods of growing cultures are using nutrient broths in sterile flasks
or agar gel plates. Nutrient broth and agar gel are different in the way that to make the gel
media you simply add agar to nutrient broth, melt it and it solidifies in a petri dish.

 Nutrient Broth Solution: A solution that contains carbohydrates for energy, nitrogen for
protein synthesis as well as other minerals to provide optimum conditions for
microorganism growth.
 Agar plate: Bacteria are spread on plates made by pouring hot molten agar into sterile
Petri dishes, which then sets. The bacteria form colonies on the agar surface.
Steps in colonizing bacteria

 The sample is poured onto the culture medium.

 The sample is spread evenly on the culture medium.
 The plate is incubated (kept warm) until bacteria colonies grow on the surface of the
medium/agar.
5 I's of culturing microorganisms

 Inoculation
 Incubation
 Isolation
 Inspection
 Identification
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