Lab 1.1: Safety

Question 1

what is an inoculation tube?

Answer 1

nichrome wire and handle

Question 2

how do you sterilize the inoculation tube?

Answer 2

hold vertically in hottest part of flame until red hot

Question 3

how to clean up a bacterial spill

Answer 3

1. cover aqueous media with glass/paper towel
2. soak in disinfectant for 20 min
3. use broom to sweep up broken glass into sharps
4. appropriate decontamination

Question 4

what method is used to transfer bacteria without contamination?

Answer 4

aseptic transfer

Question 5

what does the process of aseptic transfer involve?

Answer 5

moving a small amount of inoculum to a new sterile medium

Question 6

outline the steps of aseptic transfer (7)

Answer 6

1. decontaminate and sterilize
2. cool inoculating instrument
3. pass mouth of sterile tube through flame
4. inoculate (careful not to touch walls)
5. flick culture tube to suspend bacteria
6. pass mouth of tube through flame again
7. flame loop

Question 7

why does the inoculating instrument need to cool before being used to collect broth culture?

Answer 7

heat will kill bacteria and create aerosols

Question 8

why flick/swirl a culture tube before inoculating?

Answer 8

to evenly distribute bacteria

Question 9

what is different about the inoculation technique in broth culture from solid agar?

Answer 9

in agar, the loop is used to draw zig-zags on surface of agar

Question 10

slant culture form a solid growth ___

Answer 10

streak

Question 11

does a growth streak or a broth culture have a higher concentration of bacteria?

Answer 11

slant cultures

Question 12

should you drop or drag loop over agar surface to get sample of bacteria?

Answer 12

drop

Question 13

how should you dislodge solid culture from a loop in a broth?

Answer 13

swirl (dont touch to side)