Lecture 10 - bacterial growth Flashcards
What is binary fission?
Method of bacteria division in which one parent cell splits into 2 equivalent daughter cells
When can a colony of bacteria be visually detected?
When the colony has around 10 thousand cells
Bacterial growth curve in a closed system
- Lag phase
- Log phase
- Stationary phase
- Death phase
Lag phase of bacterial growth curve
Bacteria are preparing their cell machinery for growth
Log phase of bacterial growth curve
Growth approximates an exponential curve (straight line on a logarithmic scale)
Stationary phase of bacterial growth curve
Resources run out. Cells stop growing, shut down growth machinery, and turn on stress responses to retain viability.
Death phase of bacterial growth curve
Cells die with a “half life” that approximates a negative exponential curve
What can happen to the environment as bacteria grow?
Bacteria can release waste product into the environment that change the conditions
Equation for bacterial growth by binary fission
Nt = N0 x 2^(t/td); td is the doubling/generation time of the population
What percentage of recognized bacteria can be cultured using routine lab growth media and conditions?
0.1-1%
Methods of isolation of individual bacteria/bacterial clones
- Streaking
- Serial dilution and plating
What is streaking?
Bacteria are streaked across the surface of an agar plate to spread the cells out into individuals. Inoculation loop is heat sterilized between streaks
Serial dilution and plating
Bacterial suspension is serial diluted and samples spread onto agar
How are bacterial cells counted?
- viable bacteria can be counted as colony forming units (cfu) using serial dilution and plating
- indirect counting by turbidity or optical density of broth cultures
- direct counting using Petroff-Hausser counting chambers
What are Petroff-Hausser counting chambers?
Specialized microscope slides with chambers of defined volue and a inscribed grid
Downside to direct counting using a Petroff-Hausser counting chamber?
Can’t tell if cells are alive or dead
Method to differentiate dead and alive bacteria?
Live/dead dye: acts like DAPI and gets into spaces in DNA
- if cell is alive, the stain won’t penetrate the cell and fluoresce
Types of growth media
- complex media
- synthetic media
- enriched media
- selective media
- differential media
Complex media
Nutrient rich media. Contents are poorly defined/not standardized