Cultivation of Bacteria

Cultivation/Culturing of Bacteria
• A microbial culture, is a method of
multiplying microorganisms by letting them
reproduce in predetermined culture
media under controlled laboratory conditions.

• Microbial cultures are used to determine the

type of organism, its abundance in the sample
being tested, or both.
 Purpose of culturing
• Isolation of bacteria.
• Properties of bacteria i.e. culturing bacteria is the initial step
in studying its morphology and its identification.
• Maintenance of stock cultures.
• Estimate viable counts.
• To test for antibiotic sensitivity.
• To create antigens for laboratory use.
• Certain genetic studies and manipulations of the cells also
need that bacteria to be cultured in vitro.
• Culturing on solid media is another convenient way of
separating bacteria in mixture.
 Culture Media
An artificial culture media must provide similar environmental
and nutritional conditions that exist in the natural habitat of a
bacterium.
A culture medium contains water, a source of carbon & energy,
source of nitrogen, trace elements and some growth factors.
The pH of the medium must be set accordingly.

Uses:
 Enrich the number of bacteria.
 Select for certain bacteria and suppress others.
 Differentiate among different kinds of bacteria.
 Pure culture
• In the laboratory bacteria are isolated and
grown in pure culture in order to study the
functions of a particular specie.
• A pure culture is a population of cells or
growing in the absence of other species or
types. A pure culture may originate from a
single cell or single organism, in which case
the cells are genetic clones of one another.
• Pure cultures are obtained by using variety of special
techniques. All glassware, media and instruments
must be sterilized i.e. aseptic techniques are used for
obtaining pure cultures.
• Basic requirement for obtaining a pure culture are
solid medium, a media container that can be
maintained in an aseptic condition and a method to
separate individual cell.
• A single bacterium, supplied with right nutrients, will
multiply on the solid medium in a limited area to
form a colony, which is a mass of cells all descended
from the original one.
Agar
• Agar, a polysaccharide extracted from marine algae,
is used to solidify a specific nutrient solution.
• Unlike other gelling agent, it is not easily degraded
by many bacteria.
• It is not easily destroyed at higher temperatures, and
therefore it can be sterilized by heating, the process
which also liquefies it.
• Once solidified, agar medium will remain solid until

 The culture media is contained in a Petri dish, a two

part, glass or plastic covered container.
 Classification of Culture Media

• Bacterial culture media can be classified in at

least three ways.
1. Consistency
2. Nutritional component
3. Functional use
 Classification based on consistency
1. Liquid media.
2. Solid media.
3. Semi solid media.
 Classification based on consistency:
A. Liquid media: These are available for use in test-tubes, bottles or flasks.
Liquid media are sometimes referred as “broths” (e.g nutrient broth). In
liquid medium, bacteria grow uniformly producing general turbidity. No
agar is added. Mostly used for inoculums preparation.

B. Solid media: An agar plate is a Petri dish that contains a growth medium
(typically agar plus nutrients) used to culture microorganisms. 2% of
agar is added. Agar is the most commonly used solidifying agent. Colony
morphology, pigmentation, hemolysis can be appreciated. Examples
include Nutrient agar and Blood agar.

C. Semi-solid media: Such media are fairly soft and are useful in
demonstrating bacterial motility and separating motile from non-motile
strains. Examples of Semi-solid media (Hugh & Leifson’s oxidation
fermentation). 0.5% agar is added.
Classification based on Nutritional
Components

1. Simple media.
2. Complex media.
3. Synthetic or chemically defined media.
 Classification based on Nutritional Components
1. Simple media: Simple media such as peptone water, nutrient agar can
support most non-fastidious bacteria. It is also called as basal media. Eg:
NB, NA. Nutrient Broth consists of peptone, yeast extract and NaCl.
When 2% of agar is added to Nutrient Broth it forms Nutrient agar.

2. Complex media. Media other than basal media are called complex
media. They have special ingredients in them for the growth of
microorganisms. These special ingredients like yeast extracts or casein
hydrolysate, which consists of a mixture of many chemicals in an
unknown proportion.

3. Synthetic media/Chemically defined media: Specially prepared media

for research purposes where the composition of every component is
well known. It is prepared from pure chemical substances. Eg: peptone
water (1% peptone + 0.5% NaCl in water).
3.Classification based on Functional Use or
Application

1. Enriched media.
2. Selective media.
3. Differential media.
4. Transport media.
5. Indicator media.
6. Anaerobic media.
Classification based on Functional Use or Application
1. Enriched media :
• Addition of extra nutrients in the form blood, serum, egg yolk
etc to basal medium makes them enriched media.
• Media used to isolate pathogens from a mixed culture.
• Stimulate growth of desired bacterium and inhibit growth of
unwanted bacterium
• Media is incorporated with inhibitory substances to suppress
the unwanted organism, thus increase in numbers of desired
bacteria.
Examples of Enriched media: Chocolate agar Blood agar.
• Selenite F Broth – for the isolation of Salmonella, Shigella.
• Tetrathionate Broth – inhibit coliforms .
• Alkaline Peptone Water – for Vibrio cholerae.
• Chocolate Agar • Chocolate agar - is a non-selective,
enriched growth medium used for growing fastidious
bacteria, such as Haemophilus influenzae .

• Blood Agar • Blood agar plate (BAP) Contains

mammalian blood (usually sheep or horse), typically
at a concentration of 5– 10%. BAP are enriched,
differential media used to isolate fastidious
organisms and detect hemolytic activity.
2. Selective media:
• The inhibitory substance is added to a solid media
thus causing an increase in number of colonies of
desired bacterium.
• Selective media and enrichment media are designed
to inhibit unwanted commensal or contaminating
bacteria and help to recover pathogen from a
mixture of bacteria.
• Any agar media can be made selective by addition of
certain inhibitory agents that don’t affect the
pathogen. To make a medium selective include
addition of antibiotics, dyes, chemicals, alteration of
pH or a combination of these.
Examples of Selective media :
• Thayer Martin Medium selective for Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

• EMB agar is selective for gram-negative bacteria. The dye

methylene blue in the medium inhibits the growth of gram-
positive bacteria; small amounts of this dye effectively inhibit
the growth of most gram-positive bacteria.

• Campylobacter Agar (CAMPY) is used for the selective

isolation of Campylobacter jejuni.
EMB agar Campylobacter
agar
3. Differential Media
• Certain media are designed in such a way that different
bacteria can be recognized on the basis of their colony color.
Various approaches include incorporation of dyes, metabolic
substrates etc, so that those bacteria that utilize them appear
as differently colored colonies. Substances incorporated in it
enable it to distinguish between bacteria.

Example of differential media: MacConkey’s agar, CLED agar,

XLD agar etc.
• XYLOSE LYSINE DEOXYCHOLATE AGAR • XLD is used as a
selective and differential medium for the recovery of
Salmonella and Shigella species.
• CYSTEINE LACTOSE ELECTROLYTE DIFFECIENT AGAR • C.L.E.D.
Agar is a non selective solid medium for cultivation of
pathogens from urine specimens. Lack of salts (electrolytes)
inhibits swarming of Proteus spp.

• MacConkey Agar culture medium designed to grow Gram-

negative bacteria and differentiate them for lactose
fermentation. It contains bile salts (to inhibit most Gram-
positive bacteria), crystal violet dye (which also inhibits
certain Gram-positive bacteria). Lactose fermenters – Pink
colonies and Non lactose fermenters – colourless colonies.
Mac’Conkey Agar C.L.E.D Agar
Growth of pathogenic E.coli on CLED agar
4. Transport Media
• Clinical specimens must be transported to the laboratory immediately
after collection to prevent overgrowth of contaminating organisms or
commensals. Delicate organisms may not survive the time taken for
transporting the specimen without a transport media. This can be
achieved by using transport media.
Transport media should fulfill the following criteria:
• Temporary storage of specimens being transported to the laboratory for
cultivation.
• Maintain the viability of all organisms in the specimen without altering
their concentration.
• Contain only buffers and salt.
• Lack of carbon, nitrogen, and organic growth factors so as to prevent
microbial multiplication.
• Transport media used in the isolation of anaerobes must be free of
molecular oxygen.
Example of Transport media:

• Cary Blair medium for campylobacter species.

• Alkaline peptone water medium for vibrio cholerae.
• Stuart’s medium – non nutrient soft agar gel
containing a reducing agent & charcoal used for
Gonnococci.
• Buffered glycerol saline for enteric bacilli.
5. Indicator Media

• Contains an indicator which changes its color when a

bacterium grows in them.

• Eg: Wilson-Blair medium – S. typhi forms black

colonies.
• McLeod’s medium (Potassium tellurite)– Diphtheria
bacilli.
• Urease media: Urea → CO2 + NH3.
NH3 → Medium turns pink
6. Anaerobic media
• Anaerobic bacteria need special media for growth
because they need low oxygen content, reduced
oxidation –reduction potential and extra nutrients.
• Media for anaerobes may have to be supplemented
with nutrients like hemin and vitamin K.
• Boiling the medium serves to expel any dissolved
oxygen.
Example of Anaerobic media:
• Thioglycollate medium.
Thioglycollate medium
Culture Methods
 Culture Methods
• Streak culture
• Lawn culture
• Stroke culture
• Stab culture
• Pour plate method
 Streak culture
Used for the isolation of bacteria in pure culture from clinical
specimens.
• Platinum wire is used.
• One loop full of the specimen is transferred onto the surface
of a well dried plate.
• Spread over a small area at the periphery.
• The inoculum is then distributed thinly over the plate by
streaking it with a loop in a series of parallel lines in different
segments of the plate.
• On incubation, separated colonies are obtained over the last
series of streaks.
 Lawn Culture
• Provides a uniform surface growth of the bacterium.
• Lawn cultures are prepared by flooding the surface
of the plate with a liquid suspension of the
bacterium
• Uses
– For bacteriophage typing.
– Antibiotic sensitivity testing.
– In the preparation of bacterial antigens and vaccines.
Stroke Culture
• Stroke culture is made
in tubes containing
agar slope / slant.

Uses:
Provides a pure growth
of bacterium for slide
agglutination and other
diagnostic tests.
 Stab Culture
Prepared by puncturing a suitable medium –
gelatin or glucose agar with a long, straight,
charged wire.
Uses
– Demonstration of gelatin liquefaction.
– Oxygen requirements of the bacterium under
study.
– Maintenance of stock cultures.
 Pour Plate Culture

• 1 ml of the innoculum is added to the molten agar.

• Mix well and pour to a sterile Petri dish.
• Allow it to set.
•
depth of the medium.
Uses:
– Gives an estimate of the viable bacterial count in a
suspension.
– For the quantitative urine cultures.