BIO250L Lab 2 Culturing & Aseptic Technique

1. Proper aseptic technique is crucial to ensuring growth of pure bacterial colonies. What is one experimental way you can test your practices to confirm that you are using proper aseptic technique? One experimental way to test if you are practicing correct aseptic technique would be to create a control petri dish or stab tube. Monitor the control dish or tube regularly over the next few days to see if any bacterial colonies have grown. If you do see colonies growing, then proper aseptic technique was not conducted. 2. In a laboratory setting, what are three ways you can properly sterilize culturing equipment? a. Dry heat over (a flame or electronic sterilizer) and wet heat (an autoclave machine) b. UV radiation c. Chemical solvents 3. For each inoculation tool, give one scenario in which use of that tool would be appropriate. a. Inoculation loop – used to scrape the microbes and transfer them from one plate to another b.Inoculation needle – used to transfer microbes from one area to another – such as from the plate to the stab tube. c.Sterile cotton swabs – used to collect samples directly from the source to the surface of a plate