Bacterial culture

Bacterial culture is the laboratory growth of bacteria under controlled conditions. It enables their isolation, identification, quantification, and analysis.

Culture medium: A prepared nutrient environment that supports the growth of microorganisms. Its nutrients and physical properties shape which bacteria a culture can recover.
Clinical microbiology: The study of microorganisms that cause human disease and their role in diagnosis and treatment. Clinical laboratories use bacterial growth to investigate suspected infections.
Pure culture: A culture containing one microbial species or strain, without other growing organisms. Pure cultures help attribute observed traits to a single bacterial type.
Polymerase chain reaction: A laboratory method that amplifies selected DNA sequences for detection or analysis. PCR can detect bacterial DNA without waiting for organisms to grow.
Agar plate: A shallow dish containing solidified growth medium, used to grow and separate microorganisms. Separated colonies on its surface can be picked for further study.
Bacterial identification: The process of determining the identity of a bacterial isolate using its traits or molecular data. A pure culture makes tests of bacterial traits easier to interpret.
Bacterial growth: An increase in bacterial cell number through reproduction, usually by binary fission. Culture methods depend on bacterial multiplication under suitable conditions.
Metagenomics: The analysis of genetic material recovered directly from a mixed environmental or biological sample. It can characterize communities that culture conditions fail to recover.
Bacterial colony: A visible cluster of bacteria grown from one cell or a small group of cells. Colony appearance and isolation provide observable features of a culture.
Antimicrobial susceptibility testing: Laboratory testing that measures how susceptible microorganisms are to antimicrobial drugs. Cultured isolates can be tested to guide antibiotic choice.

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