Proper streaking technique

[sp0rked]

What happened to sterilizing the loop/probe/prod between swipes?

Or does it matter at this point in isolation, since your trying to ISOLATE. it makes sense to clean your instrument between swipes... so you dont contaminate plate #3 with plate #2's transferred contents (assuming transfer with plate #1)

Or am I just doing it?

[tomoyo1chan1]

i thought u use a swab not that loop thing

[hamzie11]

@tomoyo1chan1 thats for confluent growth

[MulataLinda8]

why do u have to flame the loop between each quadrant?? I dunno if its because you are not under a hood, but we use sterile loops and do all quadrants with the same loop and if there are other plates we do those, too with the same loop., under a hood. dont get any contaminants

[kobald62]

@MulataLinda8 This streaking technique is for isolation so the goal is to thin out the bacteria as much as possible so that you can get individual colonies in the last quadrant of the plate. By flaming the loop between each section of streaks you can further minimize the amount of bacteria getting dragged over into the next quadrant. If you don't flame the loop you end up with big streaks of growth rather than individual colonies. Hope that helps...8 months later.

[basramap]

@MulataLinda8 You have to flame the loop between each quad because your initial pick of bacteria is very highly concentrated. When you finish your first quadrant you've diluted out that initial pick of inoculum. Then you flame to kill everything on your loop. Then you begin the second quad diluting it out further. Then flame (or get a new sterile loop) to dilute out further, and after your incubation you'll see diluted/isolated colonies in your most dilute quadrant: quad 4 :)

[ccfile]

How interesting! Which school is this?