





Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Prepare for your exams
Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points to download
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Community
Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts
Discover the best universities in your country according to Docsity users
Free resources
Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors
The fundamental aspects of microbial growth, including physical and chemical requirements, growth phases, and culture techniques. It covers topics such as temperature, pH, osmotic pressure, nutrients, and oxygen requirements for various bacterial groups. Additionally, it discusses culture media, selective and differential media, and enrichment culture methods.
What you will learn
Typology: Lecture notes
1 / 9
This page cannot be seen from the preview
Don't miss anything!
A. Psychrophiles : “Cold-loving”. Can grow at 0 oC. Two groups: u True Psychrophiles : Sensitive to temperatures over 20 oC. Optimum growth at 15oC or below. Found in very cold environments (North pole, ocean depths). Seldom cause disease or food spoilage. u Psychrotrophs : Optimum growth at 20 to 30oC. Responsible for most low temperature food spoilage.
B. Mesophiles : “Middle loving”. Most bacteria. u Include most pathogens and common spoilage organisms. u Best growth between 25 to 40oC. u Optimum temperature commonly 37oC. u Many have adapted to live in the bodies of animals.
C. Thermophiles : “Heat loving”. u Optimum growth between 50 to 60oC. u Many cannot grow below 45oC. u Adapted to live in sunlit soil, compost piles, and hot springs. u Some thermophiles form extremely heat resistant endospores. u Extreme Thermophiles (Hyperthermophiles): Optimum growth at 80oC or higher. Archaebacteria. Most live in volcanic and ocean vents.
4 Most bacteria prefer neutral pH (6.5-7.5). 4 Molds and yeast grow in wider pH range, but prefer pH between 5 and 6. 4 Acidity inhibits most microbial growth and is used frequently for food preservation (e.g.: pickling). 4 Alkalinity inhibits microbial growth, but not commonly used for food preservation. 4 Acidic products of bacterial metabolism interfere with growth. Buffers can be used to stabilize pH.
A. Acidophiles : “Acid loving”. u Grow at very low pH (0.1 to 5.4) u Lactobacillus produces lactic acid, tolerates mild acidity. B. Neutrophiles : u Grow at pH 5.4 to 8.5. u Includes most human pathogens. C. Alkaliphiles : “Alkali loving”. u Grow at alkaline or high pH (7 to 12 or higher) u Vibrio cholerae and Alkaligenes faecalis optimal pH 9. u Soil bacterium Agrobacterium grows at pH 12.
A. Hypertonicsolutions : High osmotic pressure removes water from cell, causing shrinkage of cell membrane (plasmolysis). Used to control spoilage and microbial growth. u Sugar in jelly. u Salt on meat. B. Hypotonic solutions : Low osmotic pressure causes water to enter the cell. In most cases cell wall prevents excessive entry of water. Microbe may lyse or burst if cell wall is weak.
B. Facultative Anaerobes : Can use oxygen, but can grow in its absence. Have complex set of enzymes. Examples : E. coli, Staphylococcus , yeasts, and many intestinal bacteria.
C. Obligate Anaerobes: Cannot use oxygen and are harmed by the presence of toxic forms of oxygen. Examples : Clostridium bacteria that cause tetanus and botulism.
D. Aerotolerant Anaerobes : Can’t use oxygen, but tolerate its presence. Can break down toxic forms of oxygen. Example : Lactobacillus carries out fermentation regardless of oxygen presence. E. Microaerophiles: Require oxygen, but at low concentrations. Sensitive to toxic forms of oxygen. Example : Campylobacter.
Toxic Forms of Oxygen:
1. Singlet Oxygen : Extremely reactive form of oxygen, present in phagocytic cells. 2. Superoxide Free Radicals (O 2 -.): Extremely toxic and reactive form of oxygen. All organisms growing in atmospheric oxygen must produce an enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) , to get rid of them. SOD is made by aerobes, facultative anaerobes, and aerotolerant anaerobes, but not by anaerobes or microaerophiles. Reaction : SOD O 2 -.^ + O 2 -.^ + 2H+^ -----> H 2 O 2 + O 2 Superoxide Hydrogen free radicals peroxide
3. Hydrogen Peroxide (H 2 O 2 ): Peroxide ion is toxic and the active ingredient of several antimicrobials (e.g.: benzoyl peroxide). There are two different enzymes that break down hydrogen peroxide: A. Catalase: Breaks hydrogen peroxide into water and O 2. Common. Produced by humans, as well as many bacteria. Catalase 2 H 2 O 2 ----------> 2H 2 O + O (^2) Hydrogen Gas peroxide Bubbles B. Peroxidase: Converts hydrogen peroxide into water. Peroxidase H 2 O 2 + 2H+----------> H 2 O Hydrogen peroxide
Culture Medium: Nutrient material prepared for
microbial growth in the laboratory.
Requirements:
4 Must be sterile
4 Contain appropriate nutrients
4 Must be incubated at appropriate temperature
Culture: Microbes that grow and multiply in or on a
culture medium.
Solid Media: Nutrient material that contains a solidifying agent (plates, slants, deeps). The most common solidifier is agar, first used by Robert Koch. Unique Properties of Agar: 4 Melts above 95oC. 4 Once melted, does not solidify until it reaches 40oC. 4 Cannot be degraded by most bacteria. 4 Polysaccharide made by red algae. 4 Originally used as food thickener (Angelina Hesse).
Chemically Defined Media: Nutrient material whose exact chemical composition is known. 4 For chemoheterotrophs, must contain organic source of carbon and energy (e.g.: glucose, starch, etc.). 4 May also contain amino acids, vitamins, and other important building blocks required by microbe. 4 Not widely used. 4 Expensive.
Complex Media: Nutrient material whose exact chemical composition is not known. 4 Widely used for heterotrophic bacteria and fungi. 4 Made of extracts from yeast, meat, plants, protein digests, etc. 4 Composition may vary slightly from batch to batch. 4 Energy, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur requirements are primarily met by protein fragments ( peptones ). 4 Vitamins and organic growth factors provided by meat and yeast extracts. 4 Two forms of complex media:
Anaerobic Growth Media: Used to grow anaerobes
that might be killed by oxygen. 4 Reducing media 4 Contain ingredients that chemically combine with oxygen and remove it from the medium. Example: Sodium thioglycolate
4 Tubes are heated shortly before use to drive off oxygen.
4 Plates must be grown in oxygen free containers (anaerobic chambers).
Special Culture Techniques: Used to grow bacteria with unusual growth requirements. 4 Bacteria that do not grow on artificial media :
Selective Media: Used to suppress the growth of unwanted bacteria and encourage the growth of desired microbes. 4 Saboraud’s Dextrose Agar: pH of 5.6 discourages bacterial growth. Used to isolate fungi. 4 Brilliant Green Agar : Green dye selectively inhibits gram-positive bacteria. Used to isolate gram-negative Salmonella. 4 Bismuth Sulfite Agar : Used to isolate Salmonella typhi. Inhibits growth of most other bacteria.
Logarithmic Representation of Bacterial Growth : We can express the number of cells in a bacterial generation as 2 n , where n is the number of doublings that have occurred.
Bacterial Growth Curve : When bacteria are inoculated into a liquid growth medium, we can plot of the number of cells in the population over time. Four phases of Bacterial Growth:
1. Lag Phase:
4 Period of adjustment to new conditions. 4 Little or no cell division occurs, population size doesn’t increase. 4 Phase of intense metabolic activity, in which individual organisms grow in size. 4 May last from one hour to several days.
Four phases of Bacterial Growth:
2. Log Phase: 4 Cells begin to divide and generation time reaches a constant minimum. 4 Period of most rapid growth. Number of cells produced > Number of cells dying 4 Cells are at highest metabolic activity. 4 Cells are most susceptible to adverse environmental factors at this stage. - Radiation - Antibiotics
Four phases of Bacterial Growth:
3. Stationary Phase: 4 Population size begins to stabilize. Number of cells produced = Number of cells dying 4 Overall cell number does not increase.
4 Cell division begins to slow down. 4 Factors that slow down microbial growth:
Four phases of Bacterial Growth:
4. Death or Decline Phase: 4 Population size begins to decrease. Number of cells dying > Number of cells produced 4 Cell number decreases at a logarithmic rate. 4 Cells lose their ability to divide. 4 A few cells may remain alive for a long period of time.
1. Plate count: 4 Most frequently used method of measuring bacterial populations. 4 Inoculate plate with a sample and count number of colonies. Assumptions : - Each colony originates from a single bacterial cell. - Original inoculum is homogeneous. - No cell aggregates are present. Advantages: - Measures viable cells Disadvantages: - Takes 24 hours or more for visible colonies to appear. - Only counts between 25 and 250 colonies are accurate. - Must perform serial dilutions to get appropriate numbers/plate.
Serial Dilutions are Used with the Plate Count Method to Measure Numbers of Bacteria
1. Plate count (continued): A. Pour Plate : 4 Introduce a 1.0 or 0.1 ml inoculuminto an empty Petri dish. 4 Add liquid nutrient medium kept at 50oC. 4 Gently mix, allow to solidify, and incubate. Disadvantages:
2. Filtration: 4 Used to measure small quantities of bacteria. - Example : Fecal bacteria in a lake or in ocean water. 4 A large sample (100 ml or more) is filtered to retain bacteria. 4 Filter is transferred onto a Petri dish. 4 Incubate and count colonies.