In Bacterial Growth, why don't you combine several tests simultaneously? look inside for more info..?

Question

Why don't you combine several tests simultaneously? (Plain agar, 3% NaCl, 22 degrees at the same time)

Answer 1

Hi:
Yes, you can combine all factors in one plate if you want them. This would make the media selective due to the high salt, favoring salt-tolerant bacteria like Staph, but the combo of low temperature and high salt would lead to very slow growth even for salt tolerant bacteria. Are you looking to isolate bacteria of some specific genus?
If you want to characterize bacteria, then combining tests like these is not advisable, especially if you get a negative result since you cannot attribute it to any one factor. You can, however combine tests if the results of each test is clearly distinguishable, like say in TSI agar.
Can you give us more info on what exactly you wanna do?

Answer 2

Because all bacteria are not the same. Each species have an optimum environment were they can grow really happy. Though they have some tolerance for different factors that can affect bacterial growth such as Water, Temperature, pH, and Oxygen.

You can definnetly run simultanous tests, as long as is not in the same agar plate. It also depends on the species you are running the test on and what you are looking for.

Answer 3

you can do that but it may not tell you much. If you got growth all it would tell you is that it could survive on no food is tolerant to cold temp and is a halophile. It is better to plate strains in separate tests because if you don't get any growth you can tell why.
if it grows on a the plate w/ NaCl it cannot tolerate the salt. etc

Answer 4

If you combine them and you have growth (or lack of, whatever you're looking for), you won't be able to tell which factor caused it. By having the tests separately, you can pinpoint exactly what was the cause of growth/no growth.