what is meant by a bacterial colony or colony forming unit?

Answer 1

If you've ever seen a Petri dish or an agar plate with bacteria growing in it it's the little round colonies that grow as the bacteria mulitply. Each colony was initially a single bacteria that multplied and grew this little circle. A colony forming unit is usually used to quantify the amount of bacteria in a sample. A known amount of sample is placed on the plate and spread out and grown. Then you can get an idea of how many colony forming units there are in one milliliter of (for example) urine.

Answer 2

A bacterial colony/ colony forming unit (CFU) are terms used in microbiology when describing the growth of bacteria. They are actually related in that a CFU refers to a single bacteria (unit) and colony refers to the group of bacteria which forms as the single bacteria grows.. This single bacteria grows/multiplies in a process called binary fission where the bacteria divides in half to form two identical bacteria. These 2 then divide to form 4, 4 -8, 8-16 etc. Many bacteria can divide like this every 20 minutes. Believe it or not this process can generate millions and millions of bacteria in a matter of hours. Therefore a single bacteria can go from an organism only visible with a microscope to a large colony on an agar plate visible with the naked eye - overnight! Therefore a bacterial colony is formed by a colony forming unit!

Answer 3

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what is meant by a bacterial colony or colony forming unit?

Answer 4

When we put bacterial cells in contact with the medium in a petri plate we expect the microscopic cells to multiply and ultimately form masses of cells visible to the naked eye. These macroscopic masses are called colonies, having been formed by cells which are able to utilize the nutrients in the medium under the conditions in which the plates are incubated.
When we observe colonies we cannot assume each arose from just one cell originally planted on the medium, however. A pair, chain or cluster of cells which 'land' on the medium in close proximity to each other can multiply and produce a single colony. Thus, we use the term colony-forming unit (or CFU) when we consider the common origin for the cells of any colony.

Answer 5

when you've smeared your bacteria culture onto
an agar plate, after a while in humid and warm temperatures

you'll notice spots where the bacteria is growing, that is known as a bacterial colony