Culture Media Notes | Microbe Notes

Viral Transport Media (VTM)- Principle, Preparation, Uses, Limitations

October 11, 2020 by Anupama Sapkota

Viral Transport Media (VTM) Definition A viral transport media (VTM) is a nutrient substance used to carry and maintain the viability of specimens (viruses) to a laboratory for the identification and further processing of the sample. Transport media for viruses are especially important as they are more labile than other infectious agents. The probability of successful isolation increases when the …

Starch Casein Agar (SCA)- Composition, Principle, Preparation, Results

October 4, 2020October 1, 2020 by Anupama Sapkota

What is Starch casein agar (SCA)? Starch casein agar is a nutrient medium for the growth and cultivation of saccharolytic marine bacteria. Starch casein agar, as the name suggests, has starch has the primary source of carbohydrates. This media is primarily used for the isolation and cultivation of actinomycetes for various sources like soil and marine sediments. Starch Casein agar …

Blood Agar- Composition, Principle, Preparation, Uses with Hemolysis

October 1, 2020September 30, 2020 by Anupama Sapkota

Blood Agar- Composition, Principle, Preparation and Uses

What is Blood Agar? Blood Agar is an enriched medium provided with multiple nutrients that generally comes as a basal media for the preparation of blood agar by supplementation with blood. Blood Agar comes as a basal medium that can be used as it is as a general growth medium. The basal medium can be either Columbia Agar or Tryptic …

Nutrient agar- Principle, composition, preparation, results, uses

September 29, 2020September 29, 2020 by Anupama Sapkota

What is Nutrient agar? Nutrient agar is a basic culture medium commonly used for the culture of non-fastidious microorganisms, and for quality control and checking purity prior to biochemical or serological testing. Nutrient media can also be used for the cultivation of fastidious microorganism by enriching the medium with serum or blood Nutrient Agar is an ideal medium for the …

New York City Agar

January 9, 2020October 27, 2019 by Sagar Aryal

Introduction NYC Agar Base medium was originally developed by Fauer, Weisburd and Wilson at the New York City Department of Health for selective isolation of pathogenic Neisseria species from clinical specimens. NYC medium, primarily designed for isolation of pathogenic Neisseria, also readily supports the growth of large-colony mycoplasmas and T-mycoplasmas (Ureaplasma). It is a transparent medium, highly-selective which permits direct, microscopic …

Martin Lewis Agar

January 4, 2020September 27, 2019 by Sagar Aryal

Introduction Thayer-Martin Agar was developed in 1964 for the isolation of N. gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis. A further modification of these early formulations was developed to improve the isolation of pathogenic Neisseria sp. from specimens, which contained large amounts of mixed microbial flora. Martin-Lewis Agar is the formulation made after modification which contains an increased level of vancomycin for greater …

Modified Thayer Martin Agar

January 12, 2020August 14, 2019 by Sagar Aryal

Modified Thayer Martin Agar Thayer and Martin reported an improvement of the Chocolate Agar formulation that contained antimicrobics vancomycin, colistin and nystatin have been added to minimize overgrowth by contaminants, suppress the growth of saprophytic Neisseria sp., and enhance the growth of pathogenic Neisseria. Martin and Lester later added antibiotic trimethoprim to make the medium further selective and shown to …

Peptone Water

January 5, 2020August 11, 2019 by Sagar Aryal

Peptone Water Peptone water is formulated as per Shread, Donovan, and Lee. It is a broth medium used for the growth of the organism and a base for determining carbohydrate fermentation patterns of non-fastidious organisms. In addition, it is also used for the detection of indole production by the organism. Composition Ingredients Gms / L Peptone 10.0 Sodium chloride 5.0 …

Sorbitol MacConkey Agar

January 7, 2020July 22, 2019 by Sagar Aryal

Introduction MacConkey Sorbitol Agar is based on the formulation described by Rappaport and Henigh. It is selective and differential media for the detection of sorbitol-nonfermenting Escherichia coli serotype O157:H7 associated with hemorrhagic colitis. E. coli serotype O157:H7 is a human pathogen associated with hemorrhagic colitis that results from the action of a Shiga-like toxin (SLT). On standard lactose-containing MacConkey Agar, …

Peptone Yeast Extract Glucose Broth

January 14, 2020June 5, 2019 by Sagar Aryal

Peptone Yeast Extract Glucose Broth Peptone Yeast Extract Broth Based Media are enriched nonselective media that are supplemented with hemin and vitamin K to facilitate the recovery of the more fastidious organisms such as Prevotella spp, Porphyromonas spp, and the Bacteroides fragilis group. With the addition of a specific biochemical, the Peptone Yeast Extract Broth Based Media are used to determine whether anaerobic bacteria will utilize …