Question

1. 4. Do some research and describe two or three scenarios in which it would be preferable to use a stab tube vs. a growth plate. (Hint: What do bacteria use to help them move? Can motility be used to help identify many medically important pathogenic bacteria such as the Enterobacteriaceae?)

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

• If we want to isolate a species or identify it, we should grow it in a plate with the appropriate media. In this way, it will be much easier to separate a single cell and analyze it by its morphology or study the colony growth.

• Stab tubes can be used when we want to study, for example, how a bacteria might grow under low-oxygen conditions. Cells might be inoculated in a liquid media or semi-solid media. We might analyze their growth in the deeper parts of the tubes, where oxygen is very low.  

• Grow bacterias cultures in agar plates will also allow us to separate the species of interest form other species present in the culture. We might also compare and study differences between species growth.

• When growing bacterias on growth plates, they do not last long, as they have more chances of dehydrating. Instead, if we want the culture to survive for a longer-term, we should use stab tubes.
• Stab tubes are better to study the motility of different species, which might help us to identify certain bacterias of interest.