Subculture in Microbiology | Short Notes

Microbiology is the study of organisms too small to see with the naked eye. Their small size means you can't go to a zoo or take a safari to study these creatures; you have to raise them yourself. Subculturing is one of the microbiological techniques that lets you raise them properly by transferring some microbes from one environment to another.

Initial Culture

Microbiological samples may contain extremely low levels of various microbial types, so the analyst has to provide nutrients and a suitable temperature for these to multiply up to levels that are high enough to test.

Subculture

The analyst then takes a small amount of this initial culture and adds it to another growth medium. This transfer can be from a liquid to a liquid medium, a liquid to a solid, or a solid to a solid medium.

Value of Subculture

Subculturing allows an analyst to move microbes from one set of test parameters, such as temperature and media type, to another. This information is useful in microbial identification, as some species will grow and some will not, depending on the parameters chosen. He can also keep cultures alive by subculturing them onto a new growth medium before the microbes use up all the nutrients in their growth medium and die.