Microbial Growth Notes

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Learning Objectives

Check Your Understanding

6-1    Classify microbes into five groups on the basis of preferred temperature range.

Why are hyperthermophiles that grow at
temperatures above 100°C seemingly limited to oceanic depths?

6-2    Identify how and why the pH of culture media is controlled.

Other than controlling acidity, what is an
advantage of using phosphate salts as buffers in growth media?

6-3    Explain the importance of osmotic
pressure to microbial growth.

Why might primitive civilizations have used food preservation techniques that rely on
osmotic pressure?

6-4    Name a use for each of the four
elements (carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and
phosphorus) needed in large amounts
for microbial growth.

If bacterial cells were given a sulfur source
containing radioactive sulfur (35S) in their
culture media, in what molecules would the 35S be found in the cells?

6-5    Explain how microbes are classified on the basis of oxygen requirements.

How would one determine whether a microbe is a strict anaerobe?

6-6    Identify ways in which aerobes avoid damage by toxic forms of oxygen.

Oxygen is so pervasive in the environment that it would be very difficult for a microbe to
always avoid physical contact with it. What, therefore, is the most obvious way for a
microbe to avoid damage?

6-7    Describe the formation of biofilms and their potential for causing infection.

Identify a way in which pathogens find it
advantageous to form biofilms.

6-8    Distinguish chemically defined and complex media.

Could humans exist on chemically defined media, at least under laboratory conditions?

6-9    Justify the use of each of the following: anaerobic techniques, living host cells, candle jars, selective and differential media, enrichment medium.

Could Louis Pasteur, in the 1800s, have grown rabies viruses in cell culture instead of in
living animals?

6-10  Differentiate biosafety levels 1, 2, 3,
and 4.

What BSL is your laboratory?

6-11  Define colony.

Can you think of any reason why a colony does not grow to an infinite size, or at least fill the confines of the Petri plate? 

6-12  Describe how pure cultures can be
isolated by using the streak plate
method.

Could a pure culture of bacteria be obtained by the streak plate method if there were only one desired microbe in a bacterial suspension of
billions?

6-13  Explain how microorganisms are
preserved by deep-freezing and
lyophilization (freeze-drying).

If the Space Station in Earth orbit suddenly
ruptured, the humans on board would die
instantly from cold and the vacuum of space. Would all the bacteria in the capsule also be killed?

6-14  Define bacterial growth, including
binary fission.

Can a complex organism, such as a beetle,
divide by binary fission?

6-15  Compare the phases of microbial growth, and describe their relation to generation time.

If two mice started a family within a fixed
enclosure, with a fixed food supply, would the population curve be the same as a bacterial growth curve?

6-16  Explain four direct methods of
measuring cell growth.

Why is it difficult to measure realistically the growth of a filamentous mold isolate by the plate count method?

6-17  Differentiate direct and indirect methods of measuring cell growth.

Direct methods usually require an incubation time for a colony. Why is this not always
feasible for analyzing foods? 

6-18  Explain three indirect methods of
measuring cell growth.

If there is no good method for analyzing a
product for its vitamin content, what is a
feasible method of determining the vitamin content?

Chapter Summary

The Requirements for Growth (pp. 150–156)

ASM 3.3: The survival and growth of any microorganism in a given environment depends on its metabolic characteristics.

  1. The growth of a population is an increase in the number of cells.
  2. The requirements for microbial growth are both physical and chemical.

Physical Requirements (pp. 150–153)

  1. On the basis of preferred temperature ranges, microbes are classified as psychrophiles (cold-loving), mesophiles (moderate-temperature-loving), and thermophiles (heat-loving).
  2. The minimum growth temperature is the lowest temperature at which a species will grow, the optimum growth temperature is the temperature at which it grows best, and the maximum growth temperature is the highest temperature at which growth is possible.
  3. Most bacteria grow best at a pH value between 6.5 and 7.5.
  4. In a hypertonic solution, most microbes undergo plasmolysis; halophiles can tolerate high salt concentrations.

Chemical Requirements (pp. 154–156)

  1. All organisms require a carbon source; chemoheterotrophs use an organic molecule, and autotrophs typically use carbon dioxide.
  2. Nitrogen is needed for protein and nucleic acid synthesis. Nitrogen can be obtained from the decomposition of proteins or from NH4+ or NO3−; a few bacteria are capable of nitrogen (N2) fixation.
  3. On the basis of oxygen requirements, organisms are classified as obligate aerobes, facultative anaerobes, obligate anaerobes, aerotolerant anaerobes, and microaerophiles.
  4. Aerobes, facultative anaerobes, and aerotolerant anaerobes must have the enzymes superoxide dismutase and either catalase  or peroxidase
  5. Other chemicals required for microbial growth include sulfur, phosphorus, trace elements, and, for some microorganisms, organic growth factors.

Reactive Oxygen Species.png  

Biofilms (pp. 156–157)

ASM 5.2: Most bacteria in nature live in biofilm communities.

  1. Microbes adhere to surfaces and accumulate as biofilms on solid surfaces in contact with water.
  2. Biofilms form on teeth, contact lenses, and catheters.
  3. Microbes in biofilms are more resistant to antibiotics than are free-swimming microbes.

Culture Media (pp. 157–162)

ASM 8.2: Use pure culture and selective techniques to enrich for and isolate microorganisms.

  1. A culture medium is any material prepared for the growth of bacteria in a laboratory.
  2. Microbes that grow and multiply in or on a culture medium are known as a culture.
  3. Agar is a common solidifying agent for a culture medium.

 

Chemically Defined Media (p. 158)

  1. A chemically defined medium is one in which the exact chemical composition is known.

Complex Media (p. 159)

  1. A complex medium is one in which the exact chemical composition varies slightly from batch to batch.

Anaerobic Growth Media and Methods (pp. 159–160)

  1. Reducing media chemically removes molecular oxygen (O2) that might interfere with the growth of anaerobes.
  2. Petri plates can be incubated in an anaerobic jar, anaerobic chamber, or OxyPlate.

Special Culture Techniques (p. 160)

  1. Some parasitic and fastidious bacteria must be cultured in living animals or in cell cultures.
  2. CO2 incubators or candle jars are used to grow bacteria that require an increased CO2 concentration.
  3. Procedures and equipment to minimize exposure to pathogenic microorganisms are designated as biosafety levels 1 through 4.

Selective and Differential Media (pp. 160–161)

  1. By inhibiting unwanted organisms with salts, dyes, or other chemicals, selective media allow growth of only the desired microbes.
  2. Differential media are used to distinguish different organisms.

  

Enrichment Culture (pp. 161–162)

  1. An enrichment culture is used to encourage the growth of a particular microorganism in a mixed culture.

Obtaining Pure Cultures (pp. 162–163)

ASM 8.2: Use pure culture and selective techniques to enrich for and isolate microorganisms.

  1. A colony is a visible mass of microbial cells that theoretically arose from one cell.
  2. Pure cultures are usually obtained by the streak plate method.

   

Preserving Bacterial Cultures (p. 163)

  1. Microbes can be preserved for long periods of time by deep-freezing or lyophilization (freeze-drying).

The Growth of Bacterial Cultures (pp. 163–172)

Bacterial Division (pp. 163–164)

  1. The normal reproductive method of bacteria is binary fission, in which a single cell divides into two identical cells.
  2. Some bacteria reproduce by budding, aerial spore formation, or fragmentation.

  

Generation Time (pp. 164–165)

  1. The time required for a cell to divide or a population to double is known as the generation time.

Logarithmic Representation of Bacterial Populations (p. 165)

  1. Bacterial division occurs according to a logarithmic progression (two cells, four cells, eight cells, and so on).

Phases of Growth (pp. 165–166)

  1. During the lag phase, there is little or no change in the number of cells, but metabolic activity is high.
  2. During the log phase, the bacteria multiply at the fastest rate possible under the conditions provided.
  3. During the stationary phase, there is an equilibrium between cell division and death.
  4. During the death phase, the number of deaths exceeds the number of new cells formed.

  

Direct Measurement of Microbial Growth (pp. 166–170)

ASM 8.4: Estimate the number of microorganisms in a sample (using, for example, direct count, viable plate count, and spectrophotometric methods).

  1. A heterotrophic plate count reflects the number of viable microbes and assumes that each bacterium grows into a single colony; plate counts are reported as number of colony-forming units (CFU).
  2. A plate count may be done by either the pour plate method or the spread plate method.
  3. In filtration, bacteria are retained on the surface of a membrane filter and then transferred to a culture medium to grow and subsequently be counted.
  4. The most probable number (MPN) method can be used for microbes that will grow in a liquid medium; it is a statistical estimation.
  5. In a direct microscopic count, the microbes in a measured volume of a bacterial suspension are counted with the use of a specially designed slide.

   

Estimating Bacterial Numbers by Indirect Methods (pp. 170–172)

ASM 8.4: Estimate the number of microorganisms in a sample (using, for example, direct count, viable plate count, and spectrophotometric methods).

  1. A spectrophotometer is used to determine turbidity by measuring the amount of light that passes through a suspension of cells.
  2. An indirect way of estimating bacterial numbers is measuring the metabolic activity of the population (for example, acid production or oxygen consumption).
  3. For filamentous organisms such as fungi, measuring dry weight is a convenient method of growth measurement.