Effects of Temperature Lab

Yesterday, we began the Effects of Temperature lab with the cultures I had plated last week. I think we were probably fine with the exception of B. stearothermophilus, the only thermophile I had. I plated that out and stored the plates in a 62 degree incubator as instructed, but over the weekend the plates dried out completely. I doubt seriously if there was anything left alive on them unless they might have produced endospores to survive the drought. I did have a few groups try scraping the plates to see if they could get anything off of them to do a culture transfer with, so we'll see if it works or not.

The cultures I used for this lab were Bacillus stearothermophilus, E. coli, Staphylococcus salivarius, Serratia marcascens, and Pseudomonos fluorescens. I believe all the other cultures were fine. There probably is some question about S. salivarius, but I think there were some living colonies there. Time will tell.

Each group had 3 cultures plates which they divided into four quadrants and inoculated a different organism in each quadrant. All three plates should have been inoculated the same way. Then one plate was put in the refrigerator, one on the counter at room temperature, and one in a 42 degree incubator.