BRAINCAKEDilution Plating
Dilution plating gives a viable count: it counts only cells that are alive and able to divide. A culture usually contains far too many cells to count on one plate, so it is diluted first by serial dilution.
Method:
1. Using aseptic technique, transfer 1 cm3 of culture into 9 cm3 of sterile water and mix. This is a 1 in 10 (10−1) dilution.
2. Transfer 1 cm3 of this into another 9 cm3 of sterile water to give 10−2, and so on, using a fresh sterile pipette each time.
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Key terms in this lesson
- serial dilution
- A series of stepwise dilutions, each by the same factor, used to reduce a suspension of cells or a solution to a countable or usable concentration.
More in Bacteria and Disease
- Selective Media
- Growing a Pure Culture
- Counting the Number of Cells
- Turbidity
- Area and Mass of Fungi
- Growth of Bacterial Colonies
- Logarithmic Scale
- Exponential Growth
All 30 lessons in Bacteria and Disease · All Edexcel A-level Biology topics