ATB: Microbiology

Catalog description

In this course you will culture bacteria from soil and fermented food products. Bacteria will be isolated from these sources and identified using a variety of microbiological techniques. These include staining and using the microscope; culturing bacterial isolates under different growth conditions; subjecting the bacterial isolates to range of biochemical differential tests; and DNA sequence analysis of a gene from the isolates. The data obtained from microbiological techniques and comparison of DNA sequence with computer databases will be used to identify the unknown bacterial isolates. You will also test mutants of the bacteria Bacillus subtilis for the ability to form spores and culture bacteriophage. This course is designed to provide an investigative approach to learning many of the standard techniques of a microbiology lab.