Question

How will you harvest the mating mix (mixture of donor and recipient) after it has been incubated from your conjugation plate?

-Picking isolated colonies and streaking them on to fresh media.
-Pressing your plate spreader into the mixed growth of donor and recipient and then spreading it on selective media.
-Pouring sterile Luria broth on the plate and creating a slurry using your plate spreader.
-Scooping up a mixture of donor and recipient cells using your inoculating loop and streaking it on selective media.

Answer 1

To harvest the mating mix from a conjugation plate, use a sterile inoculating loop to transfer cells to selective media to isolate and obtain pure cultures of transconjugants.

Step-by-step explanation:

To harvest the mating mix after incubation from a conjugation plate, you would use a flame-sterilized inoculating loop to scoop up a mixture of donor and recipient cells. You would then streak this mixture onto selective media that supports the growth of one type of cell over another, often based on antibiotic resistance or nutrient requirements. This process would help in identifying the transconjugants, which are cells that have received genetic material through the conjugation process.

After incubation, if isolated colonies have developed on the plate, they are evidence of successful conjugation. The desired colonies can then be transferred to a new media to establish pure cultures for further study. This method of harvesting is guided by the principle of the streak plate method, which is meant to dilute the bacterial cells so that individual cells have space to grow into isolated colonies.

In summary, for an effective harvest after bacterial conjugation, meticulous streaking on selective media with a sterilized inoculating loop is necessary to isolate transconjugants and obtain pure cultures from a mixture of donor and recipient bacteria.