Question

Imagine that you forgot to flame the loop before streaking the inoculum from the first quadrant into the second quadrant. What is the most likely consequence of this error?

a) Too much bacterial growth outside the first quadrant.
b) Contamination of the broth culture.
c) Too little bacterial growth outside the first quadrant.
d) Contamination of the Petri plate culture.

Answer 1

Not flaming the inoculation loop before streaking the second quadrant is likely to result in contamination of the entire Petri plate culture, affecting the isolation of bacterial colonies.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you forget to flame the loop before streaking the inoculum from the first quadrant into the second quadrant, the most likely consequence of this error is d) Contamination of the Petri plate culture. Sterilizing the loop is critical to avoid carrying over unwanted bacteria from the original source or from previous streaks, which can lead to a mixed culture rather than isolated colonies. Without flaming, the same bacteria that were in the first quadrant, as well as any additional contaminants, could be transferred throughout the plate. This compromises the goal of achieving isolated colonies for testing and identification.