1.

0 ABSTRACT

The objective for this experiment is to know the morphology of the bacteria that contain on
the environment. First of all, the sample was taken from three different surfaces that have the
most bacteria. The surface of the sample that was taken for this experiment was the surface of
the doorknob, the toilet bowl and a rotten bread. Each of the sample need to be cultured
before it can be observed under the light microscope. The technique used is streak method
under the pure culture technique. All of the samples must be streaked under laminar flow.
After streaking, the samples must be incubated for at least 24 hours inside an incubator. The
sample from the toilet bowl, the doorknob and the rotten bread shows that the bacteria
presents are in the shape of coccus.

2.0 INTRODUCTION

The term “ubiquity of microorganism” actually refers to the concept that microorganism are
everywhere and anywhere. There are many types of microorganism that we can refer to, but
the word ubiquity more suitable for bacteria. Everything and everywhere around us actually
is the place for bacteria to growth. The pen that we hold, the water that we drink, the bag that
we carry, all of that containing bacteria. Bacteria contaminate our skin and also the surface of
the objects that we use. But, there is some place that bacteria cannot be growth where is the
place that we wilfully exclude them. For example, based on previous experiment, we can
conclude that only certain bacteria can grow in aseptic condition. Besides that, the place that
bacteria rarely found is in our own body where we have immunity system that act as defences
to our body towards infection. The immune defences will not get contamination from bacteria
if we put a lot of energy into it. But once it got contamination, our body will get sick.

In this experiment, we choose the knob of the door, toilet and bread as the sample from
environmental surface to analyze the bacteria presence on it. The agar medium was prepared
to culture the bacteria that live on the sample. Aseptic techniques also were applied in this
experiment to reduce the contamination of bacteria. We also use pure culture technique which
is streak plate method to spread the bacteria all over the surface of agar. We spend a lot of
time and energy sterilizing growth media so that only the wanted microbe can grow on it.
In the incubator, the petri dish was place in inverted position to avoid the condensed water on
the lid from fall onto the sample which can disturb the growth of bacteria. Besides that, the
petri dish must be sealed before incubate to prevent contamination. The plate was incubated
for 24 hours before observe the type, and shape of the bacteria by using gram staining
method.

3.0 OBJECTIVES
1) To study the effects of various environmental exposures to sterile bacteriological media.
2) To observe the morphology of bacteria contained in the sample.

4.0 THEORY

Ubiquity of Bacteria refers to the concept that bacteria are everywhere. Bacteria are
essentially ubiquitous. They can live on the surface or inside any material known to mankind
on our planet Earth. They can be found in soil, water or even air. Bacteria that grow in a
moderate temperature, between 20 to 45°C are called mesophiles. Intestinal bacteria are some
examples of mesophiles. Meanwhile, for bacteria that grow in extreme condition, they are
called extremophiles. They can survive in very low temperature such as at Antarctica or at
very high temperature such as at hot spring (Microbe World, 2006). Some extremophiles
which are also called barophiles, live deep in the ocean floor with pressure more than 380
atm (Dworkin et al., 2006).

Bacteria can also be found in and on plants, animals and even humans. They also can
populate on the surfaces of objects which includes on the surface of our skin. A centimetre
square area of a human skin have an average of 100,000 bacteria. The human mouth alone
contains more than 500 different types of bacteria. Approximately 5 cm3 of dirt contains
more than a billion (1,000,000,000) of bacteria (Microbe World, 2006). Even though bacteria
exist everywhere, they are not common inside our blood or fluid. Our immune system will
ensure our blood or fluid free from bacterial contamination (Kibota, 2005).

In our daily lives, bacteria can be found on surfaces that are frequently touched and rarely
cleaned. Some of these surfaces are located at public places where there is a lot of people.
Some examples are ATM buttons, gas pump handle and door handle (Live Science Website,
2011). These surfaces are commonly ignored from proper disinfection of bacteria. Also, its
temperature is suitable for mesophilic bacteria to reproduce. Thus, high amount of bacteria
may grow on these surfaces.

5.0 PROCEDURE

Streaking Method

1. Using the cotton swab, the surface of the door knob is gently smeared back and forth.

2. Under the fume hood, alcohol is sprayed on both of the hands for sterilization.

3. The tape of petri dish containing the solid medium is opened and is partially lifted.

4. The petri dish is then sterilized by flamed it across the bunsen burner.

5. The petri dish is held on the writing hand while the other hand held the cotton swab.

6. The plate is streaked across the surface of the agar in three or four parallel lines with the
wooden cotton bud.

7. The dish is then turned through 90° anticlockwise and again the surface of the agar is
streaked three or four parallel lines and this step is repeated until the entire surface of the
agar is streaked.

8. After that the petri dish is closed, it is then sterilized across the flame.

9. The petri dish is then taped with a parafilm tape and labeled as Sample A

10. The petri dish is incubated for at least 24 hours.

11. Step 1 until step 8 is repeated by using the surface of the toilet bowl, labeled as Sample B
and rotten bread as Sample C.
Observation Method

1. The glass slide is flamed for sterilization.

2. The petri dish of Sample A is sterilized by flaming it across the bunsen burner.

3. Using a cotton swab, the surface of the agar is gently smeared back and forth.

4. The sample on the cotton swab is later transferred onto the glass slide.

5. After that, the cover slip is gently placed on top of the sample on the glass slide. Make
sure there is no air bubbles trapped on the sample.

6. The glass slide is then placed on the light microscope to be observed.

7. All observations are recorded.

8. Step 1 until step 7 is repeated by using incubated Sample B and Sample C

 6.0 APPARATUS

Sterile cotton swab, bacterial samples from the various environmental exposures, petri dishes
with agar, parafilms, incubator, glass slides, cover slide, Bunsen Burner and
microscope(MT4200H,JAPAN)

7.0 RESULTS

Door knob Toilet Bread

Draw
representative
field

Microorganism
Staphylococcus aureus Streptococcus sp. Lactococcus

Cell shape
morphology
Coccus Coccus Coccus

Cell
arrangement
Staphylococcus Streptococcus Diplococcus
morphology

8.0 DISCUSSIONS

Based from the experiment that has been conducted, we can make a conclusion that
microorganisms or bacteria are ubiquitous. Different type of bacteria has been collected and
observed under light microscope and from different type of surfaces. Some of the bacteria are
leading to infection and contamination, so there is limitation to get sample of bacteria from
various dirty places. Certain pathogenic bacteria will lead to certain unwilling disease such as
vomit, stomach ache, fever and many more. So we just collect bacteria from the simple
environment such as keyboard surface, water cooler mouth/tip and floor surface. Different
type of bacteria are observed under the light microscope and classified due to their
morphology and characteristic. Some of the bacteria are in spherical and rod in shape.