All 3 lab introduction

Rochelles introduction

Microbes are beneficial to human life as they play a crucial role in

protecting from harmful and keeping beneficial bacteria in the body
(Postgate, 2000). Microbes have five main categories:
Bacteria, archaea, viruses, protists, and fungi. These can be
classified as pathogenic, opportunist pathogenic and beneficial
microbes. Microbes influence the human and environmental
microbiome significantly and retrospectively influences human
health.
Aseptic techniques are a set of practices that protects from
infections and pathogens. Aseptic techniques are primarily used in
healthcare and laboratory settings to minimize contaminants (David,
2009). Aseptic techniques are used throughout this experiment to
ensure there is no contamination between microorganisms and agar
plates as well as to keep ourselves safe. There are four main
techniques to ensure an aseptic environment, these are: Barriers -
This is where individual should use gloves, masks, and gowns as
well as any other personal protective equipment (PPE).
Equipment preparation - using sterile equipment etc., Contact
guidelines & Environmental controls.
These four techniques are crucial in infection prevention and
minimizing contaminants.
Throughout this experiment, streak plates will be done. Streak plate
is used to isolate colonies of microorganisms by increasing dilution
on a streak plate (Sanders, 2012). Using streak plates, cultures will
be produced and be isolated. The importance of culturing
techniques is highlighted in this experiment by displaying the
division and isolation of cells/microorganisms to be identified and
examine (Lee, 2003).
The aim of this experiment is to practice aseptic techniques,
identify microflora and microorganisms within the environment and
on humans, and to isolate microorganisms from many microbes.

Lina introduction –

Microbes also referred to as micro-organisms, are organisms that are extremely small to be
seen by the naked eye("What are microbes?", 2019). They are found in the immediate
surroundings as in nature, microorganisms are present in almost every habitat and living
environment. In addition thousands of these microbes inhabit the human body as well(What
are microbes?", 2019). Highlighting the purpose of streak plating technique which is defined
as a dilution scheme, as it is essential to isolate and segregate types of micro-organisms to
consequently grow them independently. Thus enabling microbiologists to identify,
understand and determine which microbe triggers a specific disease or contributed to the
assembly of a certain antibiotic. Furthermore agar a polysaccharide, serves as the main
gelling agent in solid culture media (Bonnet et al. 2020), the properties of the following
gelling agent give rise to its popularity. Due to its high melting point of 100^oc and
solidifying point of 42^oc. It is imperative that the use of the aseptic technique be maintained
during the manipulation of cells and media to prevent possible contamination of surfaces,
equipments and cultures and petri dishes with free micro- organisms present on surfaces
(Sanders, 2012). As contamination will result in inaccurate data. The aim of this practical is
to utilise aseptic technique and perform isolation streaking thus to be able to observe the
changes present when segregating a mixture of microbes. Furthermore microflora of the
human skin will also be investigated.

Sana intro

All the microorganisms that naturally inhabit our bodies or the

environment, including
bacteria, fungus, and viruses, are collectively referred to as the
microbiome. The human microbiome involves in metabolic processes,
battles against infections, trains the immune system, and via these
fundamental processes, impacts most of our physiological processes in
some way (Ogunrinola et al., 2020).

Microbes are everywhere, thus a laboratory has an abundant source of

possible contamination. The amount of contamination on tools and work
surfaces needs to be kept to a minimum to ensure the success of
experiments. Aseptic technique is a set of standard techniques used to
keep microbes out of sterilized fluids and cultures in the laboratory. These
techniques are necessary for experiments that involve cultivating cells.
The contamination possibility of fluids and cultures in an experiment is
decreased by practises like disinfecting laboratory workstation, making a
sterilized environment with a Bunsen burner, minimising the exposure of
open cultures to the air and sterilising the tools (Clare and Rowley, 2017).
The isolation streak method is a microbiological laboratory method for
obtaining isolated colonies of bacteria from a complex mixture or for
isolating pure bacteria cultures. It is commonly used to grow bacteria and
obtain pure cultures, but it may also be used to isolate yeasts. The
inoculum is streaked throughout the agar surface to possibly space
between individual bacterial cells (Eyler, 2013).

A microbial culture is a technique for growing microorganisms in a

controlled laboratory environment while allowing them to multiply in a

SANA MOUSAWI S4553520 HBM2105

predefined culture media. In microbiology, cultures are fundamental

diagnostic techniques that are employed as research tools (Eyler, 2013).
In real world, to better understand and treat infectious diseases, a pure
bacterial culture is necessary to research the bacteria's virulence,
sensitivity to antibiotics, and genomic sequencing (Choi et al., 2018).
The aim of this experiment is to learn and practice the aseptic technique
and the microorganism separating techniques. Also, examine the bacteria
in the air and on human body.

Discussion points
During the streak plating procedure, it is plausible that the presence of mold or fungus on the
horse blood agar plate could be attributed to several factors. Environmental contamination or
improper sterilization of the agar medium could introduce these unwanted microorganisms.
Additionally, handling errors, such as insufficient flaming of the inoculating loop or
inadequate swab sterilization, might have facilitated the entry of molds or fungi. Furthermore,
fluctuations in temperature and humidity within the incubator could have created favorable
conditions for the growth of these contaminants. Identifying these potential sources of
contamination is vital for refining aseptic techniques and ensuring the integrity of
experimental setups.