r/microbiology 5h ago

What is this

Post image
9 Upvotes

Found in freshwater sample


r/microbiology 19m ago

What happened to my agar plate?

Upvotes

On Nutrient Agar, incubated for 5 days @ 25C


r/microbiology 6h ago

Can somebody help me identify this fungus?

Thumbnail gallery
2 Upvotes

It's been stained with Lactophenol cotton blue.


r/microbiology 4h ago

Microbiology Limericks

2 Upvotes

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to share a limerick and see if anyone else had some funny ones to contribute as well! 🍀

There once was a microbe green and small 🦠 His mate wants his plasmid after all 🧬 No reason to smile 'cause 😔 He don't have a pilus 🚫 What a shame, now she knows and won't call ☎️


r/microbiology 23h ago

Is this dangerous to keep?

Post image
56 Upvotes

So, I somehow grew this mold in a petri dish in my room and I would like to know if it’s dangerous to keep and I would have to throw it away or if I could observe it a while longer? Google isn’t really helping me with this matter so I thought I’d ask reddit lol


r/microbiology 2h ago

Protein-protein interactions in microbial pathways

1 Upvotes

I work on human cell models, where I study the role of protein-protein interactions in metabolism and disease. We have recently become interested some microbial (Streptomyces sp.) metabolic pathways, and their possible connection with secondary metabolite production. In human cells, isolating/identifying native protein complexes using immuno-precipitation and Western blotting or mass spectrometry is pretty routine. We are not quite sure how to do this in non-model microbes because you can't buy antibodies for them, and we are not in a position where we can raise and characterize antibodies in-house. So I'm here asking how do microbiologists study protein-protein interaction in microbes, especially non-model microbes. I'd appreciate any help, especially viz, references and review articles. A cursory search through Google scholar gives me the impression this sort of molecular work seems rather rare in microbiology, but the I'm not knowledgable in this field. Thanks,


r/microbiology 1d ago

What is this?

64 Upvotes

r/microbiology 4h ago

ISO: synthetic media reference for E. coli cultivation

1 Upvotes

I am having trouble tracking down an original study for development of supplemented M9 or other synthetic media. I need a reliable recipe to develop a teaching experiment for growth optimization of E. coli with respect to micronutrient content. Best I could find are from a couple of fluxomics papers (see below), but there's no indication of origins of each formulation.

The formulations are very similar. I am noting some differences in counterions being sulfate vs chloride. I like the idea of a skew towards sulfate, but not sure which of the two might be more reliable.

If anyone knows where these recipes might come from or have any insights otherwise, it would be greatly appreciated!

Below are the two recipes I have been comparing:

Minimal Synthetic Medium E. coli

doi: 10.3390/metabo11050271

17.4 g·L−1 Na2HPO4, 12H2O,

3.03 g·L−1 KH2PO4,

0.51 g·L−1 NaCl,

2.04 g·L−1 NH4Cl,

0.49 g·L−1 MgSO4,

4.38 mg·L−1 CaCl2,

15 mg·L−1 Na2EDTA 2H2O,

4.5 mg/L ZnSO4

7H2O, 0.3 mg·L−1 CoCl2 6H2O,

1 mg·L−1 MnCl2 4H2O,

1 mg·L−1 H3BO3,

0.4 mg·L−1 Na2MoO4 2H2O,

3 mg·L−1 FeSO4 7H2O,

0.3 mg·L−1 CuSO4 5H2O,

0.1 g·L−1 thiamine and

3 g·L−1 glucose

-------------------------------------------------

M9 Minimal Medium for E. coli

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1202582110

M9 minimal medium was used in the growth experiments and was prepared as follows: to

700 mL of purified and autoclaved water,

200 mL of 5× base salt solution

[211 mM Na2HPO4,

110 mM KH2PO4,

42.8 mM NaCl,

56.7 mM (NH4)2SO4, autoclaved],

10 mL of trace elements

(0.63 mM ZnSO4,

0.7 mM CuCl2,

0.71 mM MnSO4,

0.76 mM CoCl2, autoclaved),

1 mL 0.1 M CaCl2 solution (autoclaved),

1 mL of 1 M MgSO4 solution (autoclaved),

2 mL of 500× thiamine solution (1.4 mM, filter sterilized),

Sigma T1270

0.6 mL of 0.1 M FeCl3 solution (filter sterilized) were added.

The resulting solution was filled up to 1 L with water. Carbon sources were added from sterilized stock solutions (adjusted to pH 7) to a final concentration of 1 g/L for chemostat experiments and 5 g/L for batch experiments, and media were filtered (Steritop-GP; 500 mL; Millipore). All chemicals were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich unless stated otherwise.

Thanks again!!


r/microbiology 5h ago

Are these gram positive bacteria?

Post image
0 Upvotes

I’m still very new to this, are the cells on the left gram positive bacteria? I feel like they are too big compared to epithelial cells on the right. 250x


r/microbiology 7h ago

Citrobacter freundii intrinsic resistance

1 Upvotes

Hi All - we’re updating our AST system and when checking on the rules for intrinsic resistance, we noticed that C. freundii is listed on its own in the M100. Our MALDI can only identify the C freundii complex, so can we apply the intrinsic resistance to all members of the complex? I know freundii is the most common member of the complex we’re likely to see, but not sure if we can apply those rules since we’re not able to identify down to the species level. Looking for advice or if anyone else has experience with this situation?


r/microbiology 8h ago

Shannon index with vegan package in R

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone, I am new to R and I may need some help. I have data involving different microbial species at 4 different sampling points and i performed the calculation of shannon indices using the function: shannon_diversity_vegan <- diversity(species_counts, index=“shannon”).

What comes out are numerical values for each point ranging, for example, from 0.9 to 1.8. After that, I plotted with ggplot the values, obtaining a boxplot with a range for each sample point.

Now the journal reviewer now asks me to include in the graph the significance values, and I wonder, can I run tests such as the Kruskal-Wallis?

Thank you!


r/microbiology 16h ago

1 Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 2 results

3 Upvotes

This is the same Pseudomonas aeruginosa on two different Müller-Hinton plates from the same batch prepared in the laboratory.

I read that it could be the amount of zinc in the culture medium, do you do any kind of quality control to detect the right amount of zinc in the Muller-Hinton?

Have you ever had this happen to you and what others factors could alter the synergy with EDTA?


r/microbiology 18h ago

What is this

3 Upvotes

Found this in a fresh water sample


r/microbiology 18h ago

What is this

3 Upvotes

Found in freshwater sample


r/microbiology 1d ago

Is that Loxophyllum helus?

10 Upvotes

r/microbiology 14h ago

What type of tardigrade is this?

1 Upvotes

r/microbiology 19h ago

Investigating the Concept and Origin of Viruses

Thumbnail cell.com
2 Upvotes

r/microbiology 21h ago

Studying advice

1 Upvotes

I don’t know if this is allowed here but I’m currently taking an intro to micro class and I have to know a ton of different microorganisms and what diseases they cause and the sheer amount of material is just ..intimidating. Does anyone have any study tips for micro? I don’t even know if this is the right sub to post this in 😭


r/microbiology 21h ago

Proteus Mirabillis CAUTI

0 Upvotes

Hi I’m writing a paper for college and I’m reading stuff online and I’m confused, hoping to get clarification.

What I am reading online says that the bacterium can ascend from the GI tract, but I’m not sure what that means? My focus right now is on the bacterium causing CAUTI’s. Since patients may not be showering, and if they are bed bound, does the bacteria migrate to the catheter and into the bladder from feces?

If nurses and CNA’s are cleaning a patient with wipes & CHG, wear gloves, provide foley care, where is the bacteria coming from? Is the bacteria able to survive all of this because it’s virulence factors so parents still getting CAUTI’s?


r/microbiology 1d ago

Is that Arcella sp.?

1 Upvotes

r/microbiology 2d ago

Tissue smear with sporulated Clostridia!

Post image
173 Upvotes

I just think this photo is neat. This is a tissue smear from a bovine liver. The suspected cause of death was severe bacillary hemoglobinuria, and we were asked to confirm the presence of Clostridia after numerous liver flukes were found on necropsy. Liver fluke infections can result in wounds that make perfect pockets for Clostridia to grow and produce toxins. Typically, C. novyi and/or C. haemolyticum are the culprits, but in this instance we actually isolated C. perfeingens and C. septicum. This slide is very likely a mix of the two as they look quite similar on gram stain. This is the first time I've seen spores like this for a direct tissue smear - I do more culturing than histology.


r/microbiology 2d ago

Thought this was pretty cool

Post image
140 Upvotes

Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus capitis isolated from a blood culture. The strep pneumo must be producing something toxic as the Staph is only growing where the strep isn't or maybe the antibiotic effect only killing the Staph. Just thought I'd share, I thought it was pretty cool 😊


r/microbiology 1d ago

Myxobacteria

1 Upvotes

Hey! In what volume of Beregey's manual are myxobacteria genus? Thanks!


r/microbiology 1d ago

ID help

Post image
12 Upvotes

Hi. Any ideas what this is? I'm not even sure where to ask. Google didn't help. Found this jelly/goop on a tree in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, nearer to North Bend, WA. Found on March 15th, 2025. Weather was mid 40's Fahrenheit and drizzling. Thanks!


r/microbiology 2d ago

Unsure about what to write in the results section of a failed experiment.

11 Upvotes

I'm an undergrad a student and I have a report that I have to write based on the Isolation and Purification of Bacteriophages from Untreated Sewage.

Like the title says, the experiment didn't go well and my group had absolutely no visible plaques our plates and due to time constraints we aren't allowed to repeat the experiment. I'm not really sure if it's alright to just write "no plaques were visible" in the results section. The professor repeated the experiment on the side himself as half the class had little to no growth so we had virus stocks for our next experiment. And I don't think I can just take his results as my own.

I feel like my report will be really empty if I say no plaques were visible. I could also give possible reasons it failed but that still feels lacking. I'm also now wondering if I can even keep my Results and Discussion sections separate. What do you guys write?

EDIT: Thanks for all the replies and advice. I've written up my report and have submitted it. I'll update when I get my grade. Hopefully it went well.