Micro/SEM research: Tools and Set up Help?

[lunaskye0]

Hey Everyone,

A while back I had posted a question here looking for some research ideas for an undergraduate project utilizing the SEM. It had to be microbiology related as I am combing credits for two courses. My project is about testing different antibacterial methods against E. coli; ampicillin, vitamin C, and copper.

I ran this by my professor, but she basically threw a ton of information my way.. Problem is, I haven't taken microbiology since a few years and it was not my strongest course. From what I can remember, she asked me to consider some factors in how I will test these methods.

Firstly, she has prepared a streak plate for me, and I will need to make them into a broth culture. How do I do that...?

I thought to do a time series as, especially copper, can eat up bacteria from anywhere up to two hours. She told me to consider counting the culture and then counting it in comparison. Perhaps this is an obvious question, but if its in a broth and I am dipping samples from the same culture into many vials of fixative at different time intervals, how can I count the culture number? Am I missing something?

I am just wondering if anyone has any suggestion as to the technical methods for how to carry out my project. I was just going to observe the morphological changes under SEM, but I didn't consider that some of the bacteria would actually be gone.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Ygggdrasil]

A good reference for information of techniques that would be helpful for your project would probably be Current Protocols in Molecular Biology (esp. chapter 1 on E. coli) or Current Protocols in Microbiology.