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Practical Skills, Apparatus and Techniques

Aseptic technique and dissection

  • 3 things to know
  • Components 01, 02 and 03

Overview

Recall questions on aseptic technique, flaming loops and bottle necks, working near a Bunsen flame, lifting, taping and labelling Petri dishes, autoclaving and disposing of cultures, colony-forming units, spreading a lawn for antibiotic discs, and the safety and ethics of dissecting a mammalian heart.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Why is an inoculating loop held in a Bunsen flame until it glows red?

Key term

Why is a flamed loop allowed to cool before it touches a culture?

Key term

Why is microbiological work carried out close to a lit Bunsen burner?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is meant by aseptic technique?

    Model answer

    It is the set of procedures that prevents unwanted microorganisms contaminating a culture and prevents the culture escaping into the surroundings.

  2. 2

    Why is an inoculating loop held in a Bunsen flame until it glows red?

    Model answer

    The heat kills any microorganisms on the loop, so nothing unwanted is transferred into the culture.

  3. 3

    Why is a flamed loop allowed to cool before it touches a culture?

    Model answer

    A hot loop would kill the microorganisms it is meant to transfer and could make the liquid spatter.

  4. 4

    Why is microbiological work carried out close to a lit Bunsen burner?

    Model answer

    The rising convection current carries airborne microorganisms upwards and away from the open culture.

  5. 5

    Why is the neck of a culture bottle passed through the flame when the cap is removed and again when it is replaced?

    Model answer

    The heat kills microorganisms on the rim, and the outward convection current stops others entering the bottle.

  6. 6

    How far should the lid of a Petri dish be lifted during inoculation?

    Model answer

    Only far enough, and at an angle, to admit the loop or spreader, so that airborne contaminants cannot settle on the agar.

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