Bacteria Virtual Lab

http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/science/virtual_labs/LS08/LS08.html

Introduction and background

Bacteria are prokaryotic (having no nucleus), one-celled organisms. Individual
bacterial cells are visible only with the aid of a high-powered microscope. Under proper
nutritional and environmental conditions, bacteria can be grown in a laboratory. They
are usually cultivated in sterile petri dishes containing a gelatin-like nutrient called agar.
Bacteria reproduce rapidly. Each single cell divides about every twenty minutes.
When a population of bacteria has multiplied to a thousand or more cells, a pattern of
growth called a colony can be seen with the naked eye. The specific shape and color of
a bacterial colony can be used to identify the species of bacteria that form it.
Bacteria are important in many ways. Some bacteria break down organic
materials from dead organisms and wastes, returning nutrients to the environment.
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria convert nitrogen gas from the air into forms of nitrogen that can
be used by plants and animals. Some bacteria are used in making food, such as
vinegar, yogurt, butter, cheese, pickles, and sauerkraut. A few bacteria cause disease
and are known as pathogens. Some examples of diseases caused by bacteria include
tuberculosis, pneumonia, strep throat, and ear infections.
Because bacteria multiply so rapidly, it is often necessary to control their growth
in the human body, in food, and in the kitchen. Several varieties of products are used to
control bacterial growth, including antibiotics, disinfectants, and antiseptics. All these
products are antimicrobial agents. Different kinds of bacteria are sensitive to some
chemicals and insensitive to others. Thus, different types of antimicrobial agents vary in
the way they affect bacterial growth.
In this Virtual Lab you will determine the effectiveness of different antimicrobial
agents by inoculating agar in a petri dish with different pathogenic bacteria, adding
various antimicrobial agents, and measuring the bacterial growth around each
antimicrobial agent.

Pre-Lab Question:
1. What are the similarities and differences between antibiotics, disinfectants, and
antiseptics?

Some similarities between antiseptics, antibiotics, and disinfectants are that they
all have to do with defending against disease. However, antibiotics and
disinfectants are used to fight disease when it has already occured on a surface or
in a person; antiseptics are preventative to make sure the disease doesn’t occur.
Antibiotics are also different because they can be taken orally or intravenously as
well as used on the surface; antiseptics and disinfectants should not be consumed
or enter the body.

Objectives:
Describe how bacterial cultures are grown and investigated • in a laboratory
• Determine the effectiveness of antibiotics and antiseptics in inhibiting the growth of
bacterial cultures.
 Conduct these procedures in the virtual lab:
http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/science/virtual_labs/LS08/LS08.html

Procedure:
1. Inoculate the agar in the petri dish by clicking one of the test tubes containing pathogenic
bacterial stock culture-Staphylococcus aureus, Haemophilus influenzae, or Streptococcus
pneumoniae.

2. Vials 1 through 7 contain filter paper disks that have been soaked in antimicrobial agents
such as antibacterial soap, household bleach, household disinfectant, penicillin, amoxicillin, and
erythromycin, or in sterile water (as a control). Drag a disk from each vial and place it in the petri
dish.
Note: To avoid contamination, disks should not be moved after they have been dropped
into the petri dish.

3. At any time in the Virtual Lab, click the Microbiology book to find out about specific
pathogenic bacteria and antimicrobial agents. Click the fingers pointing left and right to page
through the information.

4. Click the incubator to place the petri dish in it.

5. Click the red button on the incubator to turn it on. When the timer shows that 24 hours have
passed, click the incubator to remove the petri dish.

6. Examine the patterns of bacterial growth. The colored area that covers most of the surface of
the petri dish is the lawn culture of the bacteria-a visible layer of thousands of bacterial cells.

7. Drag the ruler to measure the diameters of the zones of inhibition around the disks (the tan
areas).
Some disks may be surrounded by large zones of inhibition, where no bacteria grew due to the
strong inhibitory effect of the antibiotic, antiseptic, or disinfectant on the disks. Other disks may
have caused little or no inhibition-meaning that the bacteria are partially or completely resistant
to the antimicrobial agent on them. To find out which antimicrobial agent corresponds to a
specific number, move the cursor over the number. In the Table, enter the measurement for
each antimicrobial agent.

8. Click the Reset button and repeat the Virtual Lab until you have tested all the antimicrobial
agents on all three types of pathogenic bacteria.

9. Use the data in the Table to compare the effectiveness of different antimicrobial agents on
different bacteria. Complete the Conclusion questions.

Data Table
Sterile Filter Antibacterial Household Household Penicillin Amoxicillin Erythromycin
Bacteria Species
Paper (Control) Soap Bleach Disinfectant
Hemophilus influenzae 0 mm 11 mm 26 mm 15 mm 24 mm 21 mm 10 mm
Staphylococcus aureus 0 mm 8 mm 25mm 15mm 4 mm 6 mm 20 mm
Streptococcus 0mm 9mm 23mm 16mm 28mm 30mm 8mm
pneumoniae
Conclusion Questions
1. Describe the effects of the various antibiotic drugs you used. Were they all
equally effective at controlling bacterial growth? How do you know?

Hemo-Penicillin
Staph- Erythromycin
Strep- Amoxicillin

The antibiotics listed above are the ones that had the greatest impact on
the bacteria they are listed next to. They all impacted the bacteria, however
they did not equally control each type of bacteria. You can see this through
the varying diameters of their zones of inhibition.

2. Describe the effects of various chemical disinfectants you used. Were they all
equally effective at controlling bacterial growth? Would you use them to halt the
growth of bacteria in your home or on your body?

Hemo- bleach
Staph- bleach
Strep-bleach

The household bleach had very good results at removing bacteria with
zones of inhibition values of 23mm, 25mm, and 26mm. However, the household
disinfectant was not as successful with zones of inhibition values of 15mm,
15mm, and 16mm. Therefore, they were not equally effective in controlling
bacterial growth. I would use them to halt progression of bacterial growth,
however the bleach would only be occasionally and for more serious
contaminants such as a bathroom or surface that raw meat was handled on.

3. Compare the effectiveness of the different antibiotic drugs and chemical

disinfectants. Which seem to be better at controlling bacterial growth? Why do
you think this is so?

The antibiotic drugs are more effective at controlling bacterial growth, but only on
the conditions that the correct ones are administered. So for targeted approaches
antibiotic drugs would do better, however for in general household use the
chemical disinfectants would work better because they do not have to be catered
to specific diseases to stop them. However, because of their specificity in
creation, antibiotics do better against individual bacterias because they are
engineered to take down that bacteria based on its specific structure and
functions.

4. If you were a doctor treating a patient infected with Staphylococcus aureus, a

bacterium that causes mild to moderate skin infections, which antibiotic would
you prescribe? Why?
I would prescribe Erythromycin to the patient because when all three antibiotics
were tested against the S. aureus bacteria Erythromycin had the greatest zone of
inhibition at 20mm.

5. Can you think of any limitations of this technique of testing the effectiveness of
antimicrobial agents? If a real person were involved, what other tests might give
you more confidence in your results?

With the testing there is no way to tell how that specific disease will impact an
individual's body, and likewise you wouldn’t know through this form of testing
how the individual’s body would respond to specific antibiotics (ex. allergies).
Another possibility is contamination; between antibiotic disk samples, agar gel,
and disease samples. If a real person were involved you could have them
undergo allergy testing to ensure that they will be able to respond properly to
issued treatments.