Difference Between Pour Plate and Spread Plate

The main difference between pour plate and spread plate is that the molten agar is poured on to the inoculum during the preparation of the pour plate whereas inoculum is spread on the surface of the solidified agar during the preparation of the spread plate.

1. What is a pour plate?
2. What are spread plates?
3. What is the difference between the results of streak plating and pour plating?
4. Which are advantages of the streak plate method when compared to the pour plate method?
5. Which is better pour plate or spread plate?
6. What is the disadvantage of the streak plate technique?
7. How do you spread a plate?
8. How are spread plates calculated?
9. What is the advantage of pour plate method?
10. Does the pour plate or streak plate technique take more skill?
11. Why serial dilution is carried out before plating?
12. What is the purpose of a streak plate?

What is a pour plate?

: a plate prepared by mixing the inoculum with the cooled but still fluid medium before pouring the latter into the petri dish.

What are spread plates?

The spread plate method is a technique to plate a liquid sample containing bacteria so that the bacteria are easy to count and isolate. A successful spread plate will have a countable number of isolated bacterial colonies evenly distributed on the plate.

What is the difference between the results of streak plating and pour plating?

The main difference between streak plate and pour plate is that in streak plate, the first to be added is the melted nutrient agar and the second to be added is a loop of bacteria from a slant, whereas the first to be added in pour plate is the bacterial broth and the second to be added is the nutrient agar.

Which are advantages of the streak plate method when compared to the pour plate method?

What advantage does the streak plate method have over the pour-plate method? The streak plate method does not require any additional media for dilution and only requires one plate for inoculation.

Which is better pour plate or spread plate?

The main difference between pour plate and spread plate is that the molten agar is poured on to the inoculum during the preparation of the pour plate whereas inoculum is spread on the surface of the solidified agar during the preparation of the spread plate.

What is the disadvantage of the streak plate technique?

Disadvantages. The streak plate method does not work with high volumes of organisms. It will not enable you to get a concentration count. It requires huge storage space and there is a possibility that your incubator cannot accommodate a large volume of petri plate.

How do you spread a plate?

The spread plate technique involves using a sterilized spreader with a smooth surface made of metal or glass to apply a small amount of bacteria suspended in a solution over a plate. The plate needs to be dry and at room temperature so that the agar can absorb the bacteria more readily.

How are spread plates calculated?

Calculation of result:

For example, suppose the plate of the 10^6 dilution yielded a count of 130 colonies. Then, the number of bacteria in 1 ml of the original sample can be calculated as follows: Bacteria/ml = (130) x (10^6) = 1.3 × 10^8 or 130,000,000.

What is the advantage of pour plate method?

The most common method for determining the total viable count is the pour-plate method. The pour plate technique can be used to determine the number of microbes/ mL in a specimen. It has the advantage of not requiring previously prepared plates and is often used to assay bacterial contamination of foodstuffs.

Does the pour plate or streak plate technique take more skill?

Does the pour plate or streak plate method take more skill? The streak plate requires more skill, as you need to have some "sleight-of-hand" to properly "drag" and "squiggle" your inoculum across your plate quadrants, allowing proper spacing between colonies.

Why serial dilution is carried out before plating?

Serial dilutions are used to calculate the concentration of microorganisms. As it would usually be impossible to actually count the number of microorganisms in a sample, the sample is diluted and plated to get a reasonable number of colonies to count.

What is the purpose of a streak plate?

Agar streak plates are an essential tool in microbiology. They allow bacteria and fungi to grow on a semi-solid surface to produce discrete colonies. These colonies can be used to help identify the organism, purify the strain free of contaminants, and produce a pure genetic clone.