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Appl Environ Microbiol. 1972 November; 24(5): 778-785
Copyright © 1972 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Automatic Surface Inoculation of Agar Trays¹

^a National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Langley Research Center, and Northrop Services, Inc., Hampton, Virginia 23365

ABSTRACT

A machine is described which automatically inoculates a plastic tray containing agar media with a culture by use of either a conventional inoculating loop or a cotton swab. Isolated colonies were obtained with an inoculating loop when a heavy inoculum (10⁹ cells/ml) was used or with a cotton swab when a light inoculum (ca. 10⁴ cells/ml) was used. Trays containing combinations of differential or selective media were used to (i) separate mixtures of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, (ii) facilitate isolation of organisms from clinical specimens, and (iii) compare colony growth characteristics of pure cultures. The design of the machine is simple, it is easy to use, and it relieves the operator from the manual task of streaking cultures.

¹ Patent application has been approved for filing by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.