Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

For my project I have decided to test L. acidophilus as my bacterium. I was planning to buy live probiotic capsules and cut them in half and use an inoculation loop to inoculate my dishes. Is there a better and cheaper way to to this? Thanks in advance!

Hi Rosabella,

Thanks for using the Science Buddies forum! An inoculation loop is a simple and quick way to inoculate bacteria. There are other methods (e.g. using a shaking incubator, https://www.addgene.org/protocols/inocu ... l-culture/) but I don’t see any reason not to use an inoculation loop. A pack of 30 come pretty reasonably priced on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Inoculating-Loop ... B005UDJZEE.

Also, if you need instructions on how to go about streaking your cultures, Science Buddies offers a very convenient set of directions here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... plates.pdf.

Let me know if you have any other questions! I’m happy to help