What are the differences between streak plate technique and pour plate technique?

Answer 1

Streak Plate:

Pure colonies of bacterial or other microorganisms can be obtained on petri dishes by streak plate. The microbial mixture is transfered to the edge of an agar plate with an inoculating loop or swab and then streaked out over the surface in one of several patterns. After the first sector is streaked in dish, the inoculating loop is sterlized and an inoculum for the second sector is obtained from the first sector. The same is done for third and fourth sector. Thus this is a dilution process. Eventually, very few cells will be on inoculating loop, a single cells will drop from it as it is rubbed along the agar surface. These develop into seprate colonies.

Pour Plate:

Extensively used with procaryotes and fungi, a pour plate also can yield isolated colonies. The original sample is diluted several times to reduce the microbial population sufficiently to obtain separate colonies when plating. Then small volumes of several diluted samples are mixed with liquid agar that has been cooled to about 45oC and the mixture are poured immediately into sterile culture dishes. Most bacteria and fungi are not killed by a brief exposure to the warm agar. After the agar has hardened each cell is fixed in place and forms an individual colony.

Answer 2

In pour plate technique the microoganisms are suspended in between the culture media because the inoculation is done when the media is cool enough not to denature microoganisms nor too hot to kill them,diluting them to distribute them then incubating them.Growth is observed suspended. On the other side the spread plate technique the microorganisms are on the surface and not suspended since we use the glass rod to inoculate.

Answer 3

Some advantages of pour plate technique are: it counts only living cells and it is a standardized test, which is used worldwide. Some disadvantages of this method are: it generally takes a long time to incubate bacteria and osmotic shocks can occur.

Answer 4

Streak plate technique involves streaking a sample onto a solid agar plate to isolate individual colonies, while pour plate technique involves mixing a sample with melted agar and pouring it into a plate to allow for colony growth both on the surface and within the agar. Streak plate is suitable for samples with higher microbial loads, while pour plate is better for quantifying the number of organisms in a sample as colonies will grow both on the surface and within the agar.

Answer 5

In the pour plate, the microorganisms will grow within the gel that has been set, and in the spread-plate technique, growth will be on top of the agar gel where it has been spread.