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Luminescent bacteria and didactics

Luminescent bacteria (particularly the organism Photobacterium phosphoreum) are well-suited for use in schools. These are some features which make Photobacterium phosphoreum the good organism to didactical usage.:

• Good accessibility

If you are not able to get luminous bacteria from laboratory cultures you can isolate it from sea-fish or squid
Here you can find detailed description how to do it ...

Isolation of pure cultures of bacteria - Vibrio phosphoreum materials from Indiana Biolab written by Harold Eddleman

• Low nutritional requirements

You do not need many ingredients and time to prepare microbiological medium for cultivation of Photobacterium phosphoreum.

MICROBIOLOGICAL MEDIA FOR CULTIVATION OF LUMINESCENT BACTERIA

• Low incubation requirements

The room temperature (20 - 22°C) is the optimal for growth of luminous bacteria. So, you do not need special equipment (e.g. incubators) to cultivate these bacteria.

• The high growth rate

Sometimes I observed weak luminescence of growing bacteria after a few hours of incubation but well visible, bright glowing colonies of Photobacterum phosphoreum you can observe after 24 - 48 h of incubation.

• They focus attention and interest

The bacterial bioluminescence is one from the most spectacular phenomena which can be observed in microbiological courses. This can diversify the classes and develop interest of young people.

• Luminous bacteria generally do not cause diseases

After all taking care is necessary like in case of work with any other microorganisms.

• Luminous bacteria are marine microorganisms so there is no chance that they will fugitively proliferate in environment

• Photobacterium phosphoreum is good bacterium to learn isolation of pure bacterial cultures

Ability of luminescence causes that on the constant, microbiological medium the brief appreciation of purity of isolation is possible - even if processed through beginners.

• It is possible to use the luminescent bacteria in practical courses of molecular biology

Since bioluminescence is an unusual trait, it is very useful for teaching molecular biology methods such as isolation of DNA, making a gene library, cloning of gene of luciferase, transformation with plasmid carrying luciferase gene, luciferase gene amplification (PCR) etc.

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