Question

What is pure culture?

Answer 1

Hint: Pure culture includes microorganisms in which there is no contamination of any other microorganism. Culture is usually taken of bacteria, virus and fungi and kept in sterile conditions therefore keeping other microbes away.

Complete Answer:
1. Microbiology is the branch of biology in which microbes are studied such as their types, their role in the environment, their benefits and disadvantages and their morphology and anatomy.
2. In a pure culture, a single species of microorganism is grown and cultured and it is kept away from other microbes and contamination. The microbe is kept away from other strains of microbe.
3. Microbes influence our lives to a great extent and play a great role in our day to day activities. We are so much surrounded by microbes that we cannot imagine our lives without them.
4. Some of the microbes are useful to humans such as to make antibiotics while others can be harmful such as some disease causing microbes and some can be parasitic too on certain plants and animals.
5. Some of the useful microbes are the ones which are used in our household products to make food items or industrial products to make antibiotics and beverages, some are used to treat sewage water.
6. Microbes are greatly used for the production of biogas especially in rural areas and even as biocontrol agents and biofertilizers in agriculture industry and farmlands to reduce the dependence of chemical fertilizers.
7. Lactic acid bacteria or lactobacillus are used in homes to make curd. Baker’s yeast or Saccharomyces cerevisiae are used to make bread or other fermentation products used in our daily life.
8. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used to make beverages such as wine, beer, whisky, brandy and rum. Here the yeast used is called Brewer's yeast. Antibiotics are the medicines which are produced by certain microbes and inhibit the growth of other microbes.
9. Microbes are greatly used as biocontrol agents to control pests and diseases where the pests are not eradicated completely but are kept at the manageable levels. Bacillus thuringiensis is the bacteria greatly used to control butterfly caterpillars.

Note: Microbes are even used to make certain organic acids, alcohols and enzymes at commercial and industrial level. For example, Aspergillus niger is a fungus used to make citric acid; Acetobacter aceti is a bacterium used to make acetic acid;Clostridium butylicum is a bacterium used to make butyric acid and Lactobacillus is a bacterium used to make lactic acid.