In: Biology
You are assigned the task of determining the bacterial density of newly-grown culture. You decide that you will analyze the sample with two methods, spectrophotometry and dilution plating. Your results show the sample tested using spectrophotometry had a bacteria density that was roughly ten folds that of the plated sample. Please explain in detail.
Spectrophotometry is a method where the density is measured by taking the sample and analyzing the amount of light absorbed by the molecules present in the sample. The intensity of the light emitted and the color (wavelength) give indication of the density.
In the dilution plating method, the sample is diluted numerous times to the negative power of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on up to 10. The last sample is the most diluted and this sample is plated. The plated sample allows us to observe the individual colonies and molecules. The bacteria or the molecules present are calculated on the plate and is multiplied per ml of the sample accordingly.
It must be noted that in spectrophotometry method a small amount of the sample is taken and tested for density. The sample is not diluted and hence, the concentration may appear tenfold higher in the spectrophotometry. On the other hand, in dilution plating the sample is diluted several times and the last sample that is collected is 1x10-10, which is tenfold lower than the original sample.