Question

Describe two ways of growing anaerobic cultures, one chemical and one physical.

Answer 1

Anaerobic cultures can be grown by reducing the O2 content of culture medium and removing oxygen already present inside the system or in the medium.

Physical way of growing anaerobic cultures -

Bottles or tubes filled completely to the top with culture medium and provided with tightly fitting stopper. This process is suitable for organisms that are not too sensitive for small amounts of oxygen.

Chemical method of growing anaerobic culture -

This process includes addition of a reducing agent that reacts with the oxygen and reduces it to the water as like thioglycolate in thioglycolate broth. After the thioglycolate reacts with oxygen throughout the tube , oxygen can penetrate only near the top of the tube where the medium is in contact with the air.