---+ Standard Microbiological Practices _aka the approximately Ten Commandments of Microbiology_ 1 *Do not overfill your culture vessels* <br> When growing cultures in Erlenmeyer flasks, never exceed 20% of the capacity of the flask (e.g., 10 ml for a 50 ml flask). Doing so prevents adequate agitation and aeration of the culture and will result in incomplete growth, biofilms, or other inconsistencies. 1 *Always precondition your culture in the media in which you will be doing your experiment* <br> Otherwise your cultures may not consistently be int he same physiological state when you do your experiment. 1 *Always wash auxotrophic cells when transferring from rich media to minimal media* <br> Or else you may carry over enough of an amino acid or vitamin for the cells to grow. 1 *Thou shalt not shock thy cells by washing them in water* <br> Bacterial cells will rapidly die due to extreme osmotic shock if resuspended in pure water. It is safest to wash your cells with growth medium. Robust microbes such as _E. coli_ can be washed in sterile saline. If you are using another microbial species, you need to test whether this is safe.
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Topic revision: r1 - 2014-07-25 - JeffreyBarrick