microbiology
A glossary of bench microbiology terms
Plain definitions of colony, lawn, streak, pellet, transformant and the other bench words a cloning afternoon depends on.
8 October 2026 · 10 min read
Topic cluster
Microbiology
Bacterial culture, transformation and plating for cloning strains, with selection logic and biosafety boundaries.
All topicsBuffers and laboratory water26Cell culture26Chromatography26Cold chain and sample storage26Cytometry and microscopy26DNA sequencing26Gels and blotting26Gene expression26Genome editing26Immunoassays26Laboratory labware26Laboratory safety26Liquid handling26Microbiology26Molecular cloning26Nucleic acid purification26PCR and amplification26Protein biochemistry26Proteomics26Research sourcing and study design26
cold chainbiosafetyenquiryglossarytroubleshootingcloningmicrobiologycontaminationcontrolsautoclaveexpressionaseptic techniqueplatestransformationcontainmentenzymesantibioticscolonies
26 articles
microbiology
Antibiotic selection and blue-white screening
How antibiotic plates keep a plasmid in a cloning strain, and why a white colony on X-gal is a candidate rather than proof of the insert.
8 October 2026 · 9 min read
microbiology
Antibiotic stocks and outdated plates
How to retire antibiotic stocks and agar plates for cloning strains when heat, age or drying would fake a lawn or an empty plate.
8 October 2026 · 8 min read
microbiology
Autoclaving media and antibiotic timing
An autoclave is pressurised steam, and heat-labile antibiotics go in only after the medium has cooled. This glossary separates those steps from a warm oven.
8 October 2026 · 8 min read
Pillar · microbiology
Bacterial culture and transformation
How non-pathogenic E. coli cloning strains are grown and how plasmid DNA is introduced, with the controls that make a colony meaningful.
8 October 2026 · 10 min read
microbiology
Biosafety for non-pathogenic cloning work
Disabled K-12 cloning strains are still living bacteria. This page lists practices that match low-risk plasmid work and leaves the containment level to the institution.
8 October 2026 · 8 min read
microbiology
Colony picking without mixing clones
How to move one isolated colony of a cloning strain into one labelled tube so the miniprep is not a mixture of neighbours.
8 October 2026 · 9 min read
microbiology
Comparing chemical and electrocompetent cells
Chemical competence uses salt and a heat shock. Electrocompetence uses a low-salt cell and a pulse. The DNA cleanup has to match the method you chose.
8 October 2026 · 9 min read
microbiology
Competent cell handling on ice
How to thaw, hold and plate chemically competent E. coli so the cells stay cold and the colony still reports the DNA you added.
8 October 2026 · 11 min read
microbiology
Disposal of bacterial waste
Liquid cultures, agar plates, tips and sharps are different waste. The institution chooses inactivation. This page lists the questions to take to the safety office.
8 October 2026 · 8 min read
microbiology
Glycerol stocks that actually recover
How to freeze a verified E. coli clone in glycerol and revive it from the ice so the recovered colony is the one you archived.
8 October 2026 · 7 min read
microbiology
Growth curves and when to induce
Why induction of a lac-type promoter belongs in exponential growth, and why an OD600 reading is turbidity rather than a cell count.
8 October 2026 · 10 min read