Week of 08/12/24 Twitch Motility Assay
Introduction Bacterial species lacking a flagella may still be able to move by dragging themselves across a surface using pili. This form of motion, referred to as twitch motility can be observed on thin media plates over a long period of time. Methods Skim Milk Agar 10ml plates were utilized to observe twitch motility because the thin translucent media is conducive to observing the spread of bacteria. 1.5% skim milk plates were poured with a 0.75% agar concentration. Eight plates were poured – two plates for each of the following species: Deinococcus xinjiangensis, Deinococcus radiodurans, Deinococcus ficus, and Deinococcus aquaticus P81. Each of the species were gram stained from a stock plate and inoculated onto the skim agar plates using a specialized method. A sterilized bore was first used to...