Today after lecture we went to the lab to check the results of our motile test. We had previously inoculated a medium solution in test tubes with both E. coli and S. aureus. We wanted to see whether after incubation they would move from the initial site of transfer, throughout the media. Here are pics of our results:
Clearly, the E. coli is able to move about much more freely than the S. aureus on the left, which is interesting because I read that E. coli don’t normally produce flagella in culture but only in nature as they have to search more for their nutrients. So I wonder what makes them so much more motile. Also below is included a pic of our E. coli inoculum for good measure:
Joshua Wilson 