Editing Bacterial lawn

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[[Image:Bacterial lawn 01.jpg|thumb|right|A bacterial lawn used in antibiotic resistance testing.]]
'''Bacterial lawn''' is a term used by [[microbiologist]]s to describe the appearance of [[bacteria]]l [[Colony (biology)|colonies]] when all the individual colonies on a [[Petri dish]] or [[agar plate]] merge to form a field or mat of bacteria. Bacterial lawns find use in screens for [[antibiotic resistance]] and [[bacteriophage]] titering.

Bacterial lawns (often of ''[[Serratia marcescens]]'')  are also used extensively when as an assay method when using [[bacteriophage]] as tracers in studies of groundwater flow.

Although occasionally used as a synonym for [[biofilm]], the term primarily applies to the simple, clonal, unstructured mats of organisms that typically only form on laboratory growth media. Biofilms&mdash;the aggregated form of [[microorganism]]s most commonly found in [[nature]]&mdash; are generally more complex and diverse and marked by larger quantities of extracellular structural matrix relative to the cellular [[Biomass (ecology)|biomass]].

== Techniques ==
Bacterial lawns can be produced manually by evenly spreading a high amount of bacteria onto an agar plate using a sterile [[cotton swab]] or a [[Drigalski spatula]]. Alternatively an automated machine can be used such as a [[spiral plater]] where the plate is rotated and the sample is spread evenly using an automated dispenser.

They may also be produced using the "pour plate" technique<ref>{{cite web|url=https://practicalbiology.org/standard-techniques/making-a-pour-plate|title=Making a pour plate|access-date=8 April 2021|publisher=Royal Society of Biology|date=October 2011}}</ref> in which a concentrated inoculum of the appropriate bacteria are mixed with melted agar and spread evenly over the surface of a Petri dish.

== See also ==
* [[Antibiotic resistance]]
* [[Miles and Misra method|Miles-Misra method]]
* [[Bacterial culture]]
* [[Antibiotic sensitivity]]
* [[Etest]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
* {{cite book | editor = Madigan, Michael |editor2=Martinko, John | title = Brock Biology of Microorganisms | edition = 11th | publisher = Prentice Hall | year = 2005 | isbn = 0-13-144329-1 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacterial Lawn}}
[[Category:Bacteria]]
[[Category:Microbiology terms]]