I am testing the inhibitory potential of some environmental Streptomyces. Some of the zones of inhibition are not immediately apparent and you have to tilt the plates against the light to see the contrast between the bacterial growth and inhibition. I read several years ago that there was a way of staining the bacteria on the plate to provide better contrast and therefore enable better images to be made for publication. Has anyone heard of this method ? and what stain is used ?
No I do not advice you to do such stain. The clear result is the clear inhibition zone and a clear picture to be accounte as positive inhibition zone against sensitive organisms.The technique you would do it is not welcomed in publication.
Thanks for the replies but I knew I heard of methods which were used previously, I just could not remember where. The author of the paper below very kindly supplied me with some information from his paper which sets out very good methods to visualize inhibitory zones.
Article: Better visualization and photodocumentation of zone of
inhibition by staining cells and background agar differently
Mrinal K Bhattacharjee
The Journal of Antibiotics 68, 657-659 (October 2015)
If for the purpose of photographing and documentation, i suggest spraying the plates with 0.1 tetrazolium chloride. Areas of bacterial growth will turn red after about 15 minutes.
Thanks Phil Geis. The stain was as a better way of presenting the data. The zones of inhibition can be seen in most instances but in some strains the plates have to be tilted against the light to see the contrast . However, now I have read the paper above and tested the methods I see the method can be used to visualize inhibition at earlier time points.
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