I have come across some protocols that suggest using pre-cultures that are cells grown from a plate colony over the weekend to stationary then left on the bench at room temperature, that you can keep on the bench for 2-3 weeks. The idea being that you can then inoculate these in fresh media in a similar way to using a colony on a plate, but you have much more cells to work with. My question is whether or not there is much difference between the two in terms of the health of the yeast? And following on, can you scratch a -80 glycerol stock directly to inoculate media rather than using a colony on a plate?

Thanks