I'm trying to figure out the colony morphology characteristics that one should be skeptical of when deciding whether two colony types on the same plate represent morphologic variations of a single genetic organism or two distinct genotypes when mixed culture is a possibility.
I know that colony size is one, as "Relative colony size is driven by the location of adjacent competitors" *
Another one is colony color, as shown in the figures.
What about other characteristics: Form, margin, elevation, etc?
*Chacón, J.M., Möbius, W. & Harcombe, W.R. The spatial and metabolic basis of colony size variation. ISME J 12, 669–680 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-017-0038-0
Is this a pure culture? If not, I suggest you perform separate subcultures of the two colonies to confirm whether they belong to the same strain or distinct strains.
@Hassna Jaber
They are pure cultures. The figures are from published text.
hi,
you may also describe :
The contour: regular or irregular The shine Dry or wet colonies Relief etc.....
You can observe the Margin (entire, undulate, or lobate), Elevation which can be flat, raised, convex, or umbonate, and Texture whether the surface appearance of the colony is smooth, rough, wrinkled, or granular.
You can also observe the degree of transparency or opacity of colonies.
Observe and compare the rate growth of the two colony types. If you have information on the types of nutrients that the organisms use, you can perform additional tests to see if the two colony types show differential growth of these nutrients
If possible, perform microscopic examinations of the colonies to look for differences in cell morphology or structures.
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