Culture

How it is used

Common phrases: bacterial culture, cell culture, pure culture and overnight culture. The nutrient material is the culture medium (liquid broth or solid agar). In clinics, a culture identifies the microbe behind an infection, as in a blood culture.

Example sentences

1. Inoculate 5 mL of LB broth and grow the culture overnight at 37 °C.

2. We cultured the cells in medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum.

Common collocations

• bacterial culture
• cell culture
• pure culture
• overnight culture
• culture medium

Related terms

• petri dishA shallow, round, clear dish with a lid, used to grow microorganisms or cells on a layer of agar or another culture medium.
• incubateTo keep samples, cultures or eggs at a controlled temperature, and sometimes humidity or gas level, for a set time so that growth or a reaction can take place.
• aseptic techniqueA set of working methods that stop unwanted microorganisms from contaminating cultures, samples, equipment or the person doing the work.
• bacteriaSingle-celled microorganisms without a nucleus that live almost everywhere, from soil and water to the human gut. Most are harmless or useful; some cause disease.
• microorganismA living thing too small to see without a microscope, such as a bacterium, a yeast or a single-celled alga. Viruses are often studied alongside them.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• culture · Sociology

More terms: Microbiology

• virus
• pathogen
• fungus
• host