Microbiology Media

·         Sheep blood agar supports the growth of most bacteria, both gram-positive and gram-negative.

·         Chocolate agar provides the growth requirements for fastidious organisms such as H. influenzae or N. gonorrhoeae, as well as for most other less-fastidious bacteria.

·         MacConkey agar supports most gram-negative rods, especially the Enterobacteriaeceae, but inhibits growth of gram-positive organisms and some fastidious gram-negative bacteria, such as haemophilus and neisseria species.

·         Thayer-Martin medium, which is composed of chocolate agar supplemented with several antibiotics, suppresses the growth of nonpathogenic Neisseria and other normal and abnormal flora, but permits the growth of gonococcus.

·         Hektoen enteric agar, Xylose Lysine DCA Agar  are also a selective medium often used to culture Salmonella and Shigella species.

·         C. diphtheriae can be isolated most easily from a selective medium, such as Tinsdale's agar, which contains potassium tellurite.

·         Loeffler's coagulated serum medium. On this medium, C diphtheriae produces polyphosphate storage granules (called volutin granules) that stain variegated blue/red (metachromatic).

·         Tellurite-containing differential medium. C diphtheriae imports and reduces tellurite, turning the colonies gray to black.

·         Mycoplasma or PPLO culture medium: mycoplasma

·         Regan-Lowe or Bordet-Gengou medium: Bordetella pertussis

·         S.aureus is the only Staphylococcus to grow on mannitol salt agar with fermentation of the mannitol and production of acid. (This is a surveillance medium.)

·         charcoal yeast extract medium: LEGIONELLA PNEUMOPHILA

·         potassium cyanide medium: MORGANELLA MORGANII

·         C. albicans is identified by the ability to produce germ tubes and/or chlamydospores in cornmeal agar

·         Thiosulfate citrate bile salts sucrose (TCBS) medium: V.cholerae

·         Mueller Hinton Agar: Meningococci

·         BCYE = Buffered Charcoal Yeast Agar: Legionells

·         Wagatsuma Agar:  V.parahaemolyticus (Kanagava Phenomenon)

·          Cysteine Glucose Blood Agar: F.tularensis

·         Nonnutrient agar overlaid with E.coli: N.fowleri / Acanthameba

·         cefsulodin-irgasan-novobiocin (CIN) - a medium selective for Yersinia

·         Sabouraud dextrose agar, which, because of its low pH (5.0), inhibits bacterial growth while allowing fungal colonies to form: Most fungi

·         Lowenstein-Jensen medium: an egg-based solid medium that supports the growth of Mycobacterium species, including M. tuberculosis.

·         Eosin methylene blue: differentiates E coli as metallic green colonies, whereas pathogenic, nonlactose-fermenting Salmonella and Shigella organisms are translucent. Inhibits gram-positive organisms via aniline dyes.

·         Salmonella-Shigella (bile salt and sodium citrate)    

·         Campy agar: campylobacter jejuni

·         Skirrow agar: campylobacter jejuni