GMU:DIY Biolab “Driver’s License”/Eva Walch

BACTERIA INTERACTION WITH PAINTING

In this class I was researching, how bacteria grow. How they differ, depending on the media. I also tried to combine paintings with bacteria

FIRST TRY: Painting with bacteria on paper

In this first try I started with cooking the standart medium out of Miga`s protocol. I also started with figuring out how the medium and bacteria are behaving on paper. Therefor I was cluing the some drawings on some stable underground, to prevent them from rolling, when they are getting wet

Medium recipe (source: Miga’s protocol)

Glucose – 10 g

Peptone – 2.5 g

Yeast extract – 2.5 g

Na2HPO4 – 1.35 g

Citric acid – 0.75 g

Distilled water – 500 ml

Agar – 7.5 g

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after three day you can see, that the bacteria are growing more on the paper than on the medium, there is maybe no need for the agar in the medium because maybe the nutrients were soaked into the paper. (--> see second try without agar)

After 2,5 weeks it changed and the bacteria were growing strong on the medium

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But still I tried to uns the same medium but without agar

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It looks like there is probably not enough liquid, so it did not really work without agar and I went on with the standard medium and started to figure out how I can control the bacteria (see experiment further down)

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When I had a little more knowledge I also tried to let grow two extracted bacteria on two different parts on the drawing. I used some darker, blue bacteria for the mushroom (1) and some green/white looking ones for the surrounding (2). But sadly it did not really work Maybe. it would be more successful to not only use two different kind of bacteria, because they somehow also could move to and other parts of the picture just through the air, but also use two different kind of media.

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SECOND TRY:

• Cooking the same medium but without agar

• Just putting the medium on some paper to see what happens without agar

• After 2.5 weeks:

-->There was probably not enough liquid, so it did not really work without agar

Making different kind of media to create different kind of bacteria fields :

one way could be to change the PH value (source: Wikipedia [1]):

"Unter Selektivnährboden versteht man einen Nährboden, der das Wachstum einer bestimmten Gruppe von Mikroorganismen, beispielsweise bestimmter Bakterien, begünstigt während er die Entwicklung anderer Mikroorganismen unterdrückt. Dies geschieht aufgrund der Zusammensetzung des Nährbodens, da Mikroorganismen unterschiedliche Bedürfnisse hinsichtlich des Kulturmediums in puncto Nährstoffzusammensetzung, pH-Wert etc. besitzen und da einige Stoffe andere Mikroorganismen in ihrem Wachstum hemmen."

• I tried to cook media with different kind of acidity

1. in the first petri dish there is the medium for the Growth of Gluconacetobacter but without citric acid
2. in the second petri dish there is the standart medium for the growth of Gluconacetobacter, which includes some citric acid
3. the third petri dish contains the medium for the growth of Gluconacetobacter, but with the double the amound of citric acid

Coloring bacteria:

In this experiment I try to color bacteria after they grown

• just cooked media for the Growth of Gluconacetobacter, but used Fructose instead of Glucose

after 1 week

trying to extract two different bacteria into two different petri dishes

putting red pigment to the bacteria

after one week:

PUTTING COLOR INTO THE MEDIUM

in this try I was putting ink into the medium, so that it became blue. But after heating it up in the microwave the blue color disappeared. But still the bacteria were growing different than on the normal medium, somehow more intense, maybe because there is more bakteria inside with the added ink

in the second try, I put ink into the medium, but after the heating in the microwave

Further steps:

1. making the bacteria on the paper permanent, with maybe lack
2. using different kind of media to create different kind of bacteria fields
3. creating pictures with more controled media
4. putting color into the medium
5. putting different kind of media in the same petri dish or on one picture