How to tally diversity and abundance of bacteria?
How to tally diversity and abundance of bacteria?
I am attempting to complete a particular homework assignment for my microbiology class. For whatever reason, it escapes me how to identify the diversity and abundance of bacteria in a mixed culture.
I guess in more direct terms I am looking for a method that identifies bacteria and counts them. I know 16s rRNA sequencing would give hints in terms of diversity, but I dunno how I would “count” the abundance of certain species :(.
Best answer:
Answer by Jub B
In our lab we used density and dilution/plating. Density was how many cells were blocking the light waves would show the growth over time in a closed environment. But it will not tell you the size of an individual (this is more for growth curves)
We would then dilute the bacteria to the point where there would only be a few per petri dish (I can’t remember how much but for simplicity say 1:1000) then you spread it over a petri dish and let them grow, and every colony is a cell from the original population then you can calculate how much is in the original since you know the precise dilution. This works to count how many but if you want to know diversity there needs to be a phenotype (size of colony, colour etc). Each variety would also have to be present in large quantity (if there was just one going through its year cycle it would not show up on the dilution.
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