Hello HBT.
Does anybody have any links or book recommendations for improving basic knowledge of yeast and bacteria identification, microscope work and techniques for storage, handling, culturing and so on? I've got the yeast book by white and zainasheff already. Ideally something helping me to reliably identify contamination. I've worked with people who'd say that you'd never notice lab in your yeast anyway under a microscope to people who could reliably identify cocci and so on by a quick glance, even in very dense samples. A lot of the skill seems dependent upon your familiarity with the strain.
Last week I pulled a sample from a propagation and found bacillus all over the place. Today I pulled samples from four including the one last week with the aim of ditching one or all and found nothing untoward. I suppose my original sample could have been contaminated on the way to the slide, but I guess I'd be happier improving my knowledge. I stained the first sample, the ones today I didn't. I don't even know if that was crucial!
Does anybody have any links or book recommendations for improving basic knowledge of yeast and bacteria identification, microscope work and techniques for storage, handling, culturing and so on? I've got the yeast book by white and zainasheff already. Ideally something helping me to reliably identify contamination. I've worked with people who'd say that you'd never notice lab in your yeast anyway under a microscope to people who could reliably identify cocci and so on by a quick glance, even in very dense samples. A lot of the skill seems dependent upon your familiarity with the strain.
Last week I pulled a sample from a propagation and found bacillus all over the place. Today I pulled samples from four including the one last week with the aim of ditching one or all and found nothing untoward. I suppose my original sample could have been contaminated on the way to the slide, but I guess I'd be happier improving my knowledge. I stained the first sample, the ones today I didn't. I don't even know if that was crucial!
