• Question: have u ever had to serch compost for ur bacteria

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      Asked by sunnygarfeth to John, Laura, Luke, Rob, Ruth on 13 Jun 2016.
      • Photo: Laura Finney

        Laura Finney answered on 13 Jun 2016:

        Nope, unfortunately I don’t work with bacteria at all but this does sound like it would be fun!

      • Photo: John Fossey

        John Fossey answered on 13 Jun 2016:

        No, but I know lots of people are searching for new antibiotics in soil and compost

      • Photo: Luke Williams

        Luke Williams answered on 13 Jun 2016:

        Nope, fortunately that had been done for me back in the 1970’s!

        The bacteria were isolated back then and stored “cleanly” as samples stored at -80 oC which I can then grow as I need. I also typically worked with isolated enzymes, meaning that I didn’t use the original whole cells very much. I would just extract the DNA from them to use in my work, relying mostly on E. coli which is much much easier to grow.

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