TITLE

Investigation presence of microorganisms in air and if different media can favour microbial
growth

PREPARED BY : Edward Chawinga, bed-phy-46-24@unima.ac.mw

ABSTRACT

The experiment was conducted on microorganisms with an aim to either accept or not
accepting two hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that there are no microorganisms in air and
the second hypothesis was that different media favour growth of all microorganisms. There are
different media that can be used to culture microorganisms. Thes including Malt extract
agar(MEA), Nutrient Agar(NA), Potato Dextrose Agar(PDA) and many more. This experiment
was provided only with NA and PDA. The experiment was set into four areas; in the
laboratory,in toilets, outside the laboratory and also in the forest.In each area there were two
Petri dishes;one with PDA and the other one with NA.After a week the results were checked
and it was found that for all the Petri dishes there was a number of microorganisms that were
growing. This is likely to not accept the hypothesis that there are no microbes in air and to
accept the hypothesis which says that different media favour growth of all microbes.

INTRODUCTION

According to Tortora (2019), microbes also called microorganisms are different groups of
organisms that are not related and are very small that you cannot see them with naked eyes.
There are are different groups of microbes such as bacteria,fungi among others.
Microorganisms grow in nutrient abundant environment. Most of microorganisms require areas
of good pH as well as diverse growth resources (Smithsonian, ©2020). Furthermore, according
to Tortora, some microbes grow well in temperatures similar to human These microbes can also
be cultured for experiments or other purposes.In laboratory microorganisms can be cultured
using different media.Before culturing the media is first sterilized through heating at 121°C and
at high pressure because air contains different living things that might fall on the culture and
therefore resulting into wrong results (Graffiat,2021). To identify bacteria or fungi after a week
from culturing is simply through observation.According to Hobson(1997), bacterial colonies are
small, smooth with regular edges, while fungal colonies are larger and have fuzzy or powdery
textures with irregular margins and varied colors.According to the instructions on the
experiment, "bacteria and yeast may appear as coloured drops of shinny fluid while other fungi
may appear circular, fluffy,white around the edges and coloured at the centre.

METHODOLOGY

The four benches were provided with two petri dishes each. One petri dish had Potato Dextrose
Agar (PDA) and the other one had Nutrient Agar(NA). Groups from the four benches took their
petri dishes to different areas. One group went to the forest, others to the outside, another
group to the toilets while the last group remained in the laboratory. The petri dishes in all the
areas were oped for five minutes while moving them around. The petri contents were
incubated for five days. The results were collected after five days.

RESULTS

After five days the microbes that were cultured , some kinds of growth as per the expected
observation on the appearance of either bacteria or fungi. The colonies were counted as
presented in the following tables.
 Table 1 : Microbes colonies in PDA

SITE/AREA BACTERIA COLONIES FUNGI COLONIES

LABORATORY 1 5

TOILETS 2 4

OUTSIDE 17 27

FOREST 18 18

CONTROL SET UP 0 0

Table 2: Microbes colonies in NA medium

SITE BACTERIA COLONIES FUNGI COLONIES

LABORATORY 5 6

TOILETS 10 6

OUTSIDE 18 39

FOREST 17 20

CONTROL SET UP 0 0

DISCUSSIONS

The results showed that in all petri dishes different microbes grew except for that of the control
set up. However there were varying numbers of the microbes in different media as well as in
different places. Firstly on comparing the number of microorganisms growing on both media, it
was observed that outside and forest had more microbes than toilets and laboratory. This may
be so because the toilets and laboratory are mostly affected with disinfectants and chemicals
which is not essential for microbial presence and for the case of outside and forest, the
microbes are many because of diverse growth habitats as well as rare
disinfectants.Smithsonian(©2020) microbes are more present in areas with more nutrients and
other growth favouring factors. However they are unlikely to be present in disinfected areas.
On comparing PDA and NA, it was also found that PDA had more fungi than bacteria growing
on it while for NA the number of fungi and that of bacteria were very close. (Note: this is based
on each site separately). According to Slonczewsk and Forster (2017), PDA has more sugars
that supports the growth of fungi but it's pH is not much suitable for bacteria that's why
number of fungi differ from number of bacteria. Slonczewsk and Forster also say that NA has a
wide range of nutrients and has almost a neutral pH which favours growth of all microbes. Not
only that but also according to Madigan et Al (2019), different microbes require different
nutrients for them to grow. In addition to what was observed,concepts discuss that air contains
very small dust particles and the dust contains different living micro-organisms. Air acts as
microbial dispersal means(Tortora,2010.)..

CONCLUSION

The experiment was to show if air does not contain microorganisms and if different media favor
growth of different microorganisms. The collected results showed that there were microbes in
the air as it was seen that microbes were growing in the petri dishes and it was also that in both
NA and PDA, microbes were able to grow. This can give a sense to not accept the hypothesis
which says that there are no microbes in air while accepting the hypothesis which says that
different media favour growth of all microorganisms.

REFERENCES
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