The sponge in the kitchen is teeming with organisms. A sponge's unique structure is one of the reasons for repeated contact with food waste. A new way to growbacteria for research could be inspired by this study.
Microbiologists face a lot of challenges, one of which is culturingbacteria that will not grow in a laboratory. Scientists don't know what conditions the organisms need, and some of them are incredibly picky.
Sponges can provide an answer. petri dishes are usually used to growbacteria Lingchong You, a microbiologist at Duke University and senior author of the study, says that sponges are not uniform. Some types ofbacteria need space to form large communities and others need relative isolation so they don't get killed by their neighbors. An ideal range is offered by the mix of larger and smaller chambers.
You say that it is a challenging process to demonstrate that a sponge can be a bacteria farm. The researchers first modeled spongelike environments on a computer and found that different chamber sizes would allow different strains to thrive. They replicated the results in sponges.
McMahon says it is rare to see bothscenarios combined in such a nice way. She wonders if the sponge technique will work with other sensitivebacteria, since You's team focused on Escherichia coli strains that were either dependent on one another or self-sufficient.
Future experiments will show if You's sponges can support wild microbes. He recommends that you wash your kitchen sponge.
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