Apparatus & Techniques: Investigating Growth Rate Using Turbitity Measurements
- The population growth rate of microorganisms, such as bacteria or yeast, can be investigated by growing the microorganisms in a broth culture
- The turbidity of the suspension can then be used as a way of estimating the number of cells (i.e. the population size) of the microorganisms in the broth culture
- Turbidity is simply a measure of the cloudiness of a suspension (i.e. how much light can pass through it)
- As the microorganisms in the broth culture reproduce and their population grows, the suspension becomes progressively more turbid (cloudy)
- This changing turbidity can be monitored by measuring how much light can pass through the suspension at fixed time intervals after the initial inoculation of the nutrient broth with the microorganisms
- A turbidity meter, a light sensor or a colorimeter (connected to a datalogger) can be used to take these measurements
- The results can then be used to plot a population growth curve to show how the population of microorganism grew over time