海洋性発光細菌を用いた微生物実験教材キットの試作と試用

概要

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Our objective of this research is to make safe and easy access for students to basic microbiological experiments at high schools and universities. We used a marine bioluminescent bacterium, Photobacterium phosphoreum strain OC2-1 at four classes, one in a high school in 2005 and other in 2008, and other two in a university in 2006. At the beginning of each class, all students learned the principle of obtaining bacterial single colonies by dilution, and practiced streaking and spreading OC2-1 cultures onto agar media after serial dilution. University students further conducted three kinds of experiments to study the effects of oxygen depletion, osmotic stress and immobilization by alginate calcium on the bacterial luminescence. In 2008’s practice, a hand-made luminometer which was comprised of a solar battery and a voltmeter was used to monitor the light output from the bacterial culture. According to the results of the questionnaire to ask students for their opinions on the practice, we concluded that the experiments with bioluminescent bacterium captured students' interests, and fostered better understanding of microorganisms.