media - limitations and uses of different types of media (Mar/14/2007 )

hi,

What are the limitations and uses of the following types of media?

- nutrient agar
- MacConkey agar
- blood agar
- salt agar
- mannitol salt agar
- Sabourauds agar
- MRS medium
- yeast mannitol agar

Any help is appreciated...thnx in advance

Here's a head start list, since that's a question that requires a long answer _kimberley. so i saved some trouble for others in searching and everyone, please feel free to edit my post to add more uses and other info...

Nutrient Agar:
1) grows bacteria and fungi in general but not viruses.

MacConkey Agar:
1) grow Gram-negative bacteria and stain them for lactose fermentation.
2) distinguishes those Gram-negative bacteria that can ferment the sugar lactose (Lac+) from those that cannot (Lac-).
3)is readily implemented in the clinical diagnosis of diarrhea.
4) A variant, Sorbitol-MacConkey agar, permits the isolation and differentiation of enteropathogenic E. coli serotypes.

Blood Agar
1) most bacteria will grow on this medium.

Sabouraud Agar
1) Used for fungi
2) kills most bacteria because it has a low pH.
3) It contains gentamicin, which is a aminoglycoside antibiotic that can treat many different types of bacterial infections, particularly Gram-negative infection

MRS medium
for enrichment, cultivation and isolation of all species of Lactobacillus from all types of material

Yeast mannitol agar
1) used for cultivation, isolation and enumeration of soil microorganisms like Rhizobium species.

may i suggest to _Kimberly to try use in the google search bar:
1) salt+agar+uses or salt+agar+usability for Salt agar
2) mannitol+salt+agar+uses or mannitol+salt+usability for Mannitol salt agar

this could help you in future homeworks instead of having to wait until someone replies to your post...
it's 20 March and your post is on 14 March. So is ur homework time-limit over yet?