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streak plate technique

This is a common microbiological technique for the isolation of bacterial cultures . This technique involves streaking a loopful of bacteria across a solid medium, making sure that the cells are spread over the surface so that when allowed to grow and reproduce each individual cell will, then, give rise to a colony of genetically identical cells - a clonal population. Each colony will then serve as the source for a pure colony of genetically identical cells. This technique is essential for isolating clonal populations of bacteria in order to determine the number, and to identify bacteria present in a particular sample.