A microbiological culture, or microbial culture, is a method of growing a microbial organism to determine what it is, its abundance in the sample being tested, or both. It is one of the primary diagnostic methods of microbiology. It is often used a tool to determine the cause of infectious disease by letting the agent multiply (reproduce) in predetermined media in laboratory.

The most common method of microbiological culture uses Petri dishes with a layer of agar-based growth medium in them to grow bacterial cultures. This is generally done inside of an incubator.

The term culture can also, though infrequently and informally, be used as a synonym for tissue culture, which involves the growth of cells or tissues explanted from a multi-cellular organism.

Types of culture

• Blood culture
• Sputum culture
• Tissue culture
• Culture of various fluids such as pleural fluid and peritoneal fluid
• Urine culture

See also

• Screening cultures

Laboratory techniques

Culture microbiologique | 培養 | Cultura bacteriana