General Description

• LB agar plate is a nutrient-rich media frequently used to culture bacteria in the lab, including Escherichia coli

Application

• LB agar plate is used to culture bacteria in microbiology research. These plates are commonly used during cloning experiments to amplify antibiotic-resistant, competent bacteria
• The addition of agar to LB medium helps form a gel that allows bacteria to grow. The bacteria cannot digest the agar but can obtain the needed nutrients to grow from the LB medium
• The addition of ampicillin (100 μg/mL) to these plates allows selection of the bacteria that can grow in the presence of ampicillin which is conferred by a plasmid carrying the antibiotic resistance gene