How to Prepare Agar Slants?
An agar slant tube (or simply an agar slant) is a screw-capped culture tube partly filled with an agar mix such as nutrient agar, R2A agar, or TSA.
To make it a slant tube the agar is allowed to cool with the tube laying at an angle, resulting in a large surface area for spreading a culture.
Agar Slants Preparation Way
1. Place screw cap test tubes in a test tube rack (without the caps).
2. Prepare a nutrient agar medium and boil it with stirring until all the agar is melted. You must stir this very well so that the melted agar is distributed throughout the medium.
3. Use a pipette to transfer about 5 ml of molten agar to each test tube.
4. When all the tubes contain hot agar, place the caps loosely on the tubes.
5. Sterilize the tubes at 121° C for 15 minutes with caps loosely on.
6. While the medium is till hot, tilt the rack onto a thick book or other solid surface so that the medium in the tubes is slanted. Allow the medium to harden in this position.
7. When the medium is cool, tighten the caps.
8. These tubes can be stored at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
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Resource Person: Heba Awadallah
