A

David

Darling

culture

In microbiology, a culture is the controlled growth of living cells in an artificial medium, often in a Petri dish. The cells may be microorganisms isolated and studied in a pure culture, or made to compete with each other under various environmental and nutritional conditions; or they may be cells from animal or plant tissue cultivated for studies of heredity and function. The culture medium usually contains water, gelatin, or agar, salts, and various nutrients.