What is the difference between selective and differential media?
Microbiology? Selective media is a media that inhibits growth of some bacteria, but serves as a favorable media for others. For example, if you were checking for the presence of a certain bacteria and only interested in that family of bacteria, the selective media would serve well to create favorable conditions for testing bacteria. For example, lets say the *testing* bacteria is gram (-); than your media can contain gram (+) inhibiting ingredients, crystal violet for example. Differential media is a media that, through metabolization of containing ingredients, appears different than others. For example, lets say you are testing for E.Coli, you can use EMB (eosin-methylene blue) agar, if E. Coli is present it would appear a metallic green.
