Why did my thermophile grow like a mesophile?
I just grew B. stearothermaphilis a few weeks ago for a routine lab activity, and you are correct – it should have grown better at 55°C. Actually, its optimal growth temperature range is between 60-65° Celsius. You probably didn’t do anything wrong though. Keep in mind that lab activities don’t always go as planned, and the results don’t always match the textbook normal. It’s possible that you had a better spread/microbial lawn/inoculating technique using the room temperature media. Maybe there was difference in the media itself – one could have been older and less likely to grow microbes. But here’s how you know that you didn’t mess up. If you used any other microbes for this lab activity – e.g. E. coli, S. aureus – then chances are that NONE of them grew at 55°C (unless you happen to have used another thermophile).
