A technologist inoculates a chocolate agar with a stock culture of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. She forgets to subculture the organism at 48 hours. At 72 hours, she realizes her mistake and subcultures the organism to a new chocolate agar. At 24 hours, the subculture is not growing. On a growth curve, the organism is displaying the

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The organism is likely in the death phase because it did not grow when subcultured after being left for an extended period (72 hours) without subculturing. Neisseria gonorrhoeae, being a fastidious organism, requires timely subculturing to sustain viability. The lack of growth indicates that the cells were likely dying or dead by the time of subculturing.

A Technologist Inoculates a Chocolate Agar with a Stock Culture