serial dilution

dilution /di·lu·tion/ (di-loo´shun)

1. reduction of concentration of an active substance by admixture of a neutral agent.

2. a substance that has undergone dilution.

3. in homeopathy, the diffusion of a given quantity of a medicinal agent in ten or one hundred times the same quantity of water.dilu´tional

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serial dilution  a set of dilutions in a mathematical sequence, as to obtain a culture plate with a countable number of separate colonies.

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serial dilution,

a laboratory technique in which a substance, such as blood serum, is decreased in concentration in a series of proportional amounts. In antibody analysis, for example, a serum sample may be distributed in a series of tubes so that each has one half of the amount of the previous tube in the series, resulting in titers of 1:5, 1:10, 1:20, and so on.

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dilution [di-loo´shun]

1. reduction of concentration of an active substance by admixture of a neutral agent.

2. a substance that has undergone such a process.

serial dilution a set of dilutions in a mathematical sequence. In microbiological technique, serial dilutions are used to obtain a culture plate that yields a countable number of separate colonies. From this, a calculation of viable cells in the original suspension can be made, as a colony picked for pure culture.

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dilution

1. reduction of concentration of an active substance by admixture of a neutral agent.

2. a substance that has undergone dilution.

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limit dilution

a method of obtaining a pure culture of bacteria or virus by subculturing from the highest dilution in which the organism is demonstrably present.

serial dilution

1. the progressive dilution of a substance or infectious agent in a series of tubes or wells in a tray in predetermined ratios, e.g. 2-fold or 10-fold dilution steps.

2. a method of obtaining a pure bacterial culture by rapid transfer of a small amount of material from one nutrient medium to a succeeding one of the same volume.