The key difference between potato dextrose agar and sabouraud dextrose agar is that potato dextrose agar is a culture medium used for the cultivation of fungi that mainly consists of potato infusion, dextrose, and agar, while sabouraud dextrose agar is a culture medium used for the cultivation of fungi that mainly consists of peptone, dextrose, and agar.
A culture medium is a solid, liquid, or semi-solid medium to support the growth of microorganisms via the process of cell proliferation. Different types of media are available for growing different types of microorganisms. The most common culture media for microorganisms are nutrient broths and agar plates. Potato dextrose agar and sabouraud dextrose agar are two different types of culture media used for the cultivation of fungi.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA)
3. What is Sabouraud Dextrose Agar
4. Similarities – Potato Dextrose Agar and Sabouraud Dextrose Agar
5. Potato Dextrose Agar vs Sabouraud Dextrose Agar in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Potato Dextrose Agar vs Sabouraud Dextrose Agar
What is Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA)?
Potato dextrose agar (PDA) is a general-purpose culture medium for the growth of fungi. Both pathogenic and non-pathogenic fungi can be grown in this particular culture media. It is a particularly general-purpose medium for yeast and mold growth. It consists of potato infusion, dextrose, and agar. Potato infusion and dextrose generally encourage luxuriant fungal growth. Agar is added as the solidifying agent. While preparing potato dextrose agar medium, many procedures add a specified amount of sterile tartaric acid (10%) to lower the pH up to 3.5, which the bacterial growth. Moreover, this medium also contains chloramphenicol, which acts as a selective agent to inhibit bacterial growth while permitting the selective isolation of fungi.
Figure 01: Potato Dextrose Agar
The uses of potato dextrose agar may include the detection of yeast and mold in dairy products and prepared foods, cultivation of yeasts and mold from clinical specimens, microbial examination of food and dairy products, microbial enumeration of yeast and molds from cosmetic products, and selective cultivation of fungi from mixed samples.
What is Sabouraud Dextrose Agar?
Sabouraud dextrose agar is a culture medium used for the cultivation of fungi. It mainly consists of peptone, dextrose, and agar. This medium was first formulated by Sabouraud in 1892 for culturing dermatophytes. The peptone in this medium provides nitrogen and vitamin sources for microorganisms. Dextrose is added as the energy and carbon source into this medium. Agar is the solidifying agent. Moreover, chloramphenicol or tetracycline may be added to the medium to inhibit the growth of a wide range of gram-positive and negative bacteria. Gentamicin is added to further inhibit gram-negative bacteria.
Figure 02: Sabouraud Dextrose Agar
Furthermore, sabouraud dextrose agar medium is used for the selective cultivation of yeast, molds, and aciduric bacteria, isolation of pathogenic fungi from mixed material or specimens containing large numbers of other fungi and bacteria, and determining microbial contamination in food, cosmetics, and clinical specimens.
What are the Similarities Between Potato Dextrose Agar and Sabouraud Dextrose Agar?
- Potato dextrose agar and sabouraud dextrose agar are two different types of culture media used for the cultivation of fungi.
- They are general-purpose media.
- Both media are based on solid agar plates.
- They may conation antibiotics to inhibit the growth of bacteria.
- They are used to determine contamination in food, cosmetics, and clinical specimens.
What is the Difference Between Potato Dextrose Agar and Sabouraud Dextrose Agar?
Potato dextrose agar is a culture medium used for the cultivation of fungi that is mainly consisted of potato infusion, dextrose, and agar, while sabouraud dextrose agar is a culture medium used for the cultivation of fungi that mainly consists of peptone, dextrose, and agar. Thus, this is the key difference between potato dextrose agar and sabouraud dextrose agar. Furthermore, potato dextrose agar is a more common medium for fungal growth, while sabouraud dextrose agar is a less common medium for fungal growth.
The below infographic presents the differences between potato dextrose agar and sabouraud dextrose agar in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.
Summary – Potato Dextrose Agar vs Sabouraud Dextrose Agar
Potato dextrose agar and sabouraud dextrose agar are two different types of general-purpose culture media used for the cultivation of fungi. Potato dextrose agar is a culture medium used for the cultivation of fungi that is mainly consisted of potato infusion, dextrose, and agar, while sabouraud dextrose agar is a culture medium used for the cultivation of fungi that is mainly consisted of peptone, dextrose, and agar. So, this summarizes the difference between potato dextrose agar and sabouraud dextrose agar.
Reference:
1. “Potato Dextrose Agar.” An Overview | ScienceDirect Topics.
2. Dr. Belouahad. “Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA).” Mmicrobiologie Clinique.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Culture-of-Sclerotium-rolfsii-on-potato-dextrose-agar” By Lindsey D. Thiessen, Jason E. Woodward – Lindsey D. Thiessen et. al. “Diseases of Peanut Caused by Soilborne Pathogens in the Southwestern United States”, ISRN Agronomy doi:10.5402/2012/517905 (CC BY 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Yeast and mold colony morphology on Sabouraud’s dextrose agar (SDA)” By Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya – Own work, (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
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