Wherever there is color, we humans are bound to make art with it, and it appears as though bacteria are no exception. Microbiologists grow bacteria in culture by plating them on agar plates, which provide the bacteria with the necessary nutrients to grow and make colonies. Bacteria, in all of their diverse glory, can make colonies that appear practically any color. By plating different species of bacteria together and streaking them in artistic ways, microbiologists can turn their agar plates into their canvas.
In fact, this trend is so widespread that the American Society for Microbiology holds an annual contest for microbiologists to submit their best agar art. I highly recommend looking through the winners for previous years on their site (https://asm.org/Events/ASM-Agar-Art-Contest/Previous-Winners). It’s incredible to see the creativity, design decisions, and also just the mastery of microbiology that these scientists display. Every color is a product of unique metabolisms in the bacterial species, and thus, the scientist has to be very deliberate about how to grow them, what media to grow them in, and even consider the ways the bacteria might interact.
The image above is the winner for the traditional category in 2020. The piece is called “The Gardener” by Joanne Dungo from Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Northridge, California. She describes her inspiration for her art by saying, “A colleague of mine once said that a microbiologist is like a gardener. Just like a gardener uses seeds, soil, and water to grow flowers and plants, a microbiologist uses microorganisms, like bacteria and yeast, to grow them in nutrient-filled agar petri dishes.” To achieve the beautiful color palette she uses, she had to plate six different species of Candida bacteria. If you find this interesting, voting for the 2021 ASM agar art winners will open November 8 on Facebook and close on November 19.