Agar

Agar, often referred to as agar-agar is used as a solid substrate for inclusion in culture media, gel preparation, and microbiological work. With the addition of nutritional or selection supplements, it is often used as a growth medium for bacteria and fungi. Agar is an excellent matrix for work with proteins and nucleic acids, being ideally suited for the separation of large molecules. Widely used for immunodiffusion and chromatography applications. Porous, agarose gel in varying concentrations is used as a medium for assessing the motility and mobility of microorganisms; and may also be used in the evalution of chemotaxis and chemokinesis with regard to a cell population’s movement toward a chemoattractant.

Application: Agar has been used:as a component of the fruit fly dietas a component of saline-agar for the approximation of gray matter from brainin in vitro root nodulation assay of Glycine max seeds Agar has been used:in the preparation of laboratory diet to maintain the culture of D. melanogaster wild-type larvaas a high gel strength agar in the seed culture media to grow Arabidopsis thaliana mutant seedsto construct a tissue-mimicking phantom to test the imaging performance of an ultrasound transducer.