~ 1923 ~    Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2017; 6(6): 1923-1928 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2017; 6(6): 1923-1928 Received: 06-09-2017 Accepted: 07-10-2017 A Rouf Division of Food Science and Technology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of agricultural sciences and technology, Shalimar, Srinagar, J&K, India Varsha Kanojia Division of Food Science and Technology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of agricultural sciences and technology, Shalimar, Srinagar, J&K, India HR Naik Division of Food Science and Technology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of agricultural sciences and technology, Shalimar, Srinagar, J&K, India Bazilla Naseer Division of Food Science and Technology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of agricultural sciences and technology, Shalimar, Srinagar, J&K, India Tahiya Qadri Division of Food Science and Technology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of agricultural sciences and technology, Shalimar, Srinagar, J&K, India Correspondence Varsha Kanojia Division of Food Science and Technology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of agricultural sciences and technology, Shalimar, Srinagar, J&K, India An overview of microbial cell culture A Rouf, Varsha Kanojia, HR Naik, Bazilla Naseer and Tahiya Qadri Abstract A microbiological culture, or microbial culture, is a method of multiplying microbial organisms by letting them reproduce in predetermined culture media under controlled laboratory conditions. Microbial cultures are foundational and basic diagnostic methods used extensively as a research tool in molecular biology. Microbial cultures are used to determine the type of organism, its abundance in the sample being tested, or both. It is one of the primary diagnostic methods of microbiology and used as a tool to determine the cause of infectious disease by letting the agent multiply in a predetermined medium. Basic Constituents of Media for microbial cell culture include Inorganic salts, Carbohydrates, Amino Acids, Vitamins, Fatty acids and lipids, Proteins and peptides, Serumand Trace Elements. Further more culture media are classified on the basis of consistency viz., solid medium, solid media and liquid (broth) medium. Similarly synthetic and non synthetic medium constitute the classification based on composition while as on the basis of functional use, purpose and application microbial cell culture are classified as general purpose media, enrichment medium and selective and enrichment medium. This review article covers all the aspects of bacterial cell culture viz., preparation and storage of different culture media with suitable examples and conditions favouring the growth of the cultures viz., environment for microbial growth, aeration and mixing, sterilization etc. Besides components and working of fermentor employed for microbial cultures have been covered including the method of bacterial cultures like batch culture, feed batch culture, continuous culture and synchronous culture along with suitable figures and diagrams. Keywords: culture, media, broth, agar, bioreactor, selective, microorganisms Introduction A microbiological culture, or microbial culture, is a method of multiplying microbial organisms by letting them reproduce in predetermined culture media under controlled laboratory conditions Microbial cultures are foundational and basic diagnostic methods used extensively as a research tool in molecular biology. Microbial cultures are used to determine the type of organism, its abundance in the sample being tested, or both. It is one of the primary diagnostic methods of microbiology and used as a tool to determine the cause of infectious disease by letting the agent multiply in a predetermined medium. It is often essential to isolate a pure culture of microorganisms. A pure (or axenic) culture is a population of cells or multi cellular organisms growing in the absence of other species or types. A pure culture may originate from a single cell or single organism, in which case the cells are genetic clones of one another. For the purpose of gelling the microbial culture, the medium of agarose gel (agar) is used. Agar is a gelatinous substance derived from sea weed. A cheap substitute for agar is guar gum, which can be used for the isolation and maintenance. Culture media contains nutrients and physical growth parameters necessary for microbial growth. All microorganisms cannot grow in a single culture medium and in fact many can’t grow in any known culture medium (Andrew, 2006) [1] . Basic Constituents of Media  Inorganic salts  Carbohydrates  Amino Acids  Vitamins  Fatty acids and lipids  Proteins and peptides  Serum  Trace Elements Each type of constituent performs a specific function as outlined below: