INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECT OF

UV EXPOSURE ON BACTERIA.
Introduction
People thinks Bacteria are just simple and tiny living
organism. But the tiny organisms are not what people think
they are. They are much more complex and mind-blowing.
Curious upon these tiny living things, we wondered how and
what were the ways of getting rid of these things. Upon some
research, one particular method caught our eyes. How
bacteria becomes mutated when exposed to UV. Thus, we
began our journey in the investigation of how UV exposure
a!ect E coli and B subtilis.
Results
We have classied the levels of Colonies in Petri
Dishes
according to the scale below-
1- No growth at all
2- Little, barely visible signs of growth
3- Colony easily spotted
4- Almost half plate has colonies
5- Plate full of colonies
Methodology
1) Make a Sterile Environment.
2) Culture bacteria by using the streak method so as to isolate a pure bacteria colony
Incubate bacteria to let it grow.
3)After incubation of bacteria, use a Inoculation loop to scrape a colony and mix it inside
with a test tube of neutral broth
4)Prepare about 50 L spreaders and petri dishes. Use a pipette and transfer 50 micro liter to petri dish
5)and use a L spreader to spread until the mixture for about 20 seconds in random directions
5) Label Petri dish- (type of bacteria, time exposed)
6) Remove the lid of the petri dishes and expose to UV light source.
7) After exposure, seal petri dishes with para lm.
8) Place the petri dishes into the incubator to let it grow.
9) Take pictures of the samples and collect the data, observe how the UV a!ected the growth of
bacteria.
Hypothesis
The longer the bacteria is exposed to the UV light source, the
slower the bacteria will grow and sometimes even killed if
exposed for too long.
Results of E.Coli
Time
Exposed(Min)
E.coli
Trial 1
E.coli
Trial 2
E.coli
Trial 3
E.coli
Trial 4
15 4 2 3 3.0
30 2 2 3 2.3
45 2 3 3 3.6
60 1 1 1 1.0
Conclusions
Summary of ndings
My ndings shows that the two bacteria we tested, E.coli and B.subtilis
would not be able to grow due to DNA mutation after being exposed to
UV light for an hour
Practical application
There are a few uses of UV.
UV radiation can be an e!ective viricide and bactericide. Disinfection
using UV radiation is commonly used in wastewater treatment
applications and is nding an increased usage in drinking water
treatment. Many bottlers of spring water use UV disinfection equipment
to sterilize their water. This technology has helped many african
countries who su!er drought and is able to provide water for those in
places which are harder to contact.
Areas for further studies
I could study further uses of UV exposure on bacteria such as using UV to
kill disease causing bacteria in man but not causing any harm to the
body. Such a nding could help in curing diseases which have currently
no cure.
Acknowledge
We would like to thank Mr Tan Hoe Teck for his
continuous support and constructive feed-backs. We
would also like to thank the lab sta! and assistants that
helped us in our experiment and prepared the
equipment, the project would be impossible without
the assistance of these people.
Results of E.Coli
Time
Exposed(Min)
B.subtilis
Trial 1
B.subtilis
Trial 2
B.subtilis
Trial 3
B.subtilis
Trial 4
15 1 2 3 2.0
30 2 2 1 1.5
45 2 2 1 1.5
60 1 1 1 1.0
S203 Team F Myo Nyi Nyi &Tony Zhang