Axenic
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In biology, axenic describes a microbial culture of a particular organism (usually bacteria or unicellular eukaryote) that is entirely free of all other "contaminating" organisms. Axenic cultures are useful because all of the organisms present within them are identical or share the same gene pool. Consequently they will generally respond in a reproducible fashion, simplifying the interpretation of experiments.
Axenic cultures are typically created using a dilution series of an existing mixed culture. This culture is successively diluted to the point where subsamples of it contain only a few individual organisms, ideally only a single individual (in the case of an asexual species). These subcultures are allowed to grow until the identity of their constituent organisms can be ascertained. Selection of only those cultures consisting of the desired type of organism produces the axenic culture.
Axenic cultures are usually routinely checked to ensure that they remain axenic. One standard approach is to spread a sample of the culture onto an agar plate, and to incubate this for a fixed period of time. Common "contaminating" organisms will grow on the plate during this period, identifying cultures that are no longer axenic.
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