Certain behaviors are passed down as standard procedure, but are actually less effective than uncommon alternatives.
Case in point, spreading transformations evenly. It's so annoying, and so ubiquitous. If you have a lot of transformants, even plating makes it difficult or impossible to pick a single colony; if you don't have a lot, it doesn't matter.
I guess it's ubiquitous because people wanted to monitor transformation efficiency, but that's rarely important now.
@MCDuncanLab I was taught to do the quadrant streak method, which avoids exactly that problem (image source https://microbenotes.com/streak-plate-method-principle-methods-significance-limitations/#1-quadrant-streaking)
At some point ppl were using a couple of plates per transformation to make sure they could isolate colonies.
That made me step back and say wait.., if we just don’t spread evenly, we can just use one plate.
Or with a practiced hand, do 4 per plate.
I’m the only one in my lab that does that but some former PHD students used to do it too.
@nicolaromano
Yeah people do that when the task is streaking—like when they are reviving microbes from the freezer or transferring a single colony from a transformation plate.
But when plating the transformation all logic goes out the window— we need an even distribution?? When I was an undergrad we used spreading rods and petri plate turn tables. As a postdoc we used sterile glass balls…