Trypticase soy agar or Tryptic soy agar (TSA) is a

growth media A growth medium or culture medium is a solid, liquid, or semi-solid designed to support the growth of a population of microorganisms or cells via the process of cell proliferation or small plants like the moss ''Physcomitrella patens''. Differe ...

for the culturing of moderately to non fastidious

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

. It is a general-purpose, non-selective media providing enough nutrients to allow for a wide variety of microorganisms to grow. It is used for a wide range of applications, including culture storage, enumeration of cells (counting), isolation of pure cultures, or simply general culture. TSA contains enzymatic digests of

casein Casein ( , from Latin ''caseus'' "cheese") is a family of related phosphoproteins (CSN1S1, αS1, aS2, CSN2, β, K-casein, κ) that are commonly found in mammalian milk, comprising about 80% of the proteins in cow's milk and between 20% and 60% of ...

and

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean. Soy is a staple crop, the world's most grown legume, and an important animal feed. Soy is a key source o ...

meal, which provide

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...

s and other nitrogenous substances, making it a nutritious medium for a variety of organisms.

Sodium chloride Sodium chloride , commonly known as Salt#Edible salt, edible salt, is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. It is transparent or translucent, brittle, hygroscopic, and occurs a ...

maintains the osmotic equilibrium, while

dipotassium phosphate Dipotassium phosphate (also dipotassium hydrogen orthophosphate or potassium phosphate dibasic) is the inorganic compound with the formula K2HPO4.(H2O)x (x = 0, 3, 6). Together with monopotassium phosphate (KH2PO4.(H2O)x), it is often used as a f ...

acts as

buffer Buffer may refer to: Science * Buffer gas, an inert or nonflammable gas * Buffer solution, a solution used to prevent changes in pH * Lysis buffer, in cell biology * Metal ion buffer * Mineral redox buffer, in geology Technology and engineeri ...

to maintain pH.

Agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from " ogonori" and " tengusa". As found in nature, agar is a mixture of two components, t ...

extracted from any number of organisms is used as a gelling agent. One liter of the agar contains: * 15 g pancreatic digest of casein * 5 g peptic digest of soybean * 5 g

sodium chloride Sodium chloride , commonly known as Salt#Edible salt, edible salt, is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. It is transparent or translucent, brittle, hygroscopic, and occurs a ...

* 15 g

agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from " ogonori" and " tengusa". As found in nature, agar is a mixture of two components, t ...

Uses

The medium may be supplemented with blood to facilitate the growth of more fastidious bacteria or antimicrobial agents to permit the selection of various microbial groups from pure microbiota. As with any media, minor changes may be made to suit specific circumstances. TSA is frequently the base medium of other agar plate types. For example, blood agar plates (BAP) are made by enriching TSA plates with defibrinated sheep blood, and

chocolate agar Chocolate agar (CHOC) or chocolate blood agar (CBA) is a nonselective, Growth medium#Enriched media, enriched growth medium used for isolation of pathogenic bacteria. It is a variant of the blood agar plate, containing red blood cells that have ...

is made through additional cooking of BAP.

References

Microbiological media {{Microbiology-stub