A technician spreads a sample containing one identified species of bacterium from compost onto an agar plate to check whether it forms colonies. The plate and agar were not sterilised before the sample was added.
Explain why colonies on the plate cannot all be reliably assumed to have grown from the sample.
282 exam-style questions on AQA GCSE Biology 1.1 Cell structure, covering 1.1.1 Eukaryotes and prokaryotes, 1.1.2 Animal and plant cells, 1.1.3 Cell specialisation, 1.1.4 Cell differentiation, 1.1.5 Microscopy, and 1.1.6 Culturing microorganisms. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.