Lysogeny broth

LB is the most widely used bacterial culture medium but its roots lie in the area of genetics of bacteriophage. Guiseppi Bertani developed the LB recipe when he was trying to increase the amount of plaque that formed on an indicator strain of Shigella (Bertani 1952). As per Bertani, LB has been often misinterpreted to mean “Luria Broth”, “Luria-Bertani” medium, or “Lennox Broth”; however the original acronym stood as “Lysogeny Broth” (Bertani, 2004). The agar version of the medium is identified as LA however, it is frequently called LB. While initially developed to study bacteriophage in addition to Shigella growth, LB subsequently became the most preferred medium to grow Escherichia bacteria and other species of the enteric.