Re: [DIYbio] Which Antibiotics can be autoclaved

Depending on the Antibiotic, this may be more or less of a good idea. If the antibiotic is bacteriostatic, then it'll only delay the growth of contaminants, so you should autoclave and add filter-sterilised antibiotic; this is the case with Ampicillin.

However, for Kanamycin, you can probably get away with adding directly, as it's bacteriocidal. However, it still makes sense to autoclave the medium prior to adding the antibiotic, or even simply boil it in the microwave briefly, to kill wild resistant bacteria. It's a nice shortcut, but adding directly may still allow wild colonies to grow.

As innocuous as it sounds, that can really mess up an experiment if you take it for a positive result. I've wasted weeks on broths I thought were sterile when pure chance yielded a few colonies on the experimental plates and not the controls.

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