Strains vs. Isolates - difference? (Jun/19/2010 )

Hi there

I am trying to write my paper involving a study in which organisms were genotyped. I keep on switching between using the words "strains" and "isolates," and my supervisor says there are differences between them. Mainly, strains are isolates which had been characterised while isolates have not.

Is that a correct definition and is there something additional about the differences?

Thank you so much for your help!

Different isolates can be the same strain, but different strains can not be the same isolate.

HomeBrew on Jun 19 2010, 02:18 PM said:

ah understood, short and concise and clear. Thanks

ah so if a project involves genotyping but previous I do not know any information about the "strain," under materials and methods I would have to say isolate, and it's not until the results section that I refer them to strains right?

PandaCreamPuff on Jun 19 2010, 06:12 PM said:

If you have an isolate you can "investigate" this isolate and put a name (=strain) on it.

An isolate is just something you "isolated" from an animal or from .... and then you want to classify those isolates: name them, find out what strain it is...
Thats how I was told.


PS. if I understand it correct then putting a name on your isolates is just what you are trying to do... so yeah, the strain (identification) is your result....

but you might add some information on the genus/species/strain when you previously knew what you were looking for. Like when you tried to isolate Lactobaccillus, you can refer to general growth conditions or a physiological trait typical for this genus that was used to exclude other taxa.