saline - (Jul/20/2011 )

in microbiolab, what saline is normally used ? is it just a NaCl solution in 0.85%-0.9% or is it PBS ? if dealing with yeasts and E coli, saline must be used for dilution and washing cells or distilled water will just do fine ? if saline, is it PBS or just NaCl saline ?
i thought PBS is especially for dealing with DNA or proteins analysis experiments and just washing cells like e coli or yeasts saline will be ok ?

please help. im confused. Thank you

PBS is buffered saline. If your protocol says to use saline use the normal (0.9% ~150 mM) saline, unless it says to use PBS.