What does CFU stand for?

What does CFU stand for?

• A. Colony-Forming Unit.
• B. Cell Formulation Unit.
• C. Chromatography Fraction Unit.
• D. Cytosol Fluid Unit.

Answer: (A)

Colony-Forming Unit is the term used in microbiology to quantify viable microorganisms. It refers to a unit that represents a single living cell (or a small cluster of cells) capable of growing into a colony on a suitable agar medium. By plating a diluted sample and counting the resulting colonies, scientists estimate how many viable cells were present, usually expressed as CFU per milliliter. This measure reflects viability, not just total cell count, because dead cells don’t form colonies. The other options aren’t standard terms for this concept: they don’t describe counting colonies of living microbes.

Colony-Forming Unit is the term used in microbiology to quantify viable microorganisms. It refers to a unit that represents a single living cell (or a small cluster of cells) capable of growing into a colony on a suitable agar medium. By plating a diluted sample and counting the resulting colonies, scientists estimate how many viable cells were present, usually expressed as CFU per milliliter. This measure reflects viability, not just total cell count, because dead cells don’t form colonies. The other options aren’t standard terms for this concept: they don’t describe counting colonies of living microbes.