Why are colonies important in microbiology?

Answer 1

1. Each colony comes from one cell originally - so all the cells in that colony are clones of the first one. Being that closely related genetically means they will usually all react the same way in experiments.
2. You can see them! So you can count them. This way, you can tell how many cells you had in your culture.
3. They also have features that help differentiate species.