Microbiology encompasses bacteriology, mycology, parasitology, and virology. Medical microbiology, food microbiology, and clinical microbiology rely on the ability to culture and manipulate microbes. Antibiotics serve as a tool to help culture or characterize bacteria. Antibiotics are frequently used as selection agents to select for resistant bacteria in transformation and transduction procedures, and to inhibit growth of non-pathogenic food-borne bacteria in food microbiology research.