BISC209/S11: Lab8

Culturable Bacteria Isolates Characterization continued

Special Stains:
Read last weeks tests;

Perform appropriate special stains as indicated. All isolates growing from your dried soil extract on Glyerol Yeast Extract Agar (GYEA) medium that are potential spore formers should be stained for endospores.
Directions for stains are found in the Protocols section of the wiki.
Stains : Simple, Gram, Endospore, Capsule, and Motility Tests
All Gram positive bacilli or any bacteria that showed unstained area in the cells when Gram stained should be stained for endospores.

Perform confirmatory testing for motility. Directions for the Hanging Drop and Flagella stain can be found in the Motility Tests section of the Protocols.

All bacteria that were positive or ambiguous for motility in SIMs medium should be looked at by Hanging Drop technique; if positive by Hanging drop, you could try the Flagella stain. All the "swarmers" (those bacteria that spread all over the plate)should be looked at by Hanging Drop too.

Highly mucoid (sticky and wet) colonies should be tested for the presence of a capsule using the capsule stain protocol.

If your Gram stain results were ambiguous or not what you expected from the descriptions of the bacteria that grow on the Enrichment media you used, you should probably repeat those Gram stains. Getting the Gram reaction right is crucial to the discussion of where these bacteria belong phylogenically and functionally.

Assignment

Draft M&M section of your final paper

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