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Gram Staining

  • Can Gram Staining be done from a Selective Media?


  • If you have a sufficient quantity of cells, you can wash away the selective media in some 'neutral' solution (e.g. phosphate buffered saline) before the gram stain. this would probably change the staining problems. it wouldn't change the morphology changes however.


  • Thanks a lot. The answer helped me a lot.


  • Hi microgupta, Gram staining can be done on almost anything - tissue, sputum, blood,urine, liquid media, solid agar media, etc.! Selective media simply inhibits growth of organisms that you *don't* want! I don't know exactly what kind of selective media you are speaking of...but I often Gram stained organisms from Thayer Martin, PEA, HE, and TSA slants, all selective media. What might be difficult to do would be to subculture an organism from selective media to another media...say a broth. You might take inhibiting substances from the selective media onto the new media. An important step when selecting a colony on the selective media for Gram stain, is to use your loop, or a wooden stick to select the center of the colony. You want to avoid scooping up agar that can, for a novice, be confusing when examining the slide. (You will quickly learn the appearance of agar artifacts under the 'scope however!) You also want to make a *thin* smear, being careful not to damage cells and organisms while doing so. Below, I have found a few sites that describe making/staining a smear with Gram stain. Many use organisms from selective media. http://www2.truman.edu/~jherrera/Microbiology/unknown-instructions.pdf http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:iYLR9QY39mkJ:biology.ucok.edu/PersonalPages/Meeks/Study%2520for%2520Lab%2520Test%25201.ppt+gram+stain+++selective+media&hl=en http://www.life.umd.edu/classroom/bsci424/LabMaterialsMethods/StreakingTechnique.htm http://www.life.umd.edu/classroom/bsci424/LabMaterialsMethods/GramStain.htm Hope this clears things up for you! Please request an Answer Clarification, before rating, if this answer is not clear. Regards, crabcakes Search Terms Knowledge of topic Gram Stain + selective media


  • Dear Crabcake Thanks for the response. I am talking about staining form media like Pseudosel for Pseudomonas or Mannitol salt agar for Staphylcoccus. Whether I can Gram stain from these media , as in one article I have read not to use selective media for gram stain as it makes gram positive organisms to look like Gram negative coccoi. Though I never faced such problem anytime still I am want to know the exact method. Please refer the following link for reference (Trouble shooting - Smear Preperation): http://www.biolog.com/Microlog%20Minutes_1.pdf Regards microgupta


  • Hi microgupta, Thank you for clarifying exactly which kind of selective media you are using. I believe you are referring to this statement: "The medium from which the colonies are taken is important. Often, if you take colonies from liquid media or from selective media, cells will appear Gram-negative and more coccoid. Sol u t i o n s : Take sample from fresh colonies from nutrient agar medium." This does not mean you *can't* Gram stain a colony from Pseudocel media or mannitol salt. I have done it with great success. It's possible that the organisms that were closer to the agar may appear more coccoid, but pseudomonas does stain Gram negative, and they are short curved rods. No sarcasm intended here either, but by the time you have a pure culture on selective media, one is reasonably and presumptively sure what the organism should look like! :-) http://reaannecy.free.fr/Documents/infectio/pseudomonas.jpg Even if you get a few organisms that look *off* in morphology and stain color, the majority of the organisms should stain just fine. As I mentioned in the previous answer, you want to select your sample from the center of the colony. This will give *cleaner* organisms, and avoind scraping agar along with the organisms. "Pseudomonas is a Gram negative, rod shaped bacteria that possesses polar flagella. Soil samples from various locations were reservoirs for obtaining the bacteria and innoculated in broth. Successful isolation of this bacteria produces small and smooth colonies on Pseudosel plates that appear yellow, opaque, and round. Gram stain, wet mount, catalase, and oxidase tests confirmed the presence of a Pseudomonas species. Further experiments using oil plates showed no visible signs of growth or oil degradation." http://www.wam.umd.edu/~asmith/longjoyce/homepage.html I'm not sure what exact procedure you are seeking. Other than making a smear that is not too thick, using a fresh log-phase colony, and selecting the middle of the colony, the staining procedure would be the same. I want to remind you the types I listed in my answer, Thayer Martin, PEA, HE, and TSA slants are also selective media. I have found no documentation, other than your link, regarding problems in Gram stains made from selective media. (In a way, all media is selective media - not all organisms grow on any one media!) The closest documentation I could find is this ststement from a lab exercise, where the student is instructed to make Gram stain smears from mannitol salt agar. "Examine the Mannitol Salt Agar and Blood Agar restreak plates. Are the colonies the same and the same as the originals? Gram stain each. After observing the Gram stains, choose one (either the skin or throat isolate) and streak a BHI slant. Record your results in the blank protions of the Results pages above." http://www.fiu.edu/~makemson/MCB2000Lab/Ex8HumanSymBact.pdf Just for fun, here's a photo of a plate growing P.aeruginosa http://www.cat.cc.md.us/courses/bio141/labmanua/lab13/psa.html If you need further clarification, and can tell me what "Exact method" you are wanting, I will be glad to see if I can find this for you. regards, crabcakes







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