#CLUB75 | THE GRAM STAIN Part 1
Hello great minds, hope you're all doing great! I'm here with something fresh and new. It's a procedure called the Gram staining. Those who are of the science field or those who work in the laboratory will know about this term.
What is Gram staining ?
Gram staining is a differential technique commonly used in many laboratories to differentiate between two types of bacteria (Gram positive and Gram negative) based on the constituent of their cell wall. source
The word stain here is the coloration a particular substance gives to the bacteria and in the case of gram, it is either Pink or violet
A above mentioned procedure was developed by a Danish scientist and bacteriologist known as Hans Christian Gram in the year 1884. Surely when the first world War was going on, this man was busy doing some research which will help those in the science field so much.
This procedure functions with the principle of crystal violet dye retention by the cell wall during solvent treatment. It should be noted that the gram positive bacteria have a thick peptidoglycan layer which retains this dye and can't be easily washed away.
What is the purpose of Gram Staining ?
Well, because both gram positive and negative bacteria and also other components of the body have the same colour, to be able to differentiate these components from invaders, we need to colour them. This colouration is then known as staining, which will increase the contrast between the organism and the background while seen under a light microscope.
Materials used and needed for staining
- Specimen
- microscope Slide
- Bunsen burner
- Microscope
- Primary stain (crystal violet)
- distilled Water
- A mordant (Gram's iodine)
- Decolorizer (ethanol)
- Counter stain (safranin)
- Immersion oil
- light Microscope
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I hope you enjoyed the introduction, I'll be opening up more on Gram staining tomorrow at this same time. Where I'll talk about the procedure and the expected results. Thank you!