4. How are smears different from wet mounts?

Smears have the bacteria fixed in a single layer getting ready for staining while wet mounts have the bacteria specimen just placed on a drop of water held between the coverslip.

5. What is heat fixing?

This is the process of passing a mounted bacteria on the slide through heat mostly three times with the sole purpose of ensuring the bacteria is killed to avoid making anyone taking the experiment sick and keeping the bacterial glued on the slide.

6. What are smears used for?

Smears are used for fixing the bacteria of study on a slide, therefore, preventing them from getting lost during the staining process.

Gram Stain Procedure Questions

7. Who developed gram stain procedure?

A Danish scientist called Hans Christian Gram discovered the gram stain procedure

8. To do the gram stain, will you need a wet mount side preparation or a smear preparation?

Smear preparation

9. What are the names of the two groups of bacteria identified in Gram stain?

Gram-negative and Gram-positive Bacteria’s

10. Which group will appear purple after the Gram stain procedure? Explain Why?

Gram-positive

The structural features of the gram-positive cell is the main cause of the purple color. A thick cell wall composed of peptidoglycan is found in its cytoplasmic membrane. This component has amino acids and sugars which bring about the purple effect.

11. Which group will appear pink after the procedure? Explain why

Gram-negative

The structure of the cytoplasmic membrane has a thin layer of peptidoglycan with an outer membrane surrounding it, therefore, leading to the pink color.

12. In general, what is mordant and why is it used? What is mordant in the gram stain procedure?

Mordant is an inorganic oxide which often conglomerates with a type of stain with the purposes of fixing it.

In the Gram stain procedure, iodine is the mordant as its primary purpose is changing the shape of the dye chemically which helps with trapping it in the cell wall.

13. In general, what is a primary stain? What is the name of the primary stain used for the gram stain procedure?

Generally, primary staining is marking a section that you want to see. In Gram stain procedure, primary stain is used to help differentiate between Gram-positive and gram negative bacteria’s.

14. In general, what is decolorizer/ decolorizing agent and what does it do? What is the name of the decolorizing agent in Gram stain procedure?

A decolorizer or decolorizing agent is a compound that removes brightly colored impurities from a mixture. In Gram Stain, ethanol in the decolorizing agent.

15. In general, what is counterstain? What is the name of the counterstain used in Gram stain procedure?

A counterstain is a stain that has a color which differentiates it from the pricing stain with the primary purpose of allowing proper visibility. In Grams stain procedure, safranin is the counterstain

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