My Unknown Bacteria

An unknown bacterium was handed out by Dr. Honer. The appropriate tests were prepared and applied. The first procedure that was done was the gram stain. Under a microscope, if the gram stain is purple, the bacterium is gram positive, if the stain is red, it is gram negative. The next test was the fermentation tests for glucose, sucrose and

The first step toward identifying this unknown organism was to perform a Gram Stain to differentiate between gram positive and gram negative bacteria. This is an important step because it directs what the next tests will be. My Gram Stain on sample #12 showed that the bacteria was gram negative, however, after receiving the results of the OF glucose, H2S, Citrate, Urease and Motility tests, it was apparent that my Gram Stain was contaminated. I then performed a catalase test which came back negative, so I ordered a Bacitracin disc, Optochin disc and a CAMP test which had to be incubated overnight. After receipt of those test results,

The bases of this experiment was to discover the identify of the unknown from three possible specimens: Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, and Enterobacter aerogenes. Utilizaing the T streak technique, the bacteria was isolated into pure colonies for further study. The Gram Stain method was used to identity the morhphology of the bacteria such as the shape and whether the bacteria was Gram positive or Gram negative. Biochemical test were also used to help identify the unknown bacteria. The biochemical test used was the Triple Sugar Iron Agar, Sulfur Indole Motility test, Methyl Red test, Voges-Proskauer test, Citrate test, Urease test, and the Gelatin test. After observing the morphology of the bacteria using the Gram Stain method and utilizing all the possible biochemical test, the bacteria was identified to be Enterobacter aerogenes.

Casualties in the Northern California bacteria outbreak are five ill and twenty-nine dead. More are becoming ill by the second. This bacteria, termed Cerequaestionium, affects the brain’s frontal lobe. Doctors reported that within hours, memory and judgment loss set in. People also lose the ability to think and make rational decisions. Three murders have occurred in relation to the disease. Many more suicides and cases of brain failure are being reported. Three are on suicide watch with two more diagnosed this afternoon.

In class, we were given the task of identifying an unknown bacterium broth culture. After receiving number 69, I went through several tests to figure out what bacterium I received. First, I created a slide from my broth by putting a small amount of the unknown broth on to a clean slide and letting it dry for ten minutes. After this, I stained the slide by applying four reagents in order; crystal violet, grams iodine, decolorizer and safranin. From the stained slide, I discovered that this bacterium was gram-negative, which would determine the next couple of tests I would do to identify my unknown bacterium. I began by streaking for confluent growth from my broth culture onto a TSA plate. From the TSA plate, I aseptically transferred a loop

Microorganisms are both beneficial and harmful. These microorganisms are important to humans because they play a role in the ecology of life, by decomposing wastes, both natural and man-made, such as creating nitrogen fertilizer at the root zones of certain crops. Other several pathogens that can cause serious harm, even immediate death due to the diseases or disease causing products they produce. Overall, microorganisms play an important role in life.

This laboratory experiment’s objective was to take a pure culture and isolate it from a mixed culture. The other part of the objective was to ascertain what species of bacteria that the pure culture was. The hypothesis made stated that so long as lab protocol was followed, the unidentified culture would be positively recognized/identified. An isolated pure colony of the unknown culture was obtained using the quadrant streak plate method. Afterward, the culture was Gram stained, and the results showed that it was Gram positive. Motility tests were done on the unknown using a filter paper bridge on a petri dish that contained TTC with agar. The unknown was revealed to not be motile, which meant that it did not possess flagella. The last test done was to learn the metabolic capabilities of the unknown bacteria. There were tests done for citrate utilization, the mixed fermentation pathway, catalase presence, carbohydrate fermentation in mannitol, lactose and glucose, urease production and the butanediol fermentation pathway in order to better identify the unknown bacteria. The results from each of the metabolic tests in conjunction with the motility and Gram staining tests were ultimately compared to results from database containing many different kinds of results from various bacteria. The unknown from the mixed culture was identified as Staphylococcus

Three bacteria's that live in the human body are Bifidobacterium, Escherichia Coli, and Streptococcus. One of the bacteria's that live in our body is Bifidobacterium longum. This is a multi-faceted extremely friendly bacterium that resides in the digestive tract and helps to keep the whole digestive system running smoothly. B. longum also inhibits the growth of pathogenic bacteria and it produces lactic acid. This can help people who are lactose intolerant. They are believed to be one of the most dominant friendly bacterial species that live inside us, and are early colonizers of the digestive tract of newborn infants. Some health benefits are: stimulation

Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria documentary has had me paranoid. It’s scary to think foreign bacteria can enter your body and shut it down. The most informing information was the NDM-1 wasn’t a bacteria it was a resistance gene that can turn bacteria into superbugs. I do think antibiotics are being over used. I agree with M.D Arjun Srinivasan,” the more you expose a bacteria to an antibiotic, the greater the likelihood that resistance to that antibiotic is going to develop. So the more antibiotics we put into people, we put into the environment, the more opportunities we create for these bacteria to become resistant”.

In the last decade, the number of prescriptions for antibiotics has increases. Even though, antibiotics are helpful, an excess amount of antibiotics can be dangerous. Quite often antibiotics are wrongly prescribed to cure viruses when they are meant to target bacteria. Antibiotics are a type of medicine that is prone to kill microorganisms, or bacteria. By examining the PBS documentary Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria and the article “U.S. government taps GlaxoSmithKline for New Antibiotics” by Ben Hirschler as well as a few other articles can help depict the problem that is of doctors prescribing antibiotics wrongly or excessively, which can led to becoming harmful to the body.

The purpose of this lab was to identify two unknown bacteria from a mixed culture. The reason for identification of unknown bacteria was to help students recognize different bacteria through different biochemical tests and characteristics. This is important in the medical field because identification of unknown bacteria can help treat a patient by knowing the contributing source of a disease. Also knowledge of different bacteria helped others make antibiotics used today. This lab was completed by using the methods learned thus far in identification of bacteria.

Due to excess use of general sterilization practises in hospitals we have become more susceptible to infection and illness [1]. Despite popular belief we owe our existence to microbes as Joselin Linder outlined in an article published in New York Times, “We need to stop sanitizing everything and let bacteria back into our lives”. The assumption that all bacteria are harmful has driven people to adapt extreme sanitizing practises when in reality few are dangerous, and most have benefits in our lives [1]. Linder suggested people are now faced with a deficiency of healthy bacteria in their microbiomes and together we have contributed to the evolution of drug resistant bacteria. This does not suggest that the discovery of antiseptic practices was a mistake, but rather that we need to find a balance between the use of antibacterial techniques and a healthy, diverse microbiome; a solution still being researched [1].

Bacteroides fragilis constitute 1% to 2% of colon resident microbiota and achieving approximately 30% of the total of organism cultured from feces (1-3) . Members of genus Bacteroides are important opportunist anaerobic pathogen(4). In this genus Bacteroides fragilis due to its virulence factor such as, adhesions, hemagglutinin, polysaccharide capsule and fimberia is considered to be the most virulence pathogen(2, 5). This organism isolates from exteraintestinal monomicrobial and mixed infections such as diabetic foot infection, brain, lung, intera abdominal, Intera pelvic abscesses, surgical site infections and sepsis(6-9). As well as this organism cause toxin dependent diarrheal disease in human. This bowel disease is one of the most important causes of morbidity and

Mycobacteria are rod-shaped bacteria which require oxygen for growth. Each species has an acid-fast staining property during some stage of its growth cycle. It has thick, waxy, outer coating which can lead them to thrive in aquatic environments. For some time, scientists have known of bacteria that are similar to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but that grow and act differently. When tuberculosis was a much more widespread problem and microbiology was much less able to tell the difference between similar microbes, these atypical mycobacteria were ignored. Today, they have been classified more precisely as members of the same species and called atypical (or nontuberculosis) mycobacteria. Although the medical profession has known about these atypical

Extremely similar to Eosin Methylene Blue Agar, MacConkey Agar is a selective and differential media used to isolate organisms based on their lactose fermentation ability. It contains lactose, bile salts, neutral red, and crystal violet (Leboffe, A Photographic Atlas for the Microbiology Laboratory). Just like the Eosin Y and Methylene Blue dyes in the EMB plate, the bile salts and crystal violet in the MacConkey plate encourage the growth of Gram-negative bacteria while preventing the growth of Gram-positive bacteria. The neutral red is used as a pH indicator, therefore if the bacteria is acidic and has a pH less than 6.8 the growth will turn pink; whereas, if the bacteria is neutral or basic and has a pH higher then 6.8 the growth will remain the same color, usually a cream color, or turn the same color as the media. The crystal violet is used to control Proteus or similar bacteria, so they do not obstruct with other results (Leboffe, Microbiology Laboratory Theory and Application). The major difference between the EMB and MacConkey media is that EMB uses lactose and sucrose sugars to test fermentation while, MacConkey only uses the lactose sugar when testing organism fermentation; because the EMB plate and the MacConkey plate tests are homogenous, identical results were found. All four bacteria were positive for growth; two of the four bacteria were positive for lactose fermentation. It was previously mentioned that Enterobacter aerogenes is slightly