Analytical Microbiology

Question: Discuss about the Analytical microbiology? Answer: Steps of Gram stain procedure and purpose of each reagent The slide is to be placed with heat-fixed smear of a sample. The smear is to be flooded with Crystal Violet and kept for 1 minute and washed with water. Crystal violet stains the gram-positive bacteria. The smear is to be flooded with Grams iodine for fixing the crystal violet and is to be kept for 1 minute. After washing with water, 95% ethyl alcohol is to be used for decolorizing. After rinsing with water, Safranin is to be poured and kept for 45 minutes for staining the gram-negative bacteria. The slide is to be washed with water and observed under a microscope (Kavanagh, 2014). Identification of the organism The organism identified is Escherichia coli. Two types of special patient population most susceptible to the organism Young children and older adults are at high risk of having E. coli infections. People are having weak immune systems due to AIDS, cancer or organ transplant are also more susceptible to disease form the organism (Tille, 2013). Two ways by which bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics Antibiotic resistance takes place when an antibiotic does not have the ability to control and kill the bacteria in the body. Two ways by which bacteria become resistance antibiotics are by a generic mutation and by acquiring resistance from other bacteria. Mutations, referring to changes in the genetic material of the bacteria, enable the bacteria to produce potent enzymes that have the ability to inactivate antibiotics. Bacteria can get antibiotic resistance genes from other bacteria by various ways. One such way is conjugation where genetic materials and genes for antibiotic resistance are transferred from one bacterium to another (Kavanagh, 2014). References Kavanagh, F. (Ed.). (2014).Analytical microbiology. Elsevier. Tille, P. (2013).Bailey Scott's diagnostic microbiology. Elsevier Health Sciences.