Gram Staining Bacteria
Gram (Christian gram) Staining is a way to stain bacteria so that they can be seen when using a microscope to study bacteria. The purpose of Gram Staining is to dye bacteria to become visible and to test the amounts of peptidoglycan that are contained in the cell walls of the cells. We can learn the shapes and forms of bacterial samples and learn the concentration of peptidoglycan is in the cell walls of different kinds of bacteria. The process of Gram Staining is to to heat fix a sample of bacteria, then go through a staining process: Crystal Violet, Gram's Iodine, ethanol, and Safrinin. At the end of the staining, the bacteria will be either a purple color or a red/pink color, these colors indicate whether the sample is Gram+ or Gram- bacteria. Gram + bacteria have thin cell walls that contain lots of peptidoglycan and are susceptible to penicillin. Gram - bacteria have thick cell walls with very little peptidoglycan and resist antibiotics.