The identification of bacteria is a careful and systematic process that uses many different techniques to narrow down the types of bacteria that are present in an unknown bacterial culture, such as the infected blood of someone dangerously ill with meningitis.
The techniques used at the earliest stages are relatively simple. An unknown sample may contain different bacteria, so a culture is made to grow individual bacterial colonies. Bacteria taken from each type of colony is then used to make a thin smear on a glass slide and this is examined using a light microscope. Viewing the bacteria shows if they are cocci or bacilli or one of the rarer forms, such as the corkscrew shaped spirochaetes.
Gram Staining
Cocci and bacilli can be either gram positive bacteria or gram negative bacteria, depending on the structure of their cell wall. The Gram Stain is named after Hans Christian Gram, a bacteriologist from Denmark who developed the technique in the 1880s. The test is performed on a thin smear of an individual bacterial colony that has been spread onto a glass slide. Gram positive bacteria retain an initial stain, crystal violet, even when the bacterial smear is rinsed with a mixture of acetone and ethanol. The solvent removes the dark blue colour from gram negative bacteria, dissolving away some of the thin cell wall. When a second stain, a pink dye called fuchsin is then added, gram positive bacteria are unaffected by this, as they are already stained dark blue, but the gram negative bacteria turn bright pink. The colour difference can be seen easily using a light microscope.
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