Jonathon Hartmann
Excelsior College
The provided sample from this patient is infected with a bacterium, which is one of the listed genera of bacteria: Bacillus, Escherichia, or Mycoplasma. We will determine which bacterium is the cause of the infection by first isolating each organism, gram staining, then examining the sample under a microscope. Comparing what the anatomical differences between each genus is crucial to identifying the bacterium. The first bacterium we will consider is Bacillus. This bacterium is a Prokaryotic cell, rod shaped, they can change their shape to form a chain like structure, and they also form spores. The unique characteristics …show more content…
Escherichia is a rod shaped prokaryotic cell, and they possess flagella. Some of these bacterium will cause illness in the form of gastrointestinal distress, which often leads to vomiting and diarrhea. The last bacterium that will be discussed is the Mycoplasma. Mycoplasma is small microorganisms without cell walls that are composed of a waxy lipid layer. Mycoplasma is the smallest known bacterium. Despite their small size, they can reproduce outside of living host …show more content…
Bacterium that lost the pigment are gram-negative. Defining whether bacteria are gram-negative or gram positive will narrow down possibilities for the source of infection since Bacillus are a gram-positive and Escherichia being gram-negative. Gram staining would be ineffective and unreliable with Mycoplasma due to the fact it does not have a cell wall. When these specimens are observed under the microscope we will be able to identify gram-positive or gram negative and rule out the bacillus or Escherichia based on the composition of their cellular walls. At the time it is determined whether we have a gram-positive or negative bacteria, we can look at the structure of the sample. Mycoplasma is going to be much smaller than the other two bacteria and lack a cell wall. Putting this all together will help us solve which bacteria is infecting our patient. Mycoplasma is stained utilizing an acid fast staining process because of its cell wall composition and is less permeable to staining, this process of acid-fast staining is as follows: Carolfuchsin is added to the smear and rinsed after five minutes with water, this is utilized because of its affinity for the mycolic acids in the cell walls. Decolorizer is now added and rinsed after one minute. Methylene blue is placed on the smear and rinsed after 30 seconds. The specimen is blotted and observed under the