What is a differential agar?
Differential media are bacteriological growth media that contain specific ingredients to allow one to distinguish selected species or categories of bacteria by visual observation. Blood agar is one type of differential medium, allowing bacteria to be distinguished by the type of hemolysis produced.
What is an example of a differential media?
Examples of differential media include: Blood agar (used in strep tests), which contains bovine heart blood that becomes transparent in the presence of hemolytic. MacConkey (MCK), which is differential for lactose fermentationmannitol salt agar (MSA), which is differential for mannitol fermentation.
Why would you grow bacteria on differential media?
Chemically defined media contain only chemically known components. Selective media favor the growth of some microorganisms while inhibiting others. Differential media help distinguish bacteria by the color of the colonies or the change in the medium.
Which Agar is both selective and differential?
MacConkey Agar. This medium is both selective and differential. The selective ingredients are the bile salts and the dye, crystal violet which inhibit the growth of Gram-positive bacteria.
Is blood agar selective or differential?
Blood Agar This medium can be made selective by the addition of antibiotics. This medium is differential because: Blood Agar tests for the production of hemolysin which breaks down red blood cells.
Is MacConkey agar selective or differential?
MacConkey agar is a selective and differentiating agar that only grows gram-negative bacterial species; it can further differentiate the gram-negative organisms based on their lactose metabolism.
What does a MacConkey agar test for?
MacConkey agar is an indicator, a selective and differential culture medium for bacteria designed to selectively isolate Gram-negative and enteric (normally found in the intestinal tract) bacilli and differentiate them based on lactose fermentation.
What is the difference between EMB agar and MacConkey Agar?
An example of a selective medium is MacConkey agar. It contains bile salts and crystal violet, which interfere with the growth of many gram-positive bacteria and favor the growth of gram-negative bacteria. EMB contains the dyes eosin and methylene blue that inhibit the growth of gram-positve bacteria.
What color is E coli on MacConkey Agar?
dark pink
What color is E coli on nutrient agar?
coli on Nutrient Agar (NA) 1. They appear large, circular, low convex, grayish, white, moist, smooth and opaque.
What color is E coli bacteria?
When viewed under the microscope, Gram-negative E. Coli will appear pink in color. The absence of this (of purple color) is indicative of Gram-positive bacteria and the absence of Gram-negative E.
What types of bacteria are inhibited on MacConkey Agar?
MacConkey agar not only selects for Gram-negative organisms by inhibiting Gram-positive organisms and yeast but also differentiates the Gram-negative organisms by lactose fermentation. Lactose ferments will stain pink while the nonlactose ferments will be clear colonies.
What grows best on MacConkey Agar?
MacConkey’s is a selective medium that inhibits the growth of Gram-positive bacteria due to the presence of crystal violet and bile salts. Gram-negative bacteria grow well on MAC.
Why is MacConkey agar used for E coli?
Sorbitol MacConkey agar is a variant of traditional MacConkey agar used in the detection of E. coli O157:H7. This is important because gut bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, can typically ferment lactose, while important gut pathogens, such as Salmonella enterica and most shigellas are unable to ferment lactose.
What type of media is blood agar?
Blood agar is an enriched, bacterial growth medium. Fastidious organisms, such as streptococci, do not grow well on ordinary growth media. Blood agar is a type of growth medium (trypticase soy agar enriched with 5% sheep blood) that encourages the growth of bacteria, such as streptococci, that otherwise wouldn’t grow.
Why do we use blood agar?
Many species of bacteria produce toxic by-products that are capable of destroying red blood cells. Blood agar is a general purpose enriched medium often used to grow fastidious organisms and to differentiate bacteria based on their hemolytic properties.
What is the principle of blood agar?
Blood Agar is a general-purpose enriched medium used to grow fastidious organisms and to differentiate bacteria based on their hemolytic properties. It is a highly nutritious medium generally used as a basal medium for preparing blood agar by supplementation with blood.
What is the indicator in blood agar?
Phenol red is the pH indicator. Motility-Indole-Ornithine Agar: motility is indicated by the character of the growth in the butt of this tube.
What are the 3 types of hemolysis?
There are three types of hemolysis, designated alpha, beta and gamma. Alpha hemolysis is a greenish discoloration that surrounds a bacterial colony growing on the agar. This type of hemolysis represents a partial decomposition of the hemoglobin of the red blood cells.
What does Alpha hemolysis look like on blood agar?
Alpha hemolysis (α) is the reduction of the red blood cell hemoglobin to methemoglobin in the medium surrounding the colony. This causes a green or brown discoloration in the medium. The color can be equated with “bruising” the cells.