Lecture 3: Microbial Diagnostic Flashcards
What are the three steps in determining the organism that caused disease?
- find the culprit (swabs, blood, urine)
- grow the culprit (agar plates, liquid medium)
- identify the culprit (diagnostic tools)
What is key in diagnostics when obtaining a bacterial sample
important to get single colonies as multiple bacteria/colonies will warp test results, want a pure sample - derives from one single cell
What are the 5 diagnostic methods
- based on structural features (colony, morphology, staining)
- based on biochemical properties (O2 dependence, chemical resistance, antiobiotic resistance)
- based on antibody binding (serological tests, immunological assays ELISA)
- based on infecion by phage (phage typing)
- based on DNA/RNA (DNa hybridisation, PCR)
How can agar plates aid in diagnostics
colonies often have characteristics such as
1. shape
2. appearance
3. color
4. odor
that can give clues but arent sufiecient for conclusive identification
Explain the process of gram staining and the difference between gram postive and gram negative bacteria
Crystal violet – penetrate both cell types
Iodine – precipitate crystal violet, crystals – get trapped in thick peptidoglycan layer (+ve)
**Decolorizer **– decolorize everything in -ve, because crystals not trapped, outer membrane damaged too, +ve will retain crystal violet
(Can see +ve in microscope at this stage but not -ve)
- This is why you need to do a counterstain
Safranin – orange dye visible = -ve (E.coli should have been orange)
Explain what yeast budding is
“mother cell” grows protrustions i.e buds that grow larger and eventualy separate from the mother cell
What is the difference between hypae and pseudohyphae and state one fungi that exhibits pseudohyphae
The main difference between hyphae and pseudohyphae is that the hyphae are the elongated, thread-like filaments whereas the pseudohyphae are the newly-divided cells through budding
candida albicans when cultured in serum (yeast)
Explain what Ziel-Neelsen (acid fast) staining is used for and why it is necessary
- used to inderify Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- mycobacteril have a way-like coat made up of mycolic acid - gram is water based, so cant use gram stain
Explain the process of a Ziel-Neelsen (acid fast) stain
- stain using carbolfuchsin and heat
- destain using ethanol, hydrochloric acid
- counter stain using methylene blue
mycobacteria will show up red under the microscope as they retain the orange dye (rest takes up the blue)
What is Lactophenol Cotton Blue Stain used for
visualisazion of moulds
Explain how Lactophenol Cotton Blue Stain works
- lactophenol serves as mounting fluid
- phenol kills the mould and prevents cell lysis
- cotton blue stains the chtin in the cell wall
- visual hypha, fruiting bodies and spores
Explain the difference between hypha, fruiting bodies and spores
- hypha - branching filament that make up mycelium of fungus
- fruiting bodies - contain spores
- spores- fruiting body produces spores
What is the role of fruiting bodies and spores?
to reproduce and help spread spore so they can colonise elsewhere
What is an assay test for?
find and measure the amount of a specific substance
What are the three assay tests based on specific enzymes?
- catalase test
- coagulase test
- oxidase test
What is a catalse test used for?
used to differentiate between staphylococci and streptococci