![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
HEY EVER WANTED TO KNOW WHAT ESCHERICHIA COLI LOOKS LIKE OF COURSE YOU DO. Fortunately I am doing my final microbiology lab, and I've been bringing in my camera to take pictures of my results so that I will have THE BEST LAB REPORT EVER. I even took pictures through the microscope. ANYWAY, E. coli is pretty neat. I know you are all going EWWW E. COLI THAT'S THE BAD STUFF THAT MAKES PEOPLE SICK but it is also the good stuff that lets us digest food. Also I started this class by having to obtain a sample of my own E. coli so YOU DON'T GET TO WHINE OKAY.
Ahem. So. E. coli is a Gram-negative (watch as I got that backwards) bacteria which is rod-shaped and has thin layers of peptidoglycan in its walls, which is actually what makes it Gram-negative! Gram staining involves staining, bleaching, and staining with a different color, and thick cell walls will hold in the first stain and make a positive result. But none of that is important! Because the coolest thing about E. coli is what it looks like when you grow it on EMB. The agar is a dark red, and the colonies themselves are very dark, except for...
The metallic green sheen! I will be honest, the entire semester I have been squinting at the faintest sheens you have ever seen in your life. This one just decided to be a huge freaking diva. HELLO I AM E. COLI, it says. I LOOK LIKE A GLORIOUS PEACOCK. I FEED YOU. LOVE ME AND DESPAIR.
Technically this is Unknown #6B, but come on look at it, it is E. coli. Technically I didn't even need to do any more tests on it because IT IS E. COLI. I did anyway because I like doing these tests. I enjoy Micro lab, damnit. My lab coat brings all the Shigella flexneri to the yard.
TH-TH-THAT'S ALL FOLKS
Ahem. So. E. coli is a Gram-negative (watch as I got that backwards) bacteria which is rod-shaped and has thin layers of peptidoglycan in its walls, which is actually what makes it Gram-negative! Gram staining involves staining, bleaching, and staining with a different color, and thick cell walls will hold in the first stain and make a positive result. But none of that is important! Because the coolest thing about E. coli is what it looks like when you grow it on EMB. The agar is a dark red, and the colonies themselves are very dark, except for...
The metallic green sheen! I will be honest, the entire semester I have been squinting at the faintest sheens you have ever seen in your life. This one just decided to be a huge freaking diva. HELLO I AM E. COLI, it says. I LOOK LIKE A GLORIOUS PEACOCK. I FEED YOU. LOVE ME AND DESPAIR.
Technically this is Unknown #6B, but come on look at it, it is E. coli. Technically I didn't even need to do any more tests on it because IT IS E. COLI. I did anyway because I like doing these tests. I enjoy Micro lab, damnit. My lab coat brings all the Shigella flexneri to the yard.
TH-TH-THAT'S ALL FOLKS
