I can't seem to stain bacterial samples well. I attempted the very standard double gram staining technique today on my marine anaerobic bacteria sample. Fix sample, apply crystal violet, rinse, iodine, decolor via acetone-alcohol mixture, counterstain with saffranin.

After I was done, I really couldn't see any bacteria at all to speak of, and certainly not the existing colonies that were there before. Perhaps I did not fix the bacteria well enough to the slide. That is done by passing the slide through a low flame. I'll try again tomorrow with a new sample.

Now that I'm done with studying microorganisms via phylogenetic differentiation, I'm now studying the metabolic diversity of microorganisms and the svarious biochemical processes that allow such diversity.

Just finished anoxygenic photosynthesis, including electron flow cycles, photophosphorylation, the existence of superoperons to allow precise formation of the protein complexes in the membrane, and various different reduction power syntheses. On to oxygenic photosynthesis.
- posted by Aargau @ 6:47 PM