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Burkholderia Pseudomallei
''Burkholderia pseudomallei'' (also known as ''Pseudomonas pseudomallei'') is a Gram-negative, bipolar, aerobic, motile rod-shaped bacterium. It is a soil-dwelling bacterium endemic in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, particularly in Thailand and northern Australia. It was reported in 2008 that there had been an expansion of the affected regions due to significant natural disasters, and it could be found in Southern China, Hong Kong, and countries in America. ''B. pseudomallei'', amongst other pathogens, has been found in monkeys imported into the United States from Asia for laboratory use, posing a risk that the pathogen could be introduced into the country. Although it is mainly a soil-dwelling bacteria, a study performed by Apinya Pumpuang and others showed that ''Burkholderia pseudomallei'' survived in distilled water for 16 years, demonstrating that it is capable of living in water if a specific environment is provided. It is resistant to a variety of harsh condit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashdown's Agar
Ashdown's medium is a selective culture medium for the isolation and characterisation of ''Burkholderia pseudomallei'' (the bacterium that causes melioidosis). Ashdown's medium was first described by LR Ashdown in 1979. It is used for the selective isolation of ''B. pseudomallei'' from clinical specimens taken from non-sterile sites (e.g., sputum) as well as to produce the characteristic morphology of ''B. pseudomallei''. The medium contains crystal violet and gentamicin as selective agents to suppress the growth of other bacteria. Colonies of ''B. pseudomallei'' also take up neutral red Neutral red (toluylene red, Basic Red 5, or C.I. 50040) is a eurhodin dye used for staining in histology. It stains lysosomes red. It is used as a general stain in histology, as a counterstain in combination with other dyes, and for many stai ... which is present in the medium, and this further helps to distinguish it from other bacteria. Gentamicin slightly inhibits the growth of ''B. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galactose
Galactose (, '' galacto-'' + ''-ose'', "milk sugar"), sometimes abbreviated Gal, is a monosaccharide sugar that is about as sweet as glucose, and about 65% as sweet as sucrose. It is an aldohexose and a C-4 epimer of glucose. A galactose molecule linked with a glucose molecule forms a lactose molecule. Galactan is a polymeric form of galactose found in hemicellulose, and forming the core of the galactans, a class of natural polymeric carbohydrates. D-Galactose is also known as brain sugar since it is a component of glycoproteins (oligosaccharide-protein compounds) found in nerve tissue. Etymology The word ''galactose'' was coined by Charles Weissman in the mid-19th century and is derived from Greek ''galaktos'' (of milk) and the generic chemical suffix for sugars ''-ose''. The etymology is comparable to that of the word ''lactose'' in that both contain roots meaning "milk sugar". Lactose is a disaccharide of galactose plus glucose. Structure and isomerism Galactose exists in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gentamicin
Gentamicin is an antibiotic used to treat several types of bacterial infections. This may include bone infections, endocarditis, pelvic inflammatory disease, meningitis, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and sepsis among others. It is not effective for gonorrhea or chlamydia infections. It can be given Intravenous therapy, intravenously, by intramuscular injection, or topically. Topical formulations may be used in burns or for infections of the outside of the eye. It is often only used for two days until bacterial cultures determine what specific antibiotics the infection is sensitive to. The dose required should be monitored by blood testing. Gentamicin can cause ototoxic, inner ear problems and nephrotoxic, kidney problems. The inner ear problems can include problems with balance and hearing loss. These problems may be permanent. If used during pregnancy, it can cause harm to the developing baby. However, it appears to be safe for use during breastfeeding. Gentamicin is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colistin
Colistin, also known as polymyxin E, is an antibiotic medication used as a last-resort treatment for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections including pneumonia. These may involve bacteria such as ''Pseudomonas aeruginosa'', '' Klebsiella pneumoniae'', or '' Acinetobacter''. It comes in two forms: colistimethate sodium can be injected into a vein, injected into a muscle, or inhaled, and colistin sulfate is mainly applied to the skin or taken by mouth. Colistimethate sodium is a prodrug; it is produced by the reaction of colistin with formaldehyde and sodium bisulfite, which leads to the addition of a sulfomethyl group to the primary amines of colistin. Colistimethate sodium is less toxic than colistin when administered parenterally. In aqueous solutions it undergoes hydrolysis to form a complex mixture of partially sulfomethylated derivatives, as well as colistin. Resistance to colistin began to appear as of 2015. Common side effects of the injectable form include ki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gram Staining
In microbiology and bacteriology, Gram stain (Gram staining or Gram's method), is a method of staining used to classify bacterial species into two large groups: gram-positive bacteria and gram-negative bacteria. The name comes from the Danish bacteriologist Hans Christian Gram, who developed the technique in 1884. Gram staining differentiates bacteria by the chemical and physical properties of their cell walls. Gram-positive cells have a thick layer of peptidoglycan in the cell wall that retains the primary stain, crystal violet. Gram-negative cells have a thinner peptidoglycan layer that allows the crystal violet to wash out on addition of ethanol. They are stained pink or red by the counterstain, commonly safranin or fuchsine. Lugol's iodine solution is always added after addition of crystal violet to strengthen the bonds of the stain with the cell membrane. Gram staining is almost always the first step in the preliminary identification of a bacterial organism. While Gram st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burkholderia Mallei
''Burkholderia mallei'' is a Gram-negative, bipolar, aerobic bacterium, a human and animal pathogen of genus ''Burkholderia'' causing glanders; the Latin name of this disease (''malleus'') gave its name to the species causing it. It is closely related to '' B. pseudomallei,'' and by multilocus sequence typing it is a subspecies of ''B. pseudomallei.'' ''B. mallei'' evolved from ''B. pseudomallei'' by selective reduction and deletions from the ''B. pseudomallei'' genome. Unlike ''B. pseudomallei'' and other genus members, ''B. mallei'' is nonmotile; its shape is coccobacillary measuring some 1.5–3.0 μm in length and 0.5–1.0 μm in diameter with rounded ends. Discovery and early history Wilhelm Schütz and Friedrich Löffler first isolated ''B. mallei'' in 1882. It was isolated from an infected liver and spleen of a horse. This bacterium is also one of the first to be identified containing a type VI secretion system which is important for it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashdown's Medium
Ashdown's medium is a selective culture medium for the isolation and characterisation of ''Burkholderia pseudomallei'' (the bacterium that causes melioidosis). Ashdown's medium was first described by LR Ashdown in 1979. It is used for the selective isolation of ''B. pseudomallei'' from clinical specimens taken from non-sterile sites (e.g., sputum) as well as to produce the characteristic morphology of ''B. pseudomallei''. The medium contains crystal violet and gentamicin as selective agents to suppress the growth of other bacteria. Colonies of ''B. pseudomallei'' also take up neutral red Neutral red (toluylene red, Basic Red 5, or C.I. 50040) is a eurhodin dye used for staining in histology. It stains lysosomes red. It is used as a general stain in histology, as a counterstain in combination with other dyes, and for many stai ... which is present in the medium, and this further helps to distinguish it from other bacteria. Gentamicin slightly inhibits the growth of ''B. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eosin Methylene Blue
Eosin methylene blue (EMB, also known as "Levine's formulation") is a selective stain for Gram-negative bacteria. EMB contains dyes that are toxic to Gram-positive bacteria. EMB is the selective and differential medium for coliforms. It is a blend of two stains, eosin and methylene blue in the ratio of 6:1. EMB is a differential microbiological medium, which slightly inhibits the growth of Gram-positive bacteria and provides a color indicator distinguishing between organisms that ferment lactose (e.g., ''E. coli'') and those that do not (e.g., ''Salmonella'', ''Shigella''). Organisms that ferment lactose display "nucleated colonies"—colonies with dark centers. This medium is important in medical laboratories by distinguishing pathogenic microbes in a short period of time. *Rapid lactose fermentation produces acids, which lower the pH. This encourages dye absorption by the colonies, which are now colored purple-black. *Lactose non-fermenters may increase the pH by deaminat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MacConkey Agar
MacConkey agar is a selective and differential culture medium for bacteria. It is designed to selectively isolate Gram-negative and enteric (normally found in the intestinal tract) bacteria and differentiate them based on lactose fermentation. Lactose fermenters turn red or pink on MacConkey agar, and nonfermenters do not change color. The media inhibits growth of Gram-positive organisms with crystal violet and bile salts, allowing for the selection and isolation of gram-negative bacteria. The media detects lactose fermentation by enteric bacteria with the pH indicator neutral red. Contents It contains bile salts (to inhibit most Gram-positive bacteria), crystal violet dye (which also inhibits certain Gram-positive bacteria), and neutral red dye (which turns pink if the microbes are fermenting lactose). Composition: * Peptone – 17 g * Proteose peptone – 3 g * Lactose – 10 g * Bile salts – 1.5 g * Sodium chloride – 5 g * Neutral red – 0.03 g * Crystal violet †... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood Agar
An agar plate is a Petri dish that contains a growth medium solidified with agar, used to culture microorganisms. Sometimes selective compounds are added to influence growth, such as antibiotics. Individual microorganisms placed on the plate will grow into individual colonies, each a clone genetically identical to the individual ancestor organism (except for the low, unavoidable rate of mutation). Thus, the plate can be used either to estimate the concentration of organisms in a liquid culture or a suitable dilution of that culture using a colony counter, or to generate genetically pure cultures from a mixed culture of genetically different organisms. Several methods are available to plate out cells. One technique is known as "streaking". In this technique, a drop of the culture on the end of a thin, sterile loop of wire, sometimes known as an inoculator, is streaked across the surface of the agar leaving organisms behind, a higher number at the beginning of the streak and a low ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fastidious
A fastidious organism is any organism that has complex or particular nutritional requirements. In other words, a fastidious organism will only grow when specific nutrients are included in its medium. The more restrictive term fastidious microorganism is used in microbiology to describe microorganisms that will grow only if special nutrients are present in their culture medium. Thus fastidiousness is often practically defined as being difficult to culture, by any method yet tried. Examples An example of a fastidious bacterium is '' Neisseria gonorrhoeae'', which requires blood or hemoglobin and several amino acids and vitamins to grow.Todar, Kenneth''Neisseria gonorrhoeae'', the Gonococcus, and Gonorrhea. Lectures in Microbiology. 2009. Retrieved 2013-03-05. Other examples include ''Campylobacter'' spp. and ''Helicobacter'' spp., which are capnophilic – require elevated CO2 – among other requirements. Fastidious organisms are not inherently "weak"—they can flourish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endotoxin
Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are large molecules consisting of a lipid and a polysaccharide that are bacterial toxins. They are composed of an O-antigen, an outer core, and an inner core all joined by a covalent bond, and are found in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. Today, the term ''endotoxin'' is often used synonymously with LPS, although there are a few endotoxins (in the original sense of toxins that are inside the bacterial cell that are released when the cell disintegrates) that are not related to LPS, such as the so-called delta endotoxin proteins produced by ''Bacillus thuringiensis''. Lipopolysaccharides can have substantial impacts on human health, primarily through interactions with the immune system. LPS is a potent activator of the immune system and pyrogen (agent that causes fever). In severe cases, LPS can play a role in causing septic shock. In lower levels and over a longer time period, there is evidence LPS may play an important and harmful role i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
