task 6

606 Words2 Pages

When looking at the gram positive and gram negative organisms, there is a need to understand the cell walls, to understand how the stain work. The cell walls of the gram negative and gram positive organisms differ in there size and make up. The cell wall also acts to prevent osmotic lysis. A gram positive cell wall is thick and contains multiple layers of peptidoglycan. There is also teichoic acids within the cell wall, this helps to make the peptidoglycan wall thicker. A percentage of the cell wall is peptidoglycan it is around sixty to ninety percent. The gram negative wall is much thinner with a percentage of only ten to twenty percent being peptidoglycan. The gram negative cell wall is surrounded by phospholipids, lipopolysaccharids, and lipoproteins which makes up the outer membrane. The gram negative cell wall does not contain teichoic acids, as this is only found in gram positive cell walls. When staining an organism there is several steps to follow. The first step is to use a basic dye, such as crystal violet, to stain both the gram negative and gram positive organis...

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