Staining

Laboratory staining is a technique used to make certain structures or components within cells or tissues visible under a microscope. Staining can be used to highlight specific structures or molecules within a sample, allowing scientists to identify and study them more easily.

There are many different types of staining techniques that can be used in the laboratory, including:

  • Simple staining: Simple staining is a basic staining technique that uses a single dye to color all the cells in a sample. This technique is used to differentiate between different types of cells or to identify specific structures within cells.
  • Differential staining: Differential staining is a technique that uses multiple dyes to stain different structures within a cell differently. This technique is used to distinguish between different types of cells or to identify specific structures within cells.
  • Gram staining: Gram staining is a differential staining technique that is used to identify bacterial species. It uses crystal violet and iodine as the primary stains, and a decolorizing agent and a counterstain to differentiate between different types of bacteria.
  • Acid-fast staining: Acid-fast staining is a differential staining technique that is used to identify certain types of bacteria, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis. It uses a primary stain called carbolfuchsin and a decolorizing agent to differentiate between different types of bacteria.
  • Fluorescence staining: Fluorescence staining is a technique that uses dyes that fluoresce under UV light. This technique is used to identify specific structures or molecules within cells or tissues.

Overall, laboratory staining is an important technique that allows scientists to visualize and study specific structures or molecules within cells or tissues.

Nuclear Staining of Filamentous Fungi
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Staining

Nuclear Staining of Filamentous Fungi

Fungi are eukaryotic and contain well-organized nuclei. The fungal nucleus is membrane bound and consist of two membranes of characteristic

Viability Staining Method For Bacteria
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Staining

Viability Staining Method For Bacteria

Aim To distinguish between living and dead cells. Principle The viability Staining Method mainly used to detect living and dead

Bacterial cell wall structure
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Staining

Cell Wall Staining by Dayr’s Method

The composition of cell wall varies from species to species, it has been reported that the main constituents of cell wall is chitin, hemicellulose, and cellulose. In addition, prokaryotic cell wall contains peptidoglycan (also known as murein and mucopeptide). Peptidoglycan is mainly composed of sugar, amino acids (peptide; amino acids + glycan; sugar).

Collagen Hybridizing Peptide Staining
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Staining

Collagen Hybridizing Peptide Staining

Collagen Hybridizing Peptide stain is a vital stain used for the detection of collagen degraded tissues, mainly used in Developmental Biology, Histology, and Histopathology.

Acridine Orange Staining
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Staining

Acridine Orange Staining

Acridine Orange contains metachromatic properties, that’s why it is employed in fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry study of cellular physiology and cell cycle state, including the fluorescent microscopic examination of microorganisms.

Toluidine blue stain of Mast cell
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Staining

Toluidine blue stain of Mast Cell.

Toluidine blue is a basic thiazine metachromatic dye that stains nuclei blue, and can be used to differentiate different types of granules (e.g. within mast cells).

Bacterial Flagella Staining by Leifson Flagella Stain Method
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Staining

Bacterial Flagella Staining by Leifson Flagella Stain Method

In 1930, Leifson introduced a simple flagella stain, using this stain he observed that mutations leading to nonflagellated from flagellated bacteria were common, as well as mutation leading to loss of motility without loss of the flagellum itself.

Flagella Staining Principle, Procedure, Result
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Staining

Flagella Staining Principle, Procedure, Result

Flagella can not be seen under a bright-field microscope by using ordinary stains. A simple and useful method has been used for visualization of flagella is known as wet mount technique.

Negative Staining result
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Staining

Negative Staining Principle, Procedure, Result

In negative staining method, an acidic dye is used known as India Ink or Nigrosin. When the bacterial cells are exposed to this stain, due to the presence of acidic nature it readily gives up a hydrogen ion (proton) and the chromophore. As a result, the dye becomes negatively charged, now the bacterial cell surface deflects the stain.