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Safranin (Safranin O or basic red 2) is a biological stain used in histology and cytology. Safranin is used as a counterstain in some staining protocols, colouring cell nuclei red. This is the classic counterstain in both Gram stains and endospore staining. It can also be used for the detection of cartilage, [2] mucin and mast cell granules.
Gram-positive bacteria have a thick mesh-like cell wall made of peptidoglycan (50–90% of cell envelope), and as a result are stained purple by crystal violet, whereas gram-negative bacteria have a thinner layer (10% of cell envelope), so do not retain the purple stain and are counter-stained pink by safranin. There are four basic steps of the ...
Bacterial morphological plasticity refers to changes in the shape and size that bacterial cells undergo when they encounter stressful environments. Although bacteria have evolved complex molecular strategies to maintain their shape, many are able to alter their shape as a survival strategy in response to protist predators, antibiotics, the immune response, and other threats.
During the lag phase of the bacterial growth cycle, the synthesis of RNA, enzymes and other molecules occurs. During the lag phase cells change very little because the cells do not immediately reproduce in a new medium. This period of little to no cell division is called the lag phase and can last for 1 hour to several days.
A number of other bacteria—that are bounded by a single membrane, but stain gram-negative due to either lack of the peptidoglycan layer, as in the mycoplasmas, or their inability to retain the Gram stain because of their cell wall composition—also show close relationship to the gram-positive bacteria.
Depending on pH growth conditions, the peptidoglycan forms around 40 to 90% of the cell wall's dry weight of gram-positive bacteria but only around 10% of gram-negative strains. Thus, presence of high levels of peptidoglycan is the primary determinant of the characterisation of bacteria as gram-positive. [ 5 ]
The wrong decision can be catastrophic: a vegetative cell will die if the conditions are too harsh, while bacteria forming spores in an environment which is conducive to vegetative growth will be out competed. [3] In short, initiation of sporulation is a very tightly regulated network with numerous checkpoints for efficient control. [citation ...
During stationary growth phase when B. subtilis are at high cell density, approximately 10% of the cells in a population are induced to become competent. It is believed that this subpopulation becomes competent to take up DNA that could potentially be used for the repair of damaged (mutated) chromosomes . [ 41 ]