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Identifying The Unknown Organisms After Performing A Gram Stain

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Introduction
Today in medicine doctors are rapidly isolating and distinguishing the many pathogenic microbes encountered daily within the environment. Public health has been affected from the faster identification of microorganisms by delivering an accurate analysis to patients in order to receive treatment of the disease in a timely manner. Due to the growing understanding of these organisms more have been easier to indicate to improve water quality. Also more methods have been developed for better treatment options from fecal bacteria in public water systems. Scientist has developed such specific methods of identifying the unknown organism to tell if the contamination has come from either a human, bird, or mammal. (Achtman et al., 2008)…show more content…
After at least 48 hours a final diagnosis is given to the patient all based off of using the Dichotomous Key, used to narrow down the search of the specimen on the suspected area of the body. This is an important procedure because there are organisms that must be identified in order to conduct certain tests on certain media to know its function.
A Dichotomous Key was studied to identify bacteria and their relationships. Some of the organisms at the end of the Dichotomous Key had viable characteristics that separate them from different groups, and those that did not students learned how to further classify them. A Dichotomous Key is used to narrow down the search for the unknown organism tested. It is organized by phenotypic characteristics of organisms and conducts a systematic way of identifying the other unknowns. In the lab students were given a tube labeled with a number. Instructions were given to conduct a Gram stain to begin the search followed by the use of a Dichotomous Key and photos as resources to carry out the search. Instructions read to isolate and identify the unknown bacterium with both differential and selective tests to positively identify the given unknown organism. Differential tests used specifically for this unknown microorganism was BEA (Bile Esculin Agar), which interpreted results by the hydrolysis of esculin when the media is blackened around
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