Gram Staning Continuation + Bacteria Findings

It was another day full of tasks and I tried to tackle as many as I could. I came today (Wednesday) so that I can see immediate and accurate results from my bioremediation experiment and jot down observations. I also gram stained a set of 10 slides from TSB and soil isolated bacteria.
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Pictures above are a 24 hour incubated(12 set) isolated bacteria colonies from TSB tubes. After incubation, it was clearer to see that in each TSA plate (petri dish) there was pure bacteria rather than having multiple bacterial colonies all at once. As I was observing them, the majority of the plates had bacteria growing in them. However, there were two petri dishes that did not show any visible presence of bacteria which I excluded when I was fixing and gram staining. 

10 different slides from gram staining (yet to be seen under a microscope). It took quite some time to get all of them gram stained, but after the process I was excited to see what I would see under the microscope on Thursday. The petri dishes did not need any special placement (such as in the refrigerator or incubator). I stored them at room temperature. After numerous amounts of gram staining, I would say that today was the best improvement. I was very proud of how the stains was well structured in the middle and nothing messy. This should help when looking under the microscope for accurate results.

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Bioremediation Experiment Updates

Below are pictures of what is currently present in the contents in the tube.

• All tubes consists of:
• 0.02% Tetrazolium (acts as a color indicator; if contents in tube change red/maroon/pink, then that indicates that the microbes are degrading the oil)
• 10 drops of corn oil 
• Choice of microbes (Rid-X, Enterobacter aerogenes, E. coli, and soil)

Left: This tube represents the microbe Rid-X. As you can see, there maroon/red color present. The Tetrazolium worked as it is evident that color change from a dark/sandy color to a maroon/red color. This applies to the first bioremediation that I worked on and to the newest one. There is no change but the color being present.

 Right: To the right, that is the bacteria Enterobacter aerogenes. After two attempts to confirm that E. aerogenes did "eat" oil, it is starting to come possible and promising that Rid-X indeed contains this certain bacteria. Fun fact: Enterobacter aerogenes is found in fecal matter, dairy, soil, and water.



Left: To the left, the bacteria applied is E. coli. With two attempts to see if E. coli was indeed found in the garden soil at P.C., there seems to be some possibility that it is indeed that bacteria. There is a hint of pink color present in the liquid. Unlike the soil sample (where very little to no color change present), this shows some signs. Interesting observation.

  

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Lastly, I made a control tube with only tetrazolium and corn oil, and another tube with Enterobacter aerogenes. Since I had incubated a loop full of E. aerogenes solution, I had more of a "spread" to add in the tube. It will be interesting to see the difference from a drop of E. aerogenes to a large amount. I will find out the results on Thursday.

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My collection of findings and experiments thus far. It's getting "packed", but I have plenty to observe and it is fun to partake in different experiments and still being able to manage and focus on them individually.