Question

Smear a sample from a patient from Korle Bu Teaching Hospital with abscesses and boils were brought to the laboratory for staining and microscopic examination. The key steps you would employ to stain the smear using Gram examination, you found blue-colored grape cluster berry round cells.

What could be the outcome of the Gram staining reaction?
A. The cells are Gram-positive.

B. The cells are Gram-negative.

C. The cells are stained pink.

D. The cells are unstained.

What could be this bacterium and why?

Answer 1

The blue-colored grape cluster berry round cells observed in a Gram staining reaction indicate that the cells are Gram-positive, and the likely bacterium is Staphylococcus aureus.

Step-by-step explanation:

When a smear from a patient with abscesses and boils is subjected to Gram staining and the result is blue-colored grape cluster berry round cells, the outcome of the Gram staining reaction is that the cells are Gram-positive. The grape-like clusters of spherical cells, which turn purple after being stained with crystal violet and not decolorized even after the addition of the decolorizing agent, strong signal the presence of a Gram-positive bacterium. A likely bacterium with this description is Staphylococcus aureus, known for causing skin infections such as abscesses and boils, and presenting a grape-like cluster arrangement under the microscope. The purple coloration is due to the thick peptidoglycan layer in Gram-positive bacteria which retains the crystal violet dye after the Gram staining process.