Gram Staining: What can one see? - (Jan/27/2014 )

Hello everyone,

I did Gram staining and would like to hear your opinions. I have some ideas, but I would like to wait for your what you can say about the bacteria.

Also I am interested in how I can improve the quality of my photos/staining because I would like to include some of them in my thesis.

Thank you so much.

You have some Gram + bacteria... shapes, types etc. should be your speciality.  to my eye, the stain is OK, though a bit patchy on some of the cells in 1 and 2, which could indicate under staining.

As to the photos - make sure your slide is clean before starting to take photos - the background in 1 is probably dirty slide.  2 and 3 are OK, but you should either use more light or make sure all the excess stain is rinsed off the slide.

White balancing the camera before taking images will give you a nice white background, even if you don't have the bulb turned up enough or have some background staining.

Hi Bob,
Thanks for your tips. 1 and 2 are coryneform to my eyes. Staining is always patchy. Here I strained 2 min with crystalviolet. I think it might be due to the mycolic acids of the bacteria. But I wasn't sure and wanted to wait for your ideas.
In future stainings,I will clean the slide more intensively, thanks for telling me.

Regarding the camera I have to admit that I am using my cell phone :-)
At our institute we have a canon eos 400D.

Can you recommend an adapter for mounting it on the microscope (hund)?

Ah - that explains it.  Photos with a cell phone almost always turn out like that.  I don't have any recommendations as to Hund adaptors, but try looking on their webpage.