A microbiologist makes a fixed smear of bacterial cells and stains them with Loeffler's methylene blue.All the cells appear blue under the oil lens.This is an example of
A)negative staining.
B)using an acidic dye.
C)simple staining.
D)using the acid-fast stain.
E)capsule staining.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The fact that all the cells appear blue indicates that the Loeffler's methylene blue stained all the cells, and therefore it is a simple staining technique. Negative staining involves staining the background instead of the cells themselves, using an acidic dye involves using a dye with low pH that reacts with basic structures in the cell, acid-fast staining is used to differentiate acid-fast bacteria from non-acid-fast bacteria, and capsule staining is used to visualize the glycocalyx around some bacterial cells.

A Microbiologist Makes a Fixed Smear of Bacterial Cells and Stains