Unknown Identification And Bergey's Manual

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The eighteenth exercise of the laboratory manual titled Unknown Identification and Bergey’s Manual is an experiment to identify an unknown bacterium. In this exercise, a student must randomly choose a numbered bacterium available to the class. The keys in Appendix H, located on the last pages of the book, are the major helpful tools in this exercise because it provides completed steps of tests that needs to be performed in order to distinguish certain bacteria. This means that in this exercise, various types of tests and techniques must be performed to identify the chosen unknown bacterium. The unknown bacterium that I selected was number thirty-nine in which I discovered as the Bacillus megaterium after conducting several tests.
I began my test to classify my unknown bacteria by performing the Gram staining because according to the first period procedure of the laboratory manual and the Appending H, it was the first test that should be done to plan and proceed to the next tests. Washed bottle of distilled water, three slides, and Gram-staining reagents …show more content…

The bacterium’s colonies on trypticase soy agar had an irregular shape, yellow pigment, umbonate elevation, and entire margin. Through Gram staining, I microscopically examined that the bacterium was Gram positive, rod shaped, and arranged in chains. There was presence of bubbles after testing for catalase, therefore it was a catalase positive. The bacterium was an Endospore positive because after a close examination under a microscope, I observed that it had Subterminal endospore as the its position. The Acid from mannitol test resulted as positive because the phenol mannitol red broth became yellow orange. Finally, the V-P test was negative because the media turned yellow. Overall, these results means that the unknown bacteria were Bacillus

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