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Fungi - Morphology, Reproduction, Physiology and Importance in Simple Words

By Momina Shehzadi | BS Zoology Graduate, Pakistan In this article, we will learn Fungi - Morphology, Reproduction, Physiology and Importance - in simple words with diagram. This topic is very important for BS Zoology and Microbiology students. Fungi are found everywhere around us. They are present in soil, in water, in air, on dead plants, on dead animals, on our food, on our skin and even inside our body. When bread becomes old, green or black spots appear on it. These spots are fungi. When we see mushroom growing after rain, that is also a fungus. When yeast is used to make bread soft, that is also a fungus. Fungi are very different from bacteria and plants. They are eukaryotic organisms. It means their cells have a true nucleus and other membrane bound organelles. They do not have chlorophyll, so they cannot make their own food like plants. They get their food from other living or dead things. That is why they are called heterotrophic organisms. The study of fungi is called mycolog...
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Capsule Staining - Principle, Procedure and Importance | Anthony Method

By Momina Shehzadi | BS Zoology Graduate, Pakistan In this article, we will learn Capsule Staining - Principle, Procedure and Importance - in simple words with diagram. This topic is very important for BS Zoology and Microbiology students. Capsule staining is a special staining technique used to visualize capsule of bacteria. Capsule is outermost thick layer present outside cell wall in some bacteria. It is made of polysaccharides and sometimes polypeptides. Capsule is not stained by ordinary staining methods like simple staining or Gram staining because capsular material is non ionic and acidic stains do not penetrate it. So capsule appears as clear halo around bacteria in Gram staining. To visualize capsule, special staining techniques are required which stain background and bacterial cell but leave capsule unstained, so capsule appears as clear zone around stained cell. Capsule staining is very important because capsule is virulence factor of many pathogenic bacteria and helps in id...
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Bacteriological Media - Types, Preparation and Uses | Microbiology Notes

By Momina Shehzadi | BS Zoology Graduate, Pakistan In this article, we will learn Bacteriological Media - Types and Preparation - in simple words with diagram. This topic is very important for BS Zoology and Microbiology students. INTRODUCTION Bacteriological media or culture media is artificial food material which is used to grow microorganisms in laboratory. Bacteria need nutrients for growth like carbon source, nitrogen source, energy, water and minerals. Culture media provides all these nutrients in laboratory. The study of culture media is very important in microbiology because we cannot study bacteria without growing them. Different bacteria need different types of media. By growing bacteria on different media we can identify them. The culture media are prepared in laboratory and sterilized before use to avoid contamination. After sterilization, bacteria are inoculated on media and incubated at suitable temperature for growth. WHAT IS BACTERIOLOGICAL MEDIA Bacteriological media i...
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Flagella Staining - Principle, Procedure and Types | Leifson Method

By Momina Shehzadi | BS Zoology Graduate, Pakistan In this article, we will learn Flagella Staining - Principle, Procedure, Leifson Method and Types - in simple words with diagram. This topic is very important for BS Zoology and Microbiology students. INTRODUCTION Flagella staining is a special staining technique used to visualize bacterial flagella. Flagella are long, thin, hair like appendages that help bacteria in motility. Flagella are very thin, only 20 nanometer in diameter, so they cannot be seen with light microscope by simple staining or Gram staining. Electron microscope can see flagella but electron microscope is expensive and not available in routine laboratory. Therefore special flagella staining methods are used which increase thickness of flagella by depositing stain around flagella, making them thick enough to be visible under light microscope. Flagella staining is important to identify motile bacteria and to differentiate bacteria on basis of flagellar arrangement whic...
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Endospore Staining - Principle, Procedure | Schaeffer Fulton Method

By Momina Shehzadi | BS Zoology Graduate, Pakistan In this article, we will learn Endospore Staining - Principle, Procedure, Schaeffer-Fulton Method - in simple words with diagram. This topic is very important for BS Zoology and Microbiology students. INTRODUCTION Endospore staining is a special differential staining technique used to visualize bacterial endospores. Endospores are highly resistant, dormant structures formed inside some bacterial cells to survive harsh environmental conditions. Endospores are not stained by ordinary staining methods like Gram staining because they have thick, impermeable spore coat which prevents entry of dyes. So they appear as unstained clear areas inside vegetative cells in Gram staining. To stain endospores, special methods with heat are required which force dye to penetrate spore coat. Endospore staining is very important to identify spore forming pathogenic bacteria like Bacillus and Clostridium. WHAT IS ENDOSPORE Endospore is thick walled, highly...
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Acid-Fast Staining - Principle, Procedure and Importance | ZN Staining

By Momina Shehzadi | BS Zoology Graduate, Pakistan In this article, we will learn Acid-Fast Staining - Principle, Procedure, Ziehl-Neelsen Staining - in simple words with diagram. This topic is very important for BS Zoology and Microbiology students. INTRODUCTION Acid-Fast Staining is an important differential staining technique used in microbiology to differentiate acid-fast bacteria from non acid-fast bacteria. This staining was developed by Paul Ehrlich and later modified by Franz Ziehl and Friedrich Neelsen, so it is also called Ziehl-Neelsen staining or ZN staining. Acid-fast bacteria are those bacteria which retain primary stain even after washing with strong acid and alcohol. This property is due to presence of high lipid content in their cell wall. The most important acid-fast bacteria are Mycobacterium tuberculosis which causes tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae which causes leprosy. Because these bacteria are very important pathogens, acid-fast staining is routinely used i...
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Structure of Bacteria - Flagella, Pili, Capsule and Cytoplasm Notes

By Momina Shehzadi | BS Zoology Graduate, Pakistan In this article, we will learn Structure of Bacteria - Flagella, Pili, Capsule, Cell Wall and Cell Membrane - in simple words with diagram. This topic is very important for BS Zoology and Microbiology students. INTRODUCTION Bacteria are prokaryotic microorganisms which do not have true nucleus and membrane bound organelles. The bacterial cell structure is very simple as compared to eukaryotic cell but it has many important external and internal structures which help bacteria to survive in different environments. Understanding structure of bacteria is very important for BS Zoology students because it helps to understand how bacteria cause diseases, how antibiotics work and how Gram staining differentiates bacteria. A typical bacterial cell consists of outer structures and inner structures. Outer structures include flagella, pili, fimbriae and capsule. Inner structures include cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm, nucleoid, ribosomes, pla...
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Bacterial Growth Curve - Lag, Log, Stationary and Death Phase

By Momina Shehzadi | BS Zoology Graduate, Pakistan In this article, we will learn Bacterial Growth Curve - Lag, Log, Stationary and Death Phase - in simple words with diagram. This topic is very important for BS Zoology and Microbiology students. INTRODUCTION Bacterial growth means increase in number of bacteria, not size of individual bacterium. Bacteria reproduce by binary fission where one cell divides into two. When bacteria are inoculated into fresh culture medium and incubated, they show a characteristic pattern of growth which is represented graphically and called Bacterial Growth Curve. Growth curve is very important to understand bacterial physiology, to determine generation time and to select time for harvesting bacteria for industrial and research purposes. BACTERIAL GROWTH CURVE When we plot number of viable bacteria against time of incubation, we get a curve with four distinct phases. The bacterial growth curve has four phases: Lag phase, Log phase, Stationary phase and De...
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Viruses - General Characteristics, Structure and Classification

By Momina Shehzadi | BS Zoology Graduate, Pakistan In this article, we will learn Virus - General Characteristics, Structure, Classification and Bacteriophage - in simple words with diagrams. This topic is very important for BS Zoology and Microbiology students. INTRODUCTION Viruses are smallest infectious agents which can only be seen under electron microscope. The word virus is derived from Latin word meaning poison. The study of viruses is called Virology. Viruses are acellular, meaning they do not have cellular organization like bacteria. They are obligate intracellular parasites, meaning they can only reproduce inside living host cell. Outside host cell they are like non-living chemicals and inside host cell they show living characters like reproduction and mutation. Because of this dual nature, viruses are considered as connecting link between living and non-living. They are not included in any of five kingdoms of Whittaker classification. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF VIRUSES 1. Si...
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