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Characterization test applicable to various groups of bacteria. One volume of 10 per cent sterile soluble starch is added to 5 of melted nutrient or yeast extract agar. Inoculated and incubated plates are flooded with dilute iodine. A colourless zone surrounds colonies where starch is hydrolysed, the remaining areas being deep blue.  

Enzyme co-factor produced by staphylococci. It activates plasminogen (a plasma enzyme precursor) which is then capable of dissolving coagulated plasma. An exotoxin produced by some strains of Staphylococcus aureus that may be used clinically as a thrombolytic drug.  

Test of the stability and activity of use-dilutions of a disinfectant. One tube (A) of a pair of identical dilutions is inoculated with a suspension of Ps. aeruginosa on Day 1, leaving it and the uninoculated tube (B) at room temperature for 7 days. On Day 8, 5 subcultures of tube (A) are made into…

Inoculation of a solid butt of agar or gelatin with a straight wire. Agar cultures may be used for the production of anaerobiasis or observation of motility, and gelatin for its liquefaction by proteolytic bacteria. A bacterial culture made by thrusting into the culture medium an inoculating needle with the bacterial specimen.  

Glass items for distributing inoculum evenly over a plate of culture medium. An instrument for distributing something evenly over a tissue or culture plate. A compound incorporated into an atomizer to facilitate uniform dispersion across the intended surface.    

Paper strips incorporating a sporing organism (usually Bacillus stearothermophilus) for testing autoclave efficiency.  

Order of Gram-negative micro-organisms with slender spiral bodies (6-500 pm long) by the flexion of which they move, being non- flagellate. Free-living, saprophytic, and parasitic forms occur. Demonstrable often only by dark-ground illumination, or by Giemsa stain, taking aniline dyes poorly if at all. Comprises the families Spirochaetaceae and Treponemataceae; only the latter is of…

Spiral organisms 2-6 μm long, with broad coils at 1 pm intervals, one of the infective agents of rat-bite fever. Seen by dark-ground illumination the spirillum is actively motile (darting moves are characteristic) due to terminal flagella. Romonovsky films of lymph gland juice, skin lesions and sometimes blood may show the parasite, and inoculation of…

Family within the order Pseudomonadales, and consisting of rigid Gram-negative curved or spiral rods, usually motile. Often water¬ borne; some pathogenic to man and animals, including the Spirillum and Vibrio genera.  

Anaerobic, pleomorphic Gram-negative rods with characteristics so close to the Bacteroides genus that they are now commonly included under that heading.