Saturday, May 14, 2011

Staphylococcus – grape bunches


Staphylococcus is a genus of spherical bacteria that grows in clusters resembling grape bunches (staphyle – Greek for bunch of grapes), when seen under the light microscope after usually having stained the specimen(s) with Gram stain.  Staphylococcus aureus which can cause for example, respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, skin or systemic disease is probably the most important human pathogen from the genus Staphyloccous.
A Danish scientist Hans Christian Gram developed a method of staining bacteria, thereby allowing for their characterization - this method has become standard in many medical laboratories.
Reference:
Todar K.  Todar’s Online Textbook of Bacteriology. Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcal Disease. Available http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/staph.html. Accessed 15-05-2011. Go to reference

Staphylococcus - grape bunches

1 comment:

Nimmy said...

Purple, Gram positive due to the crystal violet stain, cocci's, clusters