Profiles

About Profiles

This section contains a series of profiles in which each organism's particular features are presented as short paragraphs listing their characteristics. The same set of headings are used for all organisms, so that rapid comparisons can be acheived.

Classification

All living forms are subdivided into three main groups. The Eukaryotes comprise all the multicellular organisms including [plants, animals, fungi and the protozoa. The Prokaryotes include the two kingdoms: the Archaea comnprise the extreme halophiles, the extreme thermophiles and the methamogens, while the so-called true bacteria or Eubacteria comprise all the remaining groups of bacteria. While there is great discussion on the theoretical basis of the subdivision of bacteria based on modern molecular biological concepts, for the working microbiologist a rapid means of subdivision is on the basis of the Gram reaction and morphology.

GRAM POSITIVE (including Acid-Fast)

The gram-positive bacteria retain the crystal violet stain in the presence of alcohol or acetone. They include the important genera: Actinomyces, Bacillus, Bifidobacterium, Cellulomonas, Clostridium, Corynebacteriumk, Micrococcus, Mycobacterium, Nocardia, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and Streptomyces.

Some of the Gram-positive bacteria notably those of the genera Corynebacterium, Mycobacterium and Nocardia retain dyes even in the presence of acid. These are known as Acid-Fast bacteria.

GRAM NEGATIVE

The gram-negative bacteria do not retain the crystal violet stain in the presence of alcohol or acetone. They include the important genera: Acetobacter, Agrobacterium, Alcaligenes, Bordetella, Brucella, Campylobacter, Caulobacter, Enterobacter, Erwinia, Escherichia, Helicobacterium, Legionella, Nesseria, Nitrobact, Pasteurelia, Pseudomonas, Rhizobium, Rickettsia, Salmonella, Shigella, Thiobacilus, Veiellonealla, Vibrio, Xanthomonas and Yersinia.

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