Identification from growth characteristics

The unknown bacterial isolate may be sub cultured on several different sorts of liquid and solid media to aid its identification. Widely  these media fall into  two types:  selective media which allow  the   growth of  one   type   of  bacterium although  inhibiting that of  others; diagnostic media or differential usually contain some sort of visual indicator, a change in  which is  linked to  a  unique biochemical property of  a  group of  microorganisms. If the strain can be purified then an examination and a Gram stain of morphology might be performed. Once  an  whole  picture of  the  organism’s  growth has  been obtained the  ability   to  use  sugars and if acid  is  produced during their use  and  an  assessment of the  possession of certain enzymes is performed in  detail. These properties can be scored and combined against the known properties of other organisms to form a basic numerical taxonomy. The Kits can be obtained commercially in which semi-automate this procedure but   are limited to certain groups of Prokaryotes particularly   the enteric.   With  most   environmentally isolated nonpathogenic Archaea and Bacteria, guidance must be sought from the standard reference text for identification Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology.