Introduction Xylose Lysine Deoxycholate (XLD) agar is a selective and differential culture medium used in microbiology to isolate and identify bacteria, particularly those belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family. This medium has a rich history and has been widely employed in…
Introduction The oxidase test is a biochemical test used to determine the presence of the oxidase enzyme in bacterial cells. The test involves adding a reagent containing an artificial electron acceptor to a bacterial sample and observing the color change…
Introduction The urease test is a biochemical test used to detect the presence of urease enzymes in bacterial cells or clinical specimens. The test involves adding a sample of the bacterial culture or clinical specimen to a medium containing urea…
Define hyphae Hyphae are the long filament branches that are seen in fungi and actinobacteria (shown below). Mycelium is the aggregate name for these species’ hyphae, which are important structures required for growth. Explain the structure of hyphae Each hypha…
The name “mycology” comes from the Greek word “mykos,” which means mushroom. Mycology is hence the study of fungi. The potential of fungi to penetrate plant and animal tissue was discovered in the early 19th century, but Bassi examined the…
Define meiosis Eukaryotic cells (plants, animals, and fungi) reproduce sexually through a process called meiosis. Chromosome reduction is the process by which haploid cells are created from diploid cells, which are cells with two complete and identical sets of chromosomes.…
What is mitosis? The division of a single cell into two identical cells is known as “mitosis” in biology. The word “identical” describes how the genetic makeup and number of chromosomes are the same in both cells are the same.…
History: The discovery of the electrophoresis principle, which describes the movement of charged and dissolved atoms or molecules in an electric field, earned Arne Tiselius the 1948 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The separation was improved by using a solid matrix…
History of cell division Hugo von Mohl, a German botanist, made the first observation of a cell division under a microscope in 1835 while studying the green alga Cladophora glomerata. Kurt Michel initially captured cell division on film in 1943 while…
History of chloroplast: Chloroplasts were first established in eukaryotes through an endosymbiotic relationship with a cyanobacterium; they later spread through the evolution of eukaryotic hosts and the subsequent engulfment of eukaryotic algae by formerly nonphotosynthetic eukaryotes. Hugo von Mohl, a German…
