Enteric Mystery

Overview

Objectives/Goals My goal was to find out whether enteric bacteria could be differentiated by biochemical tests. Since enteric bacteria cannot be differentiated by their physical characteristics or their morphology, I thought that they could maybe be differentiated by their chemical characteristics. Methods/Materials I used four different types of enteric bacteria. These were C. freundii, S. liquefaciens, E. coli, E. aerogenes, and an unknown bacteria. My teacher/advisor provided me with these. The unknown bacteria was one of the other four cultures of bacteria. I wanted to see if I could find out what the unknown bacteria was by using four tests. These were the citrate utilization test, the hydrogen sulfide production test, the Vogues-Prosauker test, and the Methyl red test. Results After reading the tests, I found that the unknown bacteria was E. coli. I found that enteric bacteria can be told apart by biochemical testing. Conclusions/Discussion I learned that biochemical testing is very important when trying to identify a new species of bacteria. If a new type of bacteria is found and it cannot be classified by its morphology or the Gram-stain Method, it can most likely be classified by its chemical characteristics.

Competition history

• CSEF 2004 Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology · Entry J0410

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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