- Which group of bacterial species is the API 20E used to identify?
API 20E test is used to identify the enteric bacteria which are the gram-negative bacteria that reside in the intestines
- Can you use API20E strips to identify Gram-positive bacteria? If you try so, what results in you might get? Strips cannot be used for the identification of gram-positive bacteria. It is specific to gram-negative Enterobacteriaceae species. If the test is done on gram-positive bacteria, there will be oxidation of cytochrome C and this is because gram-positive bacteria are oxidative in nature. As a result, there will be no color changes to help in the identification. The result will be negative. For this reason, gram-positive are identified using another system called the API-Staph
Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
- Two students perform API20E with the same bacterial culture but get different API numbers. What might be the reason for this discrepancy?
There might be some experimental errors when performing the test, and this may cause them to get different results. There might be a difference in color identification to determine if the result is positive or negative, as some students may be colorblind. This effect may cause a difference in the results. Arithmetic errors when assigning numbers to the tests and adding them up may also be a challenge. Some students may be in a hurry or not keen when assigning numbers and make a mistake, and these results in the different API numbers obtained.