BIOLOGICAL MEANING OF THE DIFFERENTIAL STAINABILITY OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS TO THE MALACHITEGREEN-FUCHSIN STAINING

Abstract

Malachitegreen-fuchsin staining was used on Staphylococcus aureus, a representative of Gram-positive bacteria, and quite similar results were observed as in Mycabac-teria and Gram-negative bacteria. A very closed relationship was shown between the differential stainability and the viability of bacterial cells. The differential stainability by the authors' procedure is completely independent of the Gram's method, and the hydrolysis of RNA-compound with ribonuclease did not affect even the stainability to malachitegreen as well as to the viability of the bacterial cells. The decrease in the stainability using Gram's method in the course of preservation was obviously slower than that to malachitegreen.
From the results and the results obtained on Mycobacteria and E. coli, it seems most likely that the authors' malachitegreen-fuchsin staining method presents bio-logical significance from the stand point of differential staining the living from the dead bacterial cells. Because the staining procedures are slightly different, depending on the bacterial species used, to achieve similar staining effects, may suggest the differences in their cell wall structures to some extent.