Endospore staining

Endospore stain on Bacillus subtilis. The spore is stained green and the vegetative cell is stained a pinkish red color.

Endospore staining is a technique used in bacteriology to identify the presence of endospores in a bacterial sample.[1] Within bacteria, endospores are protective structures used to survive extreme conditions, including high temperatures making them highly resistant to chemicals.[2] Endospores contain little or no ATP which indicates how dormant they can be. Endospores contain a tough outer coating made up of keratin which protects them from nucleic DNA as well as other adaptations. Endospores are able to regerminate into vegetative cells, which provides a protective nature that makes them difficult to stain using normal techniques such as simple staining and gram staining. Special techniques for endospore staining include the Schaeffer–Fulton stain and the Moeller stain.

  1. ^ Microbiology An Introduction Tenth Edition; Tortora Funke Case
  2. ^ Leboffe, Michael (2015). Microbiology Laboratory Theory and Application. Englewood, CO: Morton Publishing. pp. |page=215. ISBN 978-1-61731-250-2.