Introduction

Familiarizing ourselves with selective media is important because different bacteria have
different methods of metabolizing substrates. Thus, knowing how each selective media works
can help us in understanding the bacteria and even help us identify it if need be. Phenyl-EthylAlcohol is an undefined and selective media that favors the growth of gram positive bacteria
over gram negative. Inhibitor is alcohol, which explains why gram negative are inhibited. In
Bile-esculin is a selective media that favors those that can use esculin. The indicator is ferric
citrate and bile is the inhibitor. Bile-esculin is usually for certain specied of cocci. Mannitol Salt
agar contains salt as an inhibitor and mannitol is the substrate for gram positive cocci. If the
medium is yellow, then acid is produced from fermentation. If its pink, then its basic due to
protein degradation. MacConkey Agar is a selective and differential medium where lactose is the
substrate and neutral red is indicator. Gram negative thrives in this medium. Finally, EosinMethyleneblue Blue is a complex, selective medium where lactose is substrate and the indicators
methylene blue and eosin-y are also substrates. The principle is that we will streak a bacteria
sample onto each of these plates and observe the characteristics, or lack thereof, in order to
assess information.
Results

Ss
Eg
Ec
Pai
Ea
Cf
Ll
Se

Figure 5.1 Bacteria in Each Selective media

+ means Good growth
- Means poor growth
Dark purple means mild fermentor of lactose
Green hue means aggressive fermentor of lactose
NA
PEA
BE
MSA
+
+
+/a
+
+
+/black
+/a
+
+
-/little
yellow
+
+
+
+

MAC

EMB

+/pink
+/brown

+/pink

+/dark
purple
+dark
purple
+/green hue

+/black
+/b

Discussion
In nutrient agar plate, they all grew, so thats good, since NA is meant to serve as a
control. For PEA, only Staphylococcus saprophyticus and Enterococcus gallinarum grew since
they both are gram negative and Escherichia coli is gram negative. The alcohol in PEA poked
holes in gram-negative but not in gram-positive since the cell wall helped retain the cells
property for the most part.
In Bile Esculin, both Enterococcus gallinarum and Lactococcus lactis were black since
they converted esculin into esculitin and Fecitrate was the indicator since esculitin binding to
Fecitrate produces a dark precipitate. However, Providencia alcalifaciens didnt grow since it

was inhibited by bile. This makes sense because bile esculin plates are usually reserved for
certain species of cocci, like those from Enterococcus or Staphylococcus.
For MSA, Staphylococcus saprophyticus showed good growth and was even yellow, so it
meant it could ferment mannitol and lower the pH. Same thing with Enterococcus gallinarum,
but it wasnt as yellow as the previous bacterias, so not as aggressive of a fermenter.
Staphylococcus epidermidis not only grew, but produce a pink background, implying it doesnt
ferment mannitol and grows some other way, such as protein degradation. Escherichia coli did
not grow since it is gram negative, and the general trend is that MSA generally favors grampositive cocci, and the salt inhibited the gram-negative bacterium. In fact, when our skin is salty,
a lot of bacteria that thrive in this condition are indeed of cocci, so the environment for the MSA
should have made it generally predictable as to which bacteria might be supported.
For MAC, E. coli grew since the media favored gram-negative. Same with Citrobacter
freundii. The pink was probably due to the fermentation of lactose. Providencia alcalifaciens
also grew, but it was slightly brownish, and I can offer no explanation for that. Maybe the culture
was slightly contaminated. Since bile crystals do not allow gram-positive to grow, Enterococcus
gallinarum did not grow on the medium.
Conclusion
We performed experiments on selective plates because it helps us distinguish bacteria
from each other. The different fermentation and the different morphologies present can help us
understand the composition of bacteria and why they respond to such extreme changes in the
environment. It can also help us in identifying an unknown organism.