Simple Stain

Use of a single dye or stain to examine cell morphology, size, and arrangement of a heat fixed bacterial smear.

Since bacteria are negatively charged, they are more easily dyed using basic stains.

Basic stains can gain a H+ or loose a OH- ion to become positively (+) charged,which then is attracted to the negatively charged bacterial cell surface.

Common Stains used are: Crystal Violet, Methylene Blue, Malachite Green, Carbol Fuscin.

Simple Stain using Methylene Blue to identify cocci tetrads