WILL THE GRAMS STAIN SET REALLY GET OUT TOUGH STAINS?”
Gram’s stain laboratory staining technique that distinguishes between two groups of bacteria by the identification of differences in the structure of their cell walls. The Gram stain, named after its developer, Danish bacteriologist Christian Gram, has become an important tool in bacterial taxonomy, distinguishing between so-called gram-positive bacteria, which remain colored after the staining procedure, and gram-negative bacteria, which do not retain dye. In the staining technique, cells on a microscope slide are heat-fixed (killed) and stained with a basic dye, crystal violet, which stains all bacterial cells blue; then they are treated with an iodine-potassium iodide solution that allows the iodine to enter the cells and form a water-insoluble complex with the crystal violet dye.
