gram-negative (redirected from Gram-negative bacterium)

gram-negative /gram-neg·a·tive/ (-neg´ah-tiv) losing the stain or decolorized by alcohol in Gram's method of staining, characteristic of bacteria having a cell wall surface more complex in chemical composition than the gram-positive bacteria.

---

gram-negative or Gram-negative

adj.

Of, relating to, or being a bacterium that does not retain the violet stain used in Gram's method.

---

Gram-negative

Refers to the property of many bacteria that causes them to not take up color with Gram's stain, a method which is used to identify bacteria. Gram-positive bacteria which take up the stain turn purple, while Gram-negative bacteria which do not take up the stain turn red.

Mentioned in: Aminoglycosides, Campylobacteriosis, Helicobacteriosis, Hemophilus Infections

---

gram-negative

Etymology: Hans C.J. Gram, Danish physician, 1853-1938; L, negare, to say no

having the pink color of the counterstain used in Gram's method of staining microorganisms. This property is a primary method of characterizing organisms in microbiology. Some of the most common gram-negative pathogenic bacteria are Bacteroides fragilis, Brucella abortus, Escherichia coli, Haemophilus influenzae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Shigella dysenteriae, and Yersinia pestis.

---

gram-negative,

n having the pink color of the counterstain used in Gram's method of staining microorganisms. Staining property is a common method of classifying bacteria. See also Gram's stain.

---

gram-negative

said of bacteria that are decolorized by alcohol in Gram's method of staining (see gram's stain), and are thus stained only with the counter stain (usually red). Gram-negative bacteria have a much thinner layer of peptidoglycan in the cell wall than Gram-positive bacteria.