| S.N. | Characteristics | Gram Positive | Gram Negative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gram Reaction | 
Retain crystal violet dye and stain blue or purple | 
Can be decolorized to accept counterstain (safranin) and stain pink or red |
| 2 | Cell Wall | Cell Wall is 20-30 nm thick. | Cell Wall is 8-12 nm thick. |
| 3 | Cell Wall | The wall is Smooth. | The wall is wavy. |
| 4 | Peptidoglycan Layer | Thick (multilayered) | Thin (single-layered) |
| 5 | Teichoic Acids | Present in many | Absent |
| 6 | Periplasmic Space | Absent | Present |
| 7 | Outer Membrane | Absent | Present |
| 8 | Porins | Absent | Occurs in Outer Membrane |
| 9 | Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) Content | Virtually None | High |
| 10 | Lipid and Lipoprotein Content | Low (acid-fast bacteria have lipids linked to peptidoglycan) | High (because of presence of outer membrane) |
| 11 | Mesosomes | Quite Prominent | Less Prominent |
| 12 | Flagellar Structure | 2 rings in basal body | 4 rings in basal body |
| 13 | Toxin Produced | Exotoxins | Endotoxins or Exotoxins |
| 14 | Resistance to Physical Disruption | High | Low |
| 15 | Cell Wall Disruption by Lysozyme | High | Low (requires pretreatment to destabilize outer membrane) |
| 16 | Susceptibility to Penicillin and Sulfonamide | High | Low |
| 17 | Susceptibility to Streptomycin, Chloramphenicol and Tetracycline | Low | High |
| 18 | Inhibition by Basic Dyes | High | Low |
| 19 | Susceptibility to Anionic Detergents | High | Low |
| 20 | Resistance to Sodium Azide | High | Low |
| 21 | Resistance to Drying | High | Low |
Gram positive bacteria can retain the Cristal violet colour even after washed with acetone or alchol and appears a purple coloured when examined under the microscope after gram staing
what is the importance of teichoic acid in gram +ve bacteria ? Why not in gram -ve ?
the difference is clear but in simple explanation gram staining is what makes bacteria to be gram positive or negative and this happens because gram positive bacteria have thick peptidoglycan which retains crystal violet staining dye as opposed to gram.
What is the reason that inhibition by basic dyes, susceptibility to anionic detergents and resistance to sodium azide is low in gram negative while high in gram positive bacteria?
Answer plz it’s assignment
what do gram positive and gram negative have in common
they both have exotoxins
Why are Gram-positive has 2 rings in basal body and Gram-negative 4 rings in basal body? Thank you
Thanks alot I’m a clinical medicine and surgery student under microbiology unit I had to study about gram positive and negative so you’ve made it easier for me God bless
I Would like to know the fundamental characters that differentiates these two.All you have mentioned are the secondary one,i guess.The distinction seems not clearly made on why one bacteria is called gram positive and the other negative.I would appreciate any notes regarding this.
Hoping for your reply.
In response to your question on why one is called grams positive and the order grams negative. The reason is the ability of one to turn purple or blue when dye is added to it cell due to the presence of high level of peptidoglycan where as the order has low peptidoglycan and when stained it turns pink most of the time
which Bacteria do sporulate ? gram + or gram – ? thank you
Gram positive
In segment 13 i.e. Toxin production it is more accurate to write under gram negative bacteria exotoxins and/or endotoxins rather than exotoxins or endotoxins because endotoxins are produced by all gram negative bacteria as it ( the LPS) is an integral part of the outer membrane, so any species produce exotoxins will already produce both.
If you are able to open the site in Chrome from your phone, you cannot see the entire page on the screen, but you can save the table to Drive in landscape as a PDF and it looks great.
A good website…can i know the answers of these questions please?
1:What are the basic requirements for a good germicide?
2:Why is B.subtilis more resistant to phenol than e.coli?
3:Do sensitive bacteria become resistant to antibiotics? if yes why?
Good site,what is the relationship between endospores stain and gram nagetive and gram positive stain…?
Thanks a lot
if sources are in hand please send the characteristics of gram negative and positive bacteria on media’s (colony characterization, color etc)
thank can i please know the source of this post? name of book, author and the page. thank you very much i used it for my homework and we are required to write the source.
Please just explain the diffrnces b/w gram positve nd negative bactria clearly
gram positive have the ability to retain the color of the primary stain (crystal violet), while gram negative do not
Anyone to give me the difference between the gram positive cell wall and gram negative cell wall,,, whenever i think i get less than three, please
What are the general characteristics of both fungi and protozoa?
Protozoan are mainly unicellular and microscopic. Fungi is majorly filamentous.
Protozoan are parasitic , Fungi are parasitic and saprophytic
amoebiasis, malaria , are some protozoan diseases
major skin diseases aspergilloses, candidiasis, blstomycosis
Please also add types of diseases caused by them.
Please the topic is the diff between gram positive bacteria and gram negative bacteria but the distinction seem not to be clearly made. Pls help
The gram positive Retain crystal violet dye and stain blue or purple white the gram negative do not retain , and Can be decolorized to accept counterstain (safranin) and stain pink or red
Oks very soon. thanks
Does one species of bacteria have both gram -ve and gram +ve bacteria e.g eschericia coli ?
How does a a diderm or double cell walled bacteria like the Borrelia species fit in?
Is there enough information to add a third column?
Gratulation I again read all You make this articul best last also was Prima!
Best regards
Anna
Hlo sir im doing bsc biotech nd i want some guidance frm u fr msc studies .im interested in microbiology but im confused between biotech nd microbiology fr msc pls guide me nd sujust sm other gud fields olso fr masters thnku
A very complete and useful tool for understanding. I consider that selected colors are confuse, because in a real Gram stain gramnegatives are pink and grampositives are violet, instead the colors showed in the figure.
yes you are very true…coz its very difficult todistinguished between this two gram bacteria on the basis of this grahm staning coz the colour seems same as pinkband violet..I think other innovative distinguishing colour should be prepared..
The colors of the illustration were poorly thought out, for sure, but I I always think
POSITIVE (gram+) PURPLE (violet stain) PEPTIDOGLYCAN (thick)
Because the G- stain varies from pink to red, I simply focus memorization by gram stain color for Positive Purple… in either/or items you only need to be obsessive about one OR the other…at least as one begins a journey into Microbial world.
What are structure different between gram+&gram-ve based on cell wall