what is mordant in microbiology ?
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what is mordant in microbiology
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Cellular microbiology
2 years
2022-10-18T09:53:10+00:00
2022-10-18T09:53:10+00:00 2 Answers
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A mordant is a substance that increases the affinity of the cell wall for a stain by binding to the primary stain, thus forming an insoluble complex, which gets trapped in the cell wall.
in microbiology, microorganisms’ cells are stained and observed under microscope to differentiate between different structures like cell wall, capsule, spores. a mordant is a chemical, molecule or substance that forms an insoluble complex with the primary stain and increases cell wall’s affinity for a stain.
e.g. in gram’s staining, iodine is a mordant that form complex with crystal violet (primary stain)