Importancia de la tinción de gram en la identificación de patógenos presentes en el cultivo de <i>litopenaeus vannamei</i>

Abstract

The development of aquaculture requires tools that provide the producer with a more effective way to control the presence of pathogens in shrimp farms. For this reason, this document compiles bibliographic information about the importance for the aquaculture sector of using techniques that allow the identification of bacteria that seriously compromise the survival of aquaculture ponds. Gram staining is a tool for the identification of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria through the use of dyes that, according to the composition of the cell wall of the bacteria, will determine to which group they belong. This technique is performed by placing crystal violet in the sample, which is a dye that stains gram-positive bacteria in a blue-violet color, while for the identification of gram-negative bacteria safranin is added to the sample and this is responsible for staining them in a red-pink color. This process is carried out thanks to the content of peptidoglycans that the bacteria have in their cell wall, gram-positive bacteria by containing a greater amount of peptidoglycans are able to retain a greater proportion of the initial dye, while gram-negative bacteria by having a thin layer of peptidoglycans do not retain the initial dye and are stained with safranin placed at the end of the process, which when observed under the microscope allows identifying them more easily.