Stuart transport medium a nonnutrients soft agar gel containing a reducing agent to prevent oxidation, and charcoal to neutralize certain Bacterial inhibitors used to transport specimen for the isolation of gonococci.

Buffered glycerol saline for enteric bacilli 

Venkat ramakrishnan medium for vibrio cholerae.

Storage of specimen

Refrigerator is the common method of storage of specimen.It maintain the viability of pathogen and preserve them in their relatives number.Further refrigerator minimize the over growth of contaminants.However certain specimen like blood and CSF cannot be refrigerated.

Identification of bacteria

Initial requirements is the isolation of bacterium in pure culture bacterium can be identified by two major method

Phenotypic characteristics,Genotypic characteristics

Phenotypic characteristics

The first method of identification involve the study of bacterial phenotypic characteristics like morphology, culture characteristics, motility, biochemical characteristics and serology.

Morphology

Many staining method are used for the study of morphology of bacteria.gram straining and acid fast staining are very common.

Gram staining this method was devised by Hans Christian gram in 1882.It is a type of Differential staining which differential the bacteria as gram Positive and gram negative.

Gram staining is done in four steps

Steps 1 primary staining dyes like crystal violet or methyl violet are used.basic dyes used to stain the acidic cytoplasm of the bacterial cell.

Steps 2. Mordants gram iodine is used as mordants.The mordant help the stain to get fixed in the cell.In this steps,a dye iodine complex is formed which is bigger in size than the dye molecule and hence helps in fixing the dye inside the cell.

Decolourization ethanol or acetone or ethanol acetone mixture is used as a decolourization.Some bacteria retain the primary stain on treatment with the decolourizer and some bacteria will lose the primary Stain.Tge bacteria that retain the primary Stain during this step are considered as gram positive and those that lose colour are gram negative.

Counter staining

Carbolfuchsin or safranine is used as counter staining.This is done to find whether the bacteria have retained the primary Stain or not.The is done to find whether the bacteria have retained the primary Stain or not.The bacteria that retain the primary stain or not.Tge bacteria that retain lose the primary stain take the colour of the counter stain and appear pink in colour.The bacteria that appears purple in colour are gram positive and those appear pink in colour are gram negative bacteria.