Introduction:

Bacteria have been known to cause a variety of diseases, prompting the

development of antibiotics to treat pathogens. Over the years, the extensive use of
antibiotics has brought about a warning of bacteria that have adapted to become
extremely resistant to most antibiotics. Multi-drug resistant organisms have become a
major concern for centers of healthcare, such as hospitals, and the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC). Bacteria identification proves to be a vital process in
combatting the increasing resistance against drugs. For example, non-fermenting gramnegative bacilli can cause a vast variety of infections and many differ in pathogenic
potential (Su et al., 2009). Accurate identification of bacteria would help clinicians in
choosing an appropriate treatment for the patient. Recently, widespread use of PCR and
DNA sequencing has played a pivotal role in identifying bacteria leading to insights of
various infectious diseases (Woo et al., 2008). The technological advancements in
identifying bacteria with genotyping techniques will be able to complement the
conventional phenotyping techniques. Phenotyping bacteria can yield direct functional
information about a bacterias metabolic activities and growth (Emerson et al., 2008). In
this experiment, two unknown organisms will be identified using a series of tests found in
the ABA DABA process. The initial gram stain will determine if the bacteria are either
gram-negative or gram-positive. Other tests included in the ABA DABA process are:
phenol red, minimal media, catalase test, oxidase test, wet mount, and fluorescent
pigment test. While working on the identifying the unknown bacteria, it is important to
properly isolate individual colonies. Sterile technique should be used at all times to
ensure that the colony being identified is actually the unknown bacteria. The isolation and

identification of the two unknown bacteria will possibly provide insight to any interesting
characteristics of metabolism or, though doubtfully, even pathogenic transmission.