What is Staining?
Staining is a technique in biology that enhances the visibility of specific components of a biological specimen under microscopes. This technique involves chemical substances called stains that usually interact with specific cellular components to impart colors. Staining can be broadly grouped as vital staining and non-vital staining. Vital staining is used to study living cells, whereas non-vital staining is used to study non-living cells. One of the most common staining techniques is Gram’s staining which is used to identify gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria.
What is Staining?
Staining in biology is a technique to apply chemical substances or dyes to a biological specimen to enhance the visibility and contrast of its cellular constituents under the microscope. Staining is classified into two types. They are vital and non-vital. Vital staining involves the application of non-toxic water-soluble stains to the living specimen to study them live. Whereas, non-vital staining is typical for dead tissues. Some common examples of stains include methylene blue, orcein, carmine, etc.
Table of Content
- What is Staining?
- Types of Staining
- Other Staining Techniques
- Steps of Preparing a Stained Biological Specimen for Microscopic Study
- Common Example of Biological Stains