Master Klebsiella Characteristics with Picmonic for Medicine

This is a gram-negative bacterium, which does not retain crystal violet dye when Gram stained due to thin peptidoglycan layer.

This bacteria is rod shaped.

An oxidase test is used to determine if bacteria produce certain cytochrome c oxidases to help differentiate bacteria. Klebsiella are oxidase-negative bacteria.

Klebsiella is part of the normal intestinal flora in around 40% of people.

The polysaccharide capsule is a particularly important virulence mechanism as it helps evade phagocytosis.

Klebsiella has a large mucoid polysaccharide capsule that has antiphagocytic properties.

A Quellung reaction is a biochemical reaction in which antibodies bind to a bacterial capsule, allowing species with a positive Quellung reaction to be visualized under a microscope. Klebsiella has a positive Quellung reaction.

This bacteria is notable for producing large mucoid colonies due to the large mucoid polysaccharide capsule.

This bacterium has the ability to produce urease, which hydrolyzes urea in the body to ammonia. In a urinary tract infection, this means that the urine becomes more alkaline.

This organism can be distinguished from other gram-negative bacilli, because it is a fast lactose fermenter, causing growth of red pink colonies on MacConkey agar.

This organism can be distinguished from other gram-negative bacilli, because it is a fast lactose fermenter, causing growth of red pink colonies on MacConkey agar.