Why do we heat fix? What happens if you over heat the smear? What happens if your smear is too thick or thin?

What will be an ideal response?


Answer: Heat fixing kills the bacterial cells so that they are fixed in place and are ready for staining. Overheating will distort the morphology through plasmolysis of the cell wall. Thick smears diminish the amount of light that can come in. Thin smears make it hard to find the bacteria.

Biology & Microbiology

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