In a completely and adequately immunized child against Diphtheria, the throat swab was collected. It showed the presence of Corynebacterium diphtheriae like organisms on Albe staining. These organisms can have one of the following propeies on fuher laboratory processing
Smears stained with methylene blue or one of the special stains(Neisser's or Albe's )will show the bacilli with metachromatic granules. Albes stain may show delicate green bacilli with purple-blue metachromatic granules. For culture, the swabs are inoculated on Loeffler's serum slope, tellurite blood agar and a plate of ordinary blood agar, the last for differentiating streptococcal or staphylococcal pharyngitis, which may stimulate diphtheria. Tellurite medium is impoant in the isolation of diphtheria bacilli from convalescents, contacts and carriers as in these cases they may be outnumbered by other bacteria Reference: Textbook of Microbiology; Anathanarayan and panicker's; 10th edition; Page no: 242
It can grow on Potassium tellurite medium
Positive Elek's gel precipitation test
It can be pathogenic to experimental guinea pigs
It can produce cytotoxicity in tissue cultures
Bacteriology