How would you determine whether a colorless colony on MacConkey agar is Salmonella or Shigella? Why would you want to identify a colorless colony?
MacConkey agar is used as a differential medium for the isolation of gram negative bacteria. Gram negative bacteria that grow on MacConkey agar but do not ferment lactose appear colourless on the medium and the agar surrounding the medium remains transparent. Now, if the colony produced has flat colonies with jagged edges, it is likely to be Shigella sp. since it is a non lactose fermenter.
We would want to identify a colourless colony for the isolation of the non lactose fermenting bacterias.
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