Flagella

Continuing my adventures in the micro lab, today's trick was a flagellum stain. Bacterial flagella are way too small to see with a light microscope--so, they get stained by some purple gunk that sticks to the flagellum, bulking it up so that it can start to interfere with light. It's similar to the trick used by soldiers to find booby traps that are triggered by tripping some fishing line: simply spray in some gunk (silly string) that sticks to the line so it can be seen.

Anyway, here's Pseudomonas putida, happily waving its polar tuft of flagella.