Spicy MedTech here

and in this video

I will be talking about the Catalase Test

let's begin

Catalase is an enzyme
common in aerobic organisms
or organisms that live in oxygen-rich environments
that includes Facultative organisms or organisms that don't
necessarily need oxygen to produce Adenosine Triphosphate for energy because they
can switch to
Anaerobic respiration if Oxygen is absent

But if an organisms lives in an oxygen rich environment probably

has catalase.

because Catalase
catalyzes a really important reaction
that facilitates the breakdown of byproducts of Oxygen metabolism

Catalase catalyzes the reaction below:

Hydrogen peroxide is split into 2 products by catalase to produce Water and Oxygen
gas

It is important because it protects cells from oxidative damage

from anything with a free oxygen or hydroxyl radical like hydrogen peroxide and
superoxide

Because these can cause major damage to the cells,

they can damage proteins and even more importantly they can damage DNA

And catalase prevents that by reducing these substances.

and these substances are byproducts of normal oxygen metabolism

So the Catalase Test that we are going to discuss today is a differentiation tool
used in laboratories and is
used to distinguish between staphylococci, streptococci and enterococci, these
organism may be difficult
to distinguish under the microscope because they are all cocci and are all gram-
positive, but they can be distinguished with
the catalase test since only staphylococci produces the catalase enzyme.

It also differentiates Bacillus and Clostridium which are both Gram-positive, both
are rods
and spore-forming organisms but can be differentiated because Bacillus produces the
catalase enzyme
while Clostridium does not.

So what are advantages of the catalase test,

Well this procedure is both Rapid and Inexpensive

so that just makes it really easy and convenient to perform routinely in the lab

And this is how you perform a catalase test:

Take one or a few colonies from a culture that's been growing for 18-24 hours
using a sterile wireloop and then we mix it with a few drops of Hydrogen peroxide.
Since this test is again, a Rapid test,

If the organism is positive for Catalase - we would expect to see a very rapid
formation of bubbles
whereas if it is negative, we expect no reaction or a slow reaction.

Let's go back to our reaction.

Let's take a look at the products and focus our attention to the oxygen
since this oxygen is produced in gas form, hence the bubbles.

It is noted however that one must not use colonies from a Blood agar since Red
Blood Cells
have catalase in them and may give a false positive result if we're looking to
differentiate bacterial organisms.

Thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed.