Unknown Summary List.xlsxPreview the document
List of the twelve species included:
Escherichia coli
Enterobacter aerogenes
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Proteus vulgaris
Serratia marcescens
Staphylococcus aureus
Staphylococcus epidermidis
Enterococcus faecalis
Kocuria rhizophila
Bacillus subtilis
Corynebacterium xerosis
Bacillus cereus
STEP 3: Construct Your Dichotomous Keys
In order to identify unknown organisms from the list of twelve bacteria, you will need to develop three dichotomous keys (flowcharts), one for each of the following groups of bacteria:
Gram-Negative Bacilli
Gram-Positive Cocci
Gram-Positive Bacilli
Keep the following in mind as you build your dichotomous keys:
The tests that you include in your keys should include tests that are represented in the Summary Biochemical Test Results file.
Hint: select which tests to include by determining which ones will be most helpful to subdivide members of each group.
There’s more than one way to build a dichotomous key from the given data. That means that your dichotomous keys might look different from someone else’s, but that doesn’t mean that either of your keys is “wrong.” There are multiple ways to organize the given information. You might choose to include different tests in your dichotomous keys than someone else chose.