Is Enterobacter Aerogenes alpha hemolytic or E. coli beta hemolytic?
Actually E.coli can be hemolytic. How do I know this? I’m a microbiologist and I do this all day long. Also E. aerogenes can make an alpha looking dark zone around the colony but if there is a large zone of alpha then the organism is probably mixed.
As far as E.coli goes, it doesn’t follow the rules. It can be beta-negative, beta-hemolytic, lactose fermenting, non-lactose fermenting, indole positive and indole negative. Do not ever believe someone that says bacteria always behave the same way every single time. They don’t read the same books we do in school!
E. coli is not hemolytic. I’m having a hard time finding out if E. aerogenes is alpha hemolytic, but I know that lab strains of E. coli are definitely non-hemolytic (gamma-hemolytic if you want to be a nerd). Did you have EMB agar? They look completely different on there (E. coli green and dark metallic sheen while E. aerogenes gives big pink colonies).
