1. Why staining technique is applied?

In their natural state, most of the cells and microorganisms that we observe under the
microscope lack colour and contrast. This makes it difficult to detect important cellular
structures and their distinguishing characteristics without artificially treating specimens.
Staining aids in the formation of images by absorbing light and producing images of amplitude
differences and colour. Hence, we use staining technique to better visualize cells and cell
components under a microscope.

Or

Onion bulb is made up of scaly leaves which store starch granules in their cytoplasm of the
cells.
*Iodine binds to starch in the granules and develops blue black colour.
*This procedure of staining onion cells with iodine make the onion cells visible clearly. It also
confirms the fact that onion stores reserve food material in the form of starch.

2. What is staining technique?

Cell staining is a technique used for the main purpose of increasing contrast through changing
the colour of some of the parts of the structure being observed thus allowing for a clearer view.

3. Comparison between before and after staining is applied.

No staining
 With staining

Without stain, the cytoplasm and plasma membrane should be visible. With stain, the nucleus
is also visible. Iodine makes onion bulb cytoplasm more visible and nucleus visible because
Iodine binds to starch present in the cytoplasm.

4. Explain the observation before staining.

The individual organelles are not visible, the most noticeable will be the cell wall.
Because in the natural state, plant cells lack colour and contrast.

5. Describe the observation after observation.

There are many regularly shaped cells lying side by side and each cell has a distinct
cell wall. A dark stained nucleus is present in the cell. Lightly stained cytoplasm with
small granules is observed in each cell. Onion stores reserve food material in the form of
starch, because iodine binds to starch in the granules and develops blue black colour.

6. What are the advantages of using staining techniques?

Stains are excellent at revealing the cellular structure of a tissue. Stains reveal the
arrangement, shapes and sizes of cells. The shape and arrangement of cells in a tissue will
make clear the functions of the cells in that tissue. It also means that abnormally shaped or
abnormally arranged cells will be evidence of disease. Chemical stains on cells can last
indefinitely. A thin slice of tissue that has been stained by chemicals can be preserved for
many years. Multiple stains can be simultaneously used on a tissue, such that different cell
types appear in different colours. Tissues often contain multiple compartments right next to
each other. The cells in each compartment serve a different function, visualizing more than
one compartment at once gives the researcher more information. The darkness or lightness
of the colour can be altered as well. The degree of staining is referred to as intensity. Dark
staining is high-intensity staining; light staining is low-intensity. Two categories of stains
allow a researcher to vary the staining intensity. Progressive stains make cells darker the
longer the cells are exposed. Regressive stains colour a cell, but the intensity can be
decreased by gradual washing with water.