 Intended Use

• Lysine Iron Agar is used for the differentiation of

enteric organisms based on their ability to
decarboxylate or deaminate lysine and to form
hydrogen sulfide
 Components:
 Lysine deamination
• Reaction in the slant

 Lysine decarboxylation
• Reaction in the butt
 Lysine deamination
 is an aerobic process which occurs on the slant of the
media
 If the bacterium can deaminate Lysine in the slant, it will
produce an unknown orange product
 This orange product will react with the Brom-cresol
Purple
 If the organism has the ability to deaminate lysine, the
ammonia produced will react with the ferric ammonium
citrate to produce a dark red color on the slant of the
tube
(Positive deamination: red slant)
(Negative deamination:  purple slant)
 The genus that will give a positive red slant are
Proteus, Providencia, Citrobacter and Morganella
 is an anaerobic process which occurs in the butt of the
media
 Due to overneutralizing the acid formed from glucose
fermentation
 The bacteria that is inoculated into the butt of this tube
can ferment the glucose, producing a low or acidic pH
This induces the bacteria to form the carboxylase
enzyme which removes the -COOH from the lysine
molecule, creating an amine end product, that is
alkaline in pH
 If the organism has the ability to decarboxylate
lysine, it produces an amine end-product which reacts
with the pH indicator to give a purple color in the butt
of the tube
(Positive decarboxylation: purple butt)
(Negative decarboxylation:  yellow butt)
 Organisms which produce hydrogen sulfide gas will
exhibit a black precipitate in the butt of the tube

 LIA is not as reliable an indicator of H2S as are KIA

and TSI

 Splitting of the agar in the butt indicates gas

production.
Procedures:

Inoculate the organism into the Lysine Iron Agar

medium

Stab the butt twice all the way down, then streak
the slant using a straight wire needle

Incubate at 37OC for 18-24 hours.

 SLANT BUTT
P/P - /+ purple slant purple butt
lysine deaminase negative lysine decarboxylase
P/Y -/- purple slant positive
yellow butt
lysine deaminase negative lysine decarboxylase
R/Y +/- red slant negative
yellow butt
lysine deaminase positive lysine decarboxylase
you cannot have a + slant with a + butt! negative