PEA agar is often treated as "the gram-positive plate," but that shortcut can lead to real bench-level mistakes.
In this MicroMinutes episode, we break down what phenylethyl alcohol agar actually does, why growth on PEA does not automatically mean an organism is gram-positive, and how selective media can change colony appearance and behavior.
You'll hear about:
What PEA inhibits — and what it doesn't
Why Pseudomonas aeruginosa can grow quite well on PEA
How colony morphology and hemolysis may differ from blood agar
Why Lancefield grouping should never be performed directly from PEA
PEA is a powerful recovery tool — but only when you understand its limitations.
Short, focused, and straight from the bench, this is your Micro minutes.
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