What is the use of mordant in the Gram staining techniques?
Fixation of secondary stain
Fixation of decolouriser
Fixation of primary stain
All of these
Fixation of primary stain is done by mordant.
A mordant increases the affinity of the cell wall for a stain by binding to the primary stain and thus forming an insoluble complex, which gets trapped in the cell wall.
Iodine solution is used as a mordant in gra staining procedure.