Oxidase
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An oxidase is an enzyme that catalyzes an oxidation/reduction reaction. In plant cells, some oxidases use oxygen to oxidize organic substances.
In microbiology the oxidase test is used as a phenotypic character used for identification of bacterial strains. Strains may either be oxidase positve or negative, typically the Pseudomonadaceae are OX+ and Enterobacteriaceae are OX-. Another example is the preliminary identification of Neisseria and Moraxella species, which are both oxidase positive Gram-negative diplococci.
A positive oxidase reaction reflects the ability of a microorganism to oxidize certain aromatic amines, such as tetramethyl-p-phenylene diamine (TPD), producing colored end products (usually purple).
In conclusion oxidase is an enzyme that works on cytochrome C to reoxidize by using oxygen (School of Science and Engineering Monash University Malaysia, 2004). In this test a reagent is used that under the effects of Oxidase will become colored and thus allowing ease of detection of the enzyme Oxidase.