Bacterial Systematics Flashcards
Which discipline of taxonomy is responsible for giving an organism a scientific name?
Nomenclature
What is an obligate aerobe?
An organism that requires O2 to grow and survive
Give an example of an obligate aerobe (Genus and species)
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
What is an obligate anaerobe?
An organism that requires an complete lack of O2 to grow and survive
Give an example of an obligate anaerobe (Genus and species)
Clostridium botulinum
What is a facultative organism?
An organism that can grow in Increase or decreased O2 environments
Give an example of a facultative organism (Genus and species)
Escherichia coli
What does microaerophilic mean
AN organism that requires low levels of O2 to grow and survive
Name a genus of bacteria that has the characteristic of a microaerophile
Haemophilus sp.
What is a capnophile?
An organism that grows and survives in CO2 rich environments.
Name a genus of bacteria that has the characteristic of a capnophile
Neisseria sp.
List the Genus and species of an organism that is acid fast?
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Which genera of bacteria produce spores?
Bacillus and Clostridium
Why do you have to be careful when performing a catalase test on a colony taken from BA?
A weak positive reaction occurs if inoculum is contaminated with RBC from BA
What precautions do you need to take when performing an oxidase test?
Need to be careful not to use iron containing loop or wires and this results in a false positive reaction
Explain the principle of the Gram stain (how/why it works).
The dyes used during the staining process stain the peptidoglycan layer of the cell wall of the bacteria showing either purple or pink after the decolourizing stage which then separates the bacteria into two different groups, Gram Positive or Gram Negative.
List the colour of both Gneg and Gpos cells at the completion of each staining step
- Fixation - Both GN and GP are colourless.
- Crystal violet stage both are purple
- Lugol’s iodine stage - both purple
- Decolourization with alcohol - GP are purple and GP are colourless
- Carbol fuchsin stage GP is purple GN is pink
Explain the principal of action of the catalase test? (how does it work? what is happening?)
Catalase is an enzyme which catalyses the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide to produce oxygen and water.
The Catalase test uses hydrogen peroxide as the reagent, the inoculum is scooped up with a tooth pick from the BA plate and inserted into the 2H2O2. An almost instant reaction of bubbles in the reagent occurs if the organism is positive for producing catalase.
Explain how to interpret the OF test
The OF test is used to detect the presence of acid from the utilisation of glucose through fermentation or oxidation.
Results for Oxidation - O2 tube yellow, paraffin tube green
Results for Fermentation - both yellow
Negative results for both - both green
In C&S phenotypic tables for bacteria, what exactly does a “+” , “-“ and “d” represent?
"+" = 85-100% of strains are positive "-" = 0-15% of strains are positive "d" = 16-84% of strains are positive