Ch. 1 Introduction to microbes

Question 1

what is microbiology?

Answer 1

specialized area of biology that deals with living things too small to be seen without magnification

Question 2

Bacteria/archaea v Eukaryotes:

Answer 2

bacteria/archaea:
- prokaryotic
- predominantly single-celled
-no nucleus or other organelles

Eukaryotes:
-many single-celled
-developed into highly complex multicellular organisms
-larger in size
-animals, plants, fungi. protozoa
- contains organelles that are encased by membranes and perform specific functions

Question 2

Bacteria/archaea v Eukaryotes:

Answer 2

bacteria/archaea:
- prokaryotic
- predominantly single-celled
-no nucleus or other organelles

Eukaryotes:
-many single-celled
-developed into highly complex multicellular organisms
-larger in size
-animals, plants, fungi. protozoa
- contains organelles that are encased by membranes and perform specific functions

Question 3

What are the 6 types of microorganisms? What is an example of each?

Answer 3

• Archea (ex. haloquadratum)
• Fungi (ex. aspergullis)
• Bacteria (ex. E. coli)
  -Protozoans (ex. vorticella)
• viruses (ex. Herpes simplex virus)
• helminth (ex. taenia solium)

Question 4

Are viruses cellular or acellular?

Answer 4

acellular; meaning they cannot live independently from a host
- they are inert outside of the host

Question 5

What are viruses made of?

Answer 5

composed of small amounts of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein coat (capsid)
- sometimes will also be surrounded by a membrane (envelope)

Question 6

What are pathogens?

Answer 6

microbes that can cause disease

Question 7

What are the 4 infectious disease trends?

Answer 7

1. Emerging and reemerging diseases
   - COVID-19, AIDS, Zika, Tuberculosis
2. Associations between noninfectious diseases and microbes
   -Gastric ulcers, MS,obesity, OCD, coronary artery disease
3. Increasing number of patients with weakened defenses
   - subject to infectious by common microbes that are not pathogenic to healthy people
4. Increase in microbes that are resistant to drugs

Question 8

What is the theory of spontaneous generation/abiogenesis?

Answer 8

The belief that invisible vital forces present in matter led to the creation of life

Question 9

What is the theory of biogenesis?

Answer 9

living things arise only from other living things of their same kind

Question 10

Why was Robert Hooke significant in microbiology?

Answer 10

• studied household objects, plants, and trees
• described cellular structures and drew sketches of “little structures” that seemed alive

Question 11

Why was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek?

Answer 11

• manufactured simple microscopes to study fabrics
• observed “animals” in a drop of water
• observed “animacules” scraped from teeth
• constructed a microscope that could magnify objects 300X

Question 12

Why was Louis Pasteur important to microbiology?

Answer 12

• studied the roles of microorganisms in the fermentation of beer and wine
• used the swan neck flask experiments to disprove spontaneous generation

Question 13

What were the swan neck flask experiments?

Answer 13

-flasks with long curving necks were filled with broth and heated to sterilize it
- Some flask necks were then broken to allow dust to get into the broth while others remained intact so only air could get in
- the flasks exposed to dust showed microbial growth while the flasks only exposed to air but not dust showed no microbial growth

Question 14

Why was Ferdinand Cohn important in microbiology?

Answer 14

he discovered and described heat resistant endospores

Question 15

Why were Oliver Wendell Holmes and Ignaz Semmelweis important in micro?

Answer 15

Described the importance of hand washing in preventing disease in the hospital setting

Question 16

Why was Joseph Lister important in micro?

Answer 16

used aseptic techniques in surgery

Question 17

Why was Robert Koch important in micro?

Answer 17

• Koch developed postulates that are a series of logical steps that establish whether or not an organism is pathogenic and which disease it caused
• showed anthrax was caused by Bacillus anthracis

Question 18

What are Koch’s postulates?

Answer 18

1. the microorganism must be found in abundance in all organisms suffering from the disease but should not be found in healthy organisms
2. the microorganism must be isolated from a diseased organism and grown in pure culture
3. the cultured microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy organism
4. the microorganism must be reisolated from the inoculated experimental host, and identified as being identical to the original specific causative agent

Question 19

What is taxonomy?

Answer 19

• The science of classifying living things:
  -Developed by Carl Von Linné (1701 to 1778)

Question 20

What is nomenclature?

Answer 20

the assignment of scientific names to the various taxonomic categories and to individual organisms

Question 21

What is classification?

Answer 21

the orderly arrangement of organisms into a hierarchy

Question 22

What is identification?

Answer 22

the process of discovering and recording traits of organisms so they can be placed in an overall taxonomic scheme

Question 23

How do you write a scientific name?

Answer 23

• Name is written in italics when typed and underlined when handwritten
• Genus capitalized species lowercase
• when it is abbreviated, the genus name is abbreviated to the first initial followed by a period and then full species name