chapter 1 - introduction to microbiology

Question 1

What is a microorganism?

Answer 1

an organism too small to be seen by the unaided eye

Question 2

What is a microbial community?

Answer 2

two or more populations of cells that coexist and interact in a habitat

Question 3

What is microbiology?

Answer 3

the study of dominant form of life on Earth and the effects that microbes have on living things.

Question 4

What is a colony?

Answer 4

macroscopically visible population of cells growing on solid medium arising from a single cell.

Question 5

What are the elements of a microbial structure?

Answer 5

1- have permeability barrier: cytoplasmic membrane
2- cytoplasms
3- ribosomes (responsible for protein synthesis)
4- cell walls
5- prokaryotes: no nucleus or organelles

Question 6

What do the genomes of bacteria look like?

Answer 6

closed circular chromosomes

Question 7

What are plasmids?

Answer 7

typically contain genes that are not essential but confer some special property.
contain 1 or more small circles of DNA distinct from chromosomes.

Question 8

What is transcription?

Answer 8

process by which information encoded DNA sequences is copied into RNA molecule.

Question 9

What is translation?

Answer 9

process where information in an RNA molecule is used by ribosomes to synthesize a protein.

Question 10

What is motility?

Answer 10

allows cells to relocate in response to environmental conditions.

Question 11

What is differentiation?

Answer 11

results in the formation of modified cells specialized for growth, dispersal or survival.

Question 12

What are the different common morphologies of prokaryotic cells?

Answer 12

1. coccus (spherical)
2. rod or bacillus (cylindrical)
3. spirillum (spiral, rigid)
4. vibrio (comma shape)
5. spirochette (spiral but not spirillum, flexible)
6. filamentous (long, thing)

Question 13

What are characteristics of bacteria?

Answer 13

i. prokaryotic
ii. mostly unicellular
iii. at least 80 bacterial phyla

Question 14

What are characteristics of archaea?

Answer 14

i. prokaryotic
ii. extreme environments
iii. no disease causing in animals or humans.

Question 15

What are characteristics of eukarya?

Answer 15

i. originated during cambrian explosion
ii. first eukaryotes were unicellular

Question 16

What are viruses?

Answer 16

i. not alive
ii. parasitic
iii. identified based on structureWh

Question 17

What does anoxic means?

Answer 17

oxygen free

Question 18

What is microbial ecology?

Answer 18

ways microorganisms affect animals, plants and global ecosystems

Question 19

What is a pathogen?

Answer 19

a disease-causing microorganism

Question 20

What are gut microbiomes

Answer 20

microbial community present in animal gastrointestinal tract

Question 21

What are the impacts of microorganisms on human society?

Answer 21

1. agents of disease
2. food and agriculture
3. valuable human products, energy generation, environmental clean-up

Question 22

What are examples of industrial microbiology?

Answer 22

1. wastewater treatment
2. bioremediation
3. biotechnology
4. biofilms can foul pipes

Question 23

Why is Robert Hooke known?

Answer 23

the first to describe microbes by illustrating the fruiting bodies of moulds.

Question 24

Why is Antoni van Leeuwenhoek known?

Answer 24

he had a light microscope with a lens to magnify the image, being the first to describe bacteria.

Question 25

What are the different types of microscopes?

Answer 25

i. light microscopes
- bright-field
- phase-contrast
- fluorescence
ii. confocal scanning laser microscopy
iii. electron microscopy

Question 26

What are the two major biological questions?

Answer 26

1. does spontaneous generation occur?
2. What is the nature of infectious diseases?

Question 27

What is the aseptic technique?

Answer 27

collection of practices that allow preparation and maintenance of sterile media and solutions

Question 28

What are pure cultures?

Answer 28

cells from only a single type of microorganisms

Question 29

What are enrichment culture tehniques?

Answer 29

isolate microbes having particular metabolic characteristics from nature

Question 30

Why was Louis Pasteur known for?

Answer 30

discovered that fermentation of alcohol and organic acid was mediated by microorganisms.

Question 31

What conclusions did Louis Pasteur come up with?

Answer 31

1. heat killed microorganisms
2. microorganisms were responsible for fermentation
3. different microbes performed different fermentation processes