Chapter 1: Scope And History Of Microbiology

Question 1

Microbiology

Answer 1

Study of microbes/microorganisms

- they’re ubiquitous (everywhere)

Question 2

Roles of microbes

Answer 2

• human health
• food chain
• antibiotics
• biotechnology
• digestive
• foods and fermentation
• bioremediation
• disease research

Question 3

Why microbes are good for research

Answer 3

• size: small, easy to grow quickly
• large populations
• rapid growth rate: multiple gens in one day
• research benefits: vaccines, antibiotics

Question 4

Domains containing microbes

Answer 4

Eukarya
Bacteria
Archaea
Prokarya

Question 5

Bacteria

Answer 5

• Bacteriology
• some are pathogens, many are good
• 1/10-1/1000 size of eukaryotic cell

Question 6

Archaea

Answer 6

• Environmental extremophile (glacial, thermal vents)

- novel biochemistry: different genes and metabolic processes

Question 7

Algae

Answer 7

• Eukaryote
• phycology
• Some are microbes, some aren’t
• Aquatic photosynthetic
• Some good, occasionally bad

Question 8

Fungi

Answer 8

• Eukaryote
• Mycology
• Some are microscopic (yeast)
• Decomposes
• Single or multicellular
• Mycoses: disease caused by fungi

Question 9

Protozoa

Answer 9

• Eukaryote
• Protozoology
• Single celled
• Amoeba, some parasites
• May be pathogenic (many aren’t)

Question 10

Helminths

Answer 10

• Eukaryote
• Parasitology
• Worms: not technically
  microbes but have microscopic life stages

Question 11

Arthropods

Answer 11

• Eukaryote
• Insects, not microbes
• Can transmit microscopic life stages of helminths and other disease causing microbes

Question 12

Viruses

Answer 12

• virology
• Acellular (not composed of cells)
• Simple structure: capsid, nucleus acid
• Obligate intracellular parasite
• Relatives: viroids, prions
• 1/10-1/1000 size of bacteria

Question 13

Obligate intracellular parasite

Answer 13

No signs of life unless inside a host cell

- can not reproduce without host

Question 14

Viroid

Answer 14

Nucleus acids that cause diseases in plants

Question 15

Prion

Answer 15

Proteins that cause disease

- mad cow disease

Question 16

Why’s it hard to treat prions and fungi

Answer 16

Treatment must infect something different than our cells

- prions and fungi have very similar dna

Question 17

Plagues were due to microbes

Answer 17

Leprosy

Bubonic plague

Question 18

Robert Hooke

Answer 18

• Created the first compound light microscope
• Looked at nonliving things (cork)
• compared it to cellulae (cells monks live in at the monastery)

Question 19

Anton can Leeuwenhoek

Answer 19

• First to look at living things

- Didn’t share work

Question 20

Linnaeus

Answer 20

“Father of modern taxonomy”

Question 21

Schleiden/Schwann

Answer 21

Cell theory: all living things are composed of cells

- cells come from other preexisting cells

Question 22

Francisco Redi

Answer 22

Meat experiment, late 1600s

• supported biogenesis
• disproved spontaneous generation

Question 23

Spallanzani

Answer 23

(Mid-late 1700s)
Boiled and sealed chicken broth
- showed microbes couldn’t grow without previous cells
- supported biogenesis

Question 24

Pasteur

Answer 24

Boiled broth in a swan neck flask, allowed oxygen to enter without microbes

• supported biogenesis enough to be accepted
• accredited with germ theory

Question 25

Germ theory

Answer 25

Specific germs (microbes) cause specific diseases

Question 26

Koch

Answer 26

• Expanded on germ theory with postulates
• Studied anthrax: infected healthy animals using infected blood sample
• Wife suggested use of agar (to solidify liquid media so cultures could be grown on top)
• Colonies of bacteria are created from one cell called pure cultures

Question 27

Koch’s postulates

Answer 27

• Causative agent must be present in all cases of disease
• Causative agent must be isolated and grown in pure culture
• Pure culture must cause disease when inoculated into new host
• Causative agent must be recoverable from new infected host and grown in pure culture

Question 28

Semmelweis

Answer 28

Personal hygiene: suggested washing hands between patients

• heavily ridiculed
• institutionalized for mental breakdown
• died from transmission of disease

Question 29

Lister

Answer 29

Aseptic technique: suggested washing equipment and use of disinfectant to treat surgical wounds
- heavily ridiculed

Question 30

Edward Jenner

Answer 30

(Late 1700s)

• Developed some of the first vaccines (smallpox)
• noticed milk aids got cowpox but not smallpox
• gave a farm kid cowpox and then exposed him to smallpox and the kid didn’t get sick

Question 31

Louis Pasteur

Answer 31

Produced vaccines for rabies and cholera

Question 32

Elie Metchnikoff

Answer 32

(Late 1800s) interested in the body’s defense to disease

- 1st identified phagocytes

Question 33

Ehrlich

Answer 33

(Late 1800s-early 1900s)

• “gather of chemotherapy”
• principle of selective toxicity: choosing a drug that does minimal damage to patient but kills microbe

Question 34

Fleming

Answer 34

1928 accidentally discovered penicillin
- contaminated Petri dish had lack of bacterial growth around penicillium mold
- determined that a chemical in the mold killed bacteria and penicillin was discovered
1930 sulfa drugs were developed