Final Material (10.13 - 12.6) Flashcards
what are microbial and fossil mats?
they are huge layers of microbes and fossils found in Antarctica and Australia, sometimes it is hard to tell if these are actual biological remnants or if they are simply plants or weird rock formations
what are the various geological types of evidence of life?
- stromatolites
- microfossils
- isotope ratios
- biosignatures
- oxidation states
what are stromatolites?
layers of phototrophic microbial communities grew and died, and their form was filled in by calcium carbonate or silica, ie ancient bacteria got filled in by CaCO4
what are stromatolites?
- a type of geological evidence of life
- layers of phototrophic microbial communities grew and died, and their form was filled in by calcium carbonate or silica, ie ancient bacteria got filled in by CaCO4
stromatolites
what are the advantages? what are the disadvantages?
advantages - fossil stromatolites appear in the oldest rock of the Archean eon, their distinctive shapes resemble those of modern living stromatolites
disadvantages - some layered formations attributed to stromatolites have been shown to be formed by abiotic processes
what are microfossils?
- a type of geological evidence of life
- early microbial cells decayed and their form was filled with CaCO4 or silica, the size and shape of microfossils resemble those of modern fossils, these are quite subjective and thus the least reliable
- may use this to ID a good place to start looking and then do more exploration for confirmation based on other types of evidence
microfossils
what are the advantages? what are the disadvantages?
advantages - microfossils are visible and measurable under a microscope, offering direct evidence of cellular form
disadvantages - microscopic rock formations require subjective interpretation, some formations may result from abiotic processes, most prone to mistakes
what are isotope ratios?
- a type of geological evidence of life
- microbes fix 12CO2 more readily than 13CO2, thus limestone depleted of 13C must have come from living cells, similarly sulfate respiring bacteria cause depletion of 34S compared with 32S
- more 12C in the rock indicates bacterial life, rubisco of calvin cycle uses 12C
- rubisco uses 12C -> microbial cells converted into CaCO4 in sedimentary rock -> this rock will have mainly 12C NOT 13C
isotope ratios
what are the advantages? what are the disadvantages?
advantages - highly reproducible physical measurement, they are generated by key biological reactions which can calibrate the time lines of phylogenetic trees, this is more measurable and less subjective
disadvantages - cannot prove absolutely that no abiotic process could generate a given isotope ratio, these ratios tell us nothing about the shape of early cells or how they evolved
what are biosignatures?
- a type of geological evidence of life
- certain organic molecules found in sedimentary rock are known to be formed only by certain microbes, these molecules are biosignatures
biosignatures
what are the advantages? what are the disadvantages?
advantages - biosigs such as hopanoids are complex molecules t specific to bacteria
disadvantages - a biosig though to be specific to one kind of organism may be discovered in others, in the oldest rocks organic biosigs are eliminated by metamorphic processes
what are oxidation states?
- a type of geological evidence of life
- the ox state of metals such as Fe and uranium indicate the level of O2 available when the rock formed, banded iron formations suggest intermittent oxidation by microbial phototrophs
- typically we fine Fe2+ in crust rock and Fe3+ in rock indicates oxidation by present bacteria
oxidation state
what are some advantages? what are some disadvantages?
advantages - oxidized metals offer evidence of microbial processes even in highly deformed rocks
disadvantages - it is hard to rule out abiotic causes of oxidation, even if oxidation was biogenic, it does not reveal what kind of metabolism took place
why is it ideal to have more than one type of evidence present at a given site suspected to contain ancient microbial life?
there should always be at least two if not more types of evidence present when determining if a site as geological evidence for life, this is because all types of evidence have flaws and drawbacks, there are many different things which could lead to abiotic factors coming into play so the more evidence we have the more sure we can be that there was actually life in that site
what are diatoms?
some kind of beautiful algae things
compare and contrast historical and modern microbes?
these guys tend to have some fair similarity, today modern microbes may be a little more structured and adapted for our atmospheric conditions
what is the proposed timeline for the origin and evolution of life on earth?
the planet earth formed during the Hadean eon (about 4.5 Gyr ago). the environment was largely reducing until cyanobacteria pumped O2 into the atmosphere. when O2 levels reached sufficient levels (about 0.6Gyr ago) multicellular animals and plants evolved, we had many photoautotrophs for a while before sufficient O2 and then things diversified
what do we know about early metabolism?
- bacteria striated bases off of what photosystems they had
- they took advantage of atoms that were common before oxygen
how do we measure evolutionary time using specific genes?
we can measure evolution of genes and species by examining the mutations in sequences over acquired over time, today we may sequence parts of genes or entire genomes to examine mutations, we look at what bases change and where in the sequence they are
- we start w a root sequence and develop tips based on the smallest number of mutations
what gene do we typically use to distinguish bacteria and examine evolution over time?
SSU (small subunit of the ribosome) = rrn gene
16S in bact, 16SA in archaea, 18S in euks
this gene is highly conserved so small mutations can tell us a lot and be very distinguishable
what is the molecular clock?
as genetic molecules reproduce, the number of mutations accumulated at random is proportional to the number of generations and thus the time since divergence
how has NGS changed how we identify and examine bacteria?
it allows for much more rapid sequencing and many more sequences can be looked at at the same time
how can we define relationships between bacteria based on changes to the DNA?
identity -> exact base pair matches
homology -> similar amino acids
- we can create DNA sequence alignments which allow for various organisms to be classified in relation to each other
- so get the sequences, align them, develop a phylogenetic tree
how do we ensure we have generated a good phylogenetic tree?
one MUST have statistical analysis performed on their phylogenetic trees, the most common method for this is bootstrapping
talk about Carl Woese and his discoveries and life’s work
carl woese is a classic old white guy who spent his entire career sequencing things (the old fashioned way with mile long gels), he discovered the archaea as their own kingdom but never got a nobel, one of his besties had a bunch of archaea so he took them and sequenced them, literally sequenced anything and everything under the sun that had a ribosome
talk a little bit about comparing the 3 domains of life
- the 3 domains of life are interconnected, there are some traits that Arc and Euks share, some that Arcs and Bacts share, and some that Euks and Bacts share while excluding the 3rd group respectively in all these scenarios
similarities between Bacteria and Archaea
cell volume, circular chromosomes, has just nucleoid (no membrane bound nucleus), multigene operons, vast options for metabolism, not multicellular
similarities between Eukaryotes and Bacteria
introns are common, they share homologs of their RNA polymerases and transcription factors, their ribosomes are resistant to some common antibiotics, Met as translation initiator (bact use f-Met, mitochondria also use f-Met)
what are the 3 domains of life?
Eukaryotes, Bacteria, Archaea
what are traits of all living organisms?
chromosome are double stranded DNA molecules, they all have a common ancestral RNA polymerase, there is a universal genetic code; common ancestral rRNA and elongation factors, some proteins have high conserved ancestral functional domains, their cell structures are all made up of an aqueous cell compartment enclosed by a membrane
how does horizontal gene transfer make a mess of phylogenetic trees?
- instead of normal accumulations of mutations over time, a species may just suddenly have a whole new operon
- able to observe HGT in real time with s. pneumoniae as it develops mutations really fast and in a matter of 7 months had changed over 7% of its genome in response to antibiotics
- how we obtained chloroplasts and mitochondria
what is the long term evolution experiment (LTEE)?
- a long term experiment to study the evolution of e. coli
- they have 12 cultures and everyday they inoculate fresh media with cells from the pervious culture, they take samples to freeze down and sequence
when did the LTEE begin?
1988
what are some new traits developed by the bacteria in the LTEE?
after like 33k generations they were growing better when in the presence of low glucose and higher citrate
how does a bacteria gain some adaptation?
- potentiation: random, maybe not really required mutation right off the bat, preparatory
- actualization: slightly better growth, maybe gaining more of an ability to use a certain material
- refinement: better system that actually utilize something not previously utilized
- we never really have BRAND NEW things pop up but rather do some heavy modifications
how does one, in general, tell 2 species apart?
there are generic ways such as physical properties and staining if DNA sequencing is not accessible or practical
what does is endosymbiosis refer to?
this refers to us acquiring chloroplasts and mitochondria as ancient bacteria that kinda made their home in eukaryotic cells, endosymbiotic cells evolved into our mitochondria and chloroplasts as they took up residence in euk cells
how did we determine the sequences of mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes? what are some genes they have?
sequencing lol
- these guys may use bact genes for some processes and nuclear genes for others
- since they were technically intracellular parasites they quickly lost certain functions
- they both have genes for making ribosomes and various tRNAs
deep branching thermophiles
- lots of HGT from archaea
- high mutation rates
- live in extreme environments = all extremeophiles
- they have a mixed/diverse metabolism
- limited number of examples bc hard to grow in lab
Ex - Dieococcus radiodurans (extremely UV resistant, 4-10 genome copies per cell, highly efficient and redundant DNA repair, membrane structure gram- but stain gram+, obligate aerobic chemoorganotrophs)
deep branching Gram negative (-)
- no common metabolism and morphology amongst them
- distinct from other Gram negs (proteobact)
- many are obligate anaerobes (fermentors)
- oxygenic photoautotrophs with thylakoid membranes
Ex - Fusobacteria (gram neg anaerobe found in septicemia and skin ulcers, forms biofilms, in dental plaque, normal in oral cavity, can cause septic shock)
cyanobacteria
- all phototrophs with PSI and PSII
- more membrane surface so more photosystems
Ex - Chroococcales (square colonies based on two division planes)
gram positive (+) bacteria
- 1 membrane and 1 thick cell wall
- stain purple
- mixed metabolism but NO photosynthesis and lots of fermentors
- all divided into Firmicutes (LOW G/C) (spore forming or non-spore forming) and Actinomyces (HIGH G/C)
Ex - Bacillus subtilis (many soil bacteria) and C. diff (GI nosocomial infection)
proteobacteria - normal gram negative (-) bact
- 2 cell membranes and 1 thin cell wall
- all stain pink
- we know the most about them bc they grow in our intestines
- contain alpha, beta, delta, gamma, epsilon
Ex - e. coli, enough said
spirochetes
- all the same characteristic shape
- have endoflagella, encased by sheath
catch all class
- chlamydiae, plantomycetes, verrucomicrobia
- unique growth and weird organelles
- tend to be euk like, somewhat
how many current major phyla of bacteria are there?
7
deep branching thermophiles, deep branching gram neg, cyanobacteria, gram positive (firmicutes and actinomyces), proteobacteria (gram neg), spirochetes, catch all class (euk-like)
thaumarchaeota
- mesophiles
- marine environments
- known mainly from DNA
- signature: tetraether lipid
- ammonia oxidizers
crenarchaeota
- barophilic vent thermophiles
- sulfolobus (require O2, pH 2-3, secretes toxins)
- ignococcus (unusual cell architecture)
lokiarchaeota
- deep sea
- share many traits w euks
- DNA sequence known
euryarchaeota
- soil and water
- associated with plants and animals
- wide range of metabolic capabilities
- include halophiles
- methanogens
- some HGT with crenarchaeota
what is involved in classical microbiology?
- collect sample
- bring back to lab
- dilute and plate
- characterize colonies that grew
what is involved in bioinformatic microbiology?
- collect sample and bring back to lab (size matters)
- extract DNA (make sure environmental contaminants are removed
- prepare libraries of all rRNA genes
- sequences using NGS
- use computer programs to analyze
what are the various rRNA genes we use for sequencing?
- 16s rrn in bacteria
- 16s rrn with variations in archaea
- 18s rrn in euks
- all have both conserved and variable regions
what can NGS be used for?
- small RNA profiling (miRNA)
- targeted sequencing of genome regions
- whole genome sequencing
- transcriptome sequencing or quantification
- ribosome profiling
- epigenetics > CHIP-seq (histones) and DNA methylations
how does one perform NGS?
- barcode all of your primers
- fragment your genomic DNA and throw on adapters
- allow for library hybridization and then bridge amplification (get amplified clusters)
- sequence your library and collect the data
- align data and determine your sequences in each cluster
when considering functional bacterial ecology, where do most bacteria fall in the food web?
decomposers
mutualism
two organisms grow in an intimate species-specific relationship in which both partner species benefit and may fail to grow independently
synergism
both species benefit through growth, but the partners are easily separated and either partner can grow independently of the other