Introduction to Microbes Flashcards by Melody Tovar

microorganisms include:

Viruses 
Bacteria/Archaea
Fungus 
Protozoa
Algae
Helminths

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Viruses can infect…

all living cells

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Viruses are considered what? and depend on what

not alive, depend on their infected host

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Viruses are

obligate intracellular parasites
protein-coated genetic elements
connected with the evolution of microbes and humans

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What are the characteristics of living things

reproduction, maintaining homeostasis, genetic material, grow

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Microbes reproduce

reproduce rapidly

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Microbes can be grown in

large population sin the laboratory

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How long have bacterial- type organisms been on the planet?

3.5 billion years

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Living inhabitants have been on earth for about?

2 billion years

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What do Prokaryotes lack?

A true nucleus

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When did Eukaryotic organisms arise?

1.8 billion years ago

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What does Eu-Kary mean?

true nucleus

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precursors to the organisms that eventually formed multicellular animals

Eukaryotic organisms

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What does it mean to say that microbes are ubiquitous?

they are found everywhere, in the earth’s crust, polar ice caps, oceans, and the bodies of plants and animals .

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How do microbes occur on the planet and in what quantity?

Occur in large numbers
large biomass
large biodiversity
live in places where other organisms cannot survive

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Anoxygenic photosynthesis

Mircrobes undergo photosynthesis, but do not produce Oxygen as a bi-product.

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Oxygenic Photosynthesis

What is this the source of?

What does it lead to?

What % do photosynthetic microorganisms account for?

Microbes produce Oxygen as a biproduct of photosynthesis.
Main source of Oxygen on the planet
Led to the use of oxygen for aerobic respiration
Photosynthetic microorganisms account for 70% of the Earth’s photosynthesis

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How do microbes regulate the temperature of the earth?

produce gases such as CO2, NO, and CH3.

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What are the main forces that drive the structure and content of the soil, water and atmosphere?

microbes

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what does the underground community of microbes influence?

weathering, mineral extraction, and soil formation.

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How do bacteria and fungi live in regard to plants?

live in close associations with plants that help them obtain nutrients and protect them against disease.

What are some historical uses of microbes by humans?

Bread Production
Alcohol Production
Cheese Production
Treatment of Wounds and Lesions (moldy bread- Egyptians)
Mining precious metals
Clean up of human- created contamination (oil spills)

Genetic Engineering and Microbes

Area of biotechnology that manipulates the genetics of microbes, plants, and animals for creating new products and genetically modified organisms (GMO’s)

Recombinant DNA technology and Microbes

The transfer of genetic material from one organism to another to deliberately alter the DNA and produce a specific product

Bioremediation

the use of microorganisms, either naturally occurring or artificially introduced, to restore stability or clean up toxic pollutants.

The majority of microorganisms that associate with humans cause...

no harm

Pathogens

microbes that cause disease

What are among the most common causes of death in the US and world wide?

Infectious diseases

How many new infections caused by microbes every year are there according to the WHO

10 billion

What is the death toll from infectious diseases each year?

13 million world wide

What does the CDC report on children and malaria

that one child dies every 30 s

Emerging Infectious Diseases

New infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis C, and Ebola cause severe morbidity and mortality

Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases

Older diseases such as measles, mumps and whooping cough once thought to be under control are again becoming a serious threat One important reason is decrease in vaccination rate

What has been recently discovered in diseases that were considered noninfectious?

That there is a microbial link to the diseases

What microbe is thought to cause gastric ulcers

Helicobacter pylori

What microbe is thought to cause diabetes

potential link to Coxsackievirus

What microbe is thought to cause Schizophrenia

potential link to toxoplasmosis

Chronic infections with bacteria or viruses have been linked to which diseases?

multiple sclerosis OCD Coronary heart disease obesity

What is the belief that invisible vital forces present in matter led to the creation of life?

spontaneous generation

Abiogenesis

the idea that living things can arise from non-living things

Biogenesis

living things can only arise from others of their same kind

What did louis pasteur study?

the roles of microbes in fermentation of alcoholic beverages

What did Pasteur use in his experiments and what was he trying to disprove?

used swan necked flasks | trying to disprove abiogenesis or spontaneous generation

What was Pasteur's procedure/ conclusion

- Filled flasks with broth and made swan neck shaped tubes - heated flasks to sterilize - flasks that were exposed to dust from the air showed microbial growth - flasks that were exposed to air but no dust showed no growth - concluded that there were microbes in the air that ended up in the broken broth, they were not coming out of no where

What did Robert Hooke study?

household objects, plants, and trees using simple magnifying glass

What did Anton Van Leeuwenhoek manufacture?

simple microscopes to see threads in fabrics | Constructed over 250 microscopes that could magnify up to 300x

What did Leeuwenhoek observe?

"Animals" in a drop of water | "Animacules" scared from his and others' teeth

Joseph Lister

Developed Sterile techniques | Use of Aspetic techniques in surgery in the mid-1800s

Ferdinand Chon

discovery of endospores

Oliver Wendell Holmes and Ignaz Semmelweis

importance of sterile aseptic techniques and hand washing by physicians attending patients

Robert Koch | What is he considered?

developed a series of postulates that verifies the germ theory of disease and established a link between a microbe and the disease is caused 4 steps to knowing that you have a disease. Considered the Father of Micobiology