L22

Question 1

define ecology

Answer 1

• relations of organisms to one another + to their environment

Question 2

define microbiota

Answer 2

• ecological community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms

Question 3

define microbiome

Answer 3

• genetic material of all microorganisms in a particular environment, i.e. the microbiota

Question 4

define holobiome

Answer 4

• microbiome + host

Question 5

define non-homogeneity

Answer 5

• ecosystem made of many habitats

Question 6

define species abundance

Answer 6

• no. of of individuals per species

Question 7

define species diversity/species richness

Answer 7

• no. of different species

Question 8

define guilds

Answer 8

• groups of species, carry out similar processes in a environment, e.g. thermophilic methanogens all produce methane under high temp. conditions

Question 9

define niche

Answer 9

• specific functional role of a species in a ecosystem, causes competition of 2 pops have identical niches

Question 10

define succession

Answer 10

• orderly change in community structure + function towards a steady state
  e.g. fungal succession in pine needles

Question 11

explain general limit

Answer 11

• single samples measure a single area in a non-homogeneous ecosystem at a single point in time

Question 12

explain metagenomics + limitations

Answer 12

• molecular technique to study genomes recovered from environmental samples
  limitation- non active/dormant/dead not included, also having a gene doesnt mean it will be expressed
• least difficult

Question 13

explain transcriptomics + limitations

Answer 13

• molecular technique to study transcriptomes + expressed RNA taken from environmental/single organism sample
• used to determine what genes are being expressed, helps compare healthy vs sick hosts, what pathways are active
  limitation: expensive

Question 14

explain metaproteomics + limitation

Answer 14

• molecular technique to study all proteins being produced + how they interact with host
  limitation: least developed of 3 options, most difficult

Question 15

proteomic process

Answer 15

• faecal sample collected
• bacterial extraction
• protein extraction
• separation, identification + quantification
• compare to database of gut microbiota