Lecture Exam 3 Flashcards
Physical requirements for microbial growth
Temperature, pH
What are psychrophiles?
Cold loving microbes
What are mesophiles?
Moderate-temperature-loving microbes
What are thermophiles?
Heat-loving microbes
What are acidophiles?
Bacteria tolerant of acidity
What is an example of acidophiles?
bacteria genus Clostridium
What do chemical buffers do?
They stabilize the pH of the media, so it is not affected by acid accumulation.
What are the chemical requirements for microbial growth?
Carbon
Nitrogen, Sulfur, and Phosphorus
Trace elements
Oxygen
What are trace elements?
Mineral elements needed for growth
What are some examples of mineral elements?
Iron, copper and zinc
Microorganisms can be classified into obligate aerobes, facultative anaerobes, and obligate anaerobes based on
their requirements for oxygen.
What are obligate aerobes?
Microorganisms that require oxygen to grow.
What is an example of obligate aerobes?
bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa
What are facultative anaerobes?
Microbes that can grow with or without oxygen
What are some examples of facultative anaerobes?
E.coli, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus
What are Obligate anaerobes?
Microorganisms that are unable to use oxygen for their growth.
What is an example of an obligate anaerobe?
genus Clostridium
What is binary fission?
When bacteria normally reproduce, divide or multiply.
What is the doubling time aka generation time?
the time it takes for a bacterial cell to double its cell population
We need to use logarithmic scale when plotting a bacterial growth curve because bacterial population doubles its numbers at each generation which leads to a large population of bacterial cells over a short period of time
A typical bacterial growth curve contain how many phases and what are they?
4;
the lag phase, the log phase, the stationary phase, and the death phase
What is happening during the lag phase?
bacterial cells are undergoing metabolic activity involving the synthesis of enzymes and various chemical molecules that are required for their growth later.
What happens during the log phase?
This is the phase where bacterial cells begin to divide or to split. Its population is doubled
Microbiologists like to work with bacterial cells from log phase for experiments because bacterial cells are most active at this phase.
What happens during the stationary phase?
The rate of growth slows down. You first start to see dead cells.
Where is the equilibrium?
where there is a balance between cell deaths and new cells formation.
What happens during the death phase?
The death phase continues until the bacterial entire population dies out
What causes cell death?
What exactly causes bacterial cell to die is not clear, but exhaustion of nutrients, accumulation of waste products, and harmful changes in pH may all play a role.
What is direct measurement of bacterial growth?
To determine the precise bacterial cell numbers present in a bacterial culture obtained at each time point.
Plate counts method
- Start with newly inoculated culture (test tube)
- Inoculate a tsa plate with the culture
- Place newly inoculated culture tube and tsa plate in incubator
- Incubate overnight or for duration of time point
- Repeat for other time points
- Count the number of colonies formed on the agar plate.
What are cfus?
Colony forming unit
1 clump of viable cells = 1 colony
Plate counts method in order to plot a growth curve
1) serial dilution (1st step) of the bacterial culture from each time point;
2) use pour plate method OR spread plate method (2nd step) to inoculate an agar
plate such as Tryptic Soy Agar with the diluted culture from each time point
What are the advantages of using plate counts method?
This method only counts the number of VIABLE cells (no dead cells) present.
What are the disadvantages of using plate counts method?
- Time consuming
- Not reliable because colonies are not individual cells
- Have to do serial dilution
What are the disadvantages of using pour plate method?
- Heat-sensitive bacteria can be killed by warm melted agar
- Bacterial colonies form on the surface and below the surface making it difficult to observe colonies.
What cell count does the coulter counter measure?
The total cell counts. including viable and dead cells
What are the advantages of using coulter counter?
Its quick and precise
What are the disadvantages of using coulter counter?
The machine counts both viable and dead cells
Indirect measurement of microbial growth
To estimate bacterial growth in a liquid bacterial culture obtained from each time point.
Measuring turbidity
to measure the cloudiness to indirectly measure bacterial growth
What is a spectrophotometer?
An instrument used to measure turbidity.
Spectrophotometer:
The poor the reading of the percentage of light been
transmitted, the more the cloudiness/the turbidity appeared in the culture to interfere
with the passage of light, which indirectly indicates the more the growth in the culture
What is measuring metabolic activity?
A method to indirectly estimate bacterial growth.
What is an example of measuring microbial metabolic activity to indirectly estimate the bacterial growth in a culture?
Lactose fermentation performed by lactose fermenting gram negative bacteria.
What is lactose fermentation?
The breakdown of sugar lactose to produce lactic acid in the absence of oxygen. (So, the more the acid production (indicated by the dropping of the pH of the culture)
in a given liquid bacterial culture indirectly indicates the more the bacterial growth
in the culture.)
Bacteria E. coli are
facultative anaerobes.
Microbiologists like to work with bacterial cells from which of the following phases of growth curve for experiments?
log phase
Plate Counts method counts
the number of viable cells ONLY.
Microbiologists prefer to use which of the following plating (aka inoculating) methods for plating a diluted bacterial culture on an agar plate?
the spread plate method
Which of the following gives poor reading of the percentage of light been transmitted when using a spectrophotometer?
a tube of bacterial culture
What is sterilization?
The removal or destruction of all microorganisms
What is disinfection?
A chemical treatment to kill or inhibit the growth of microbes on non living objects.
What is a disinfectant?
Actual chemicals used for disinfection
What is antisepsis?
A chemical treatment to kill of inhibit microbes on living tissues
What is an antiseptic?
the actual chemicals used for antisepsis
What is degerming?
Mechanical removal of germs
What is sanitization?
the removal of microorganisms from eating utensils and food preparation
What is a bactericide (noun) bactericidal (adj)?
A substance or treatment capable of killing bacteria.