micro lab midterm Flashcards
Biosafety Level 1
Do not typically cause disease in healthy individuals and present a minimal threat to the environment and lab personnel. They can be handled in the open and do not need special containment equipment.
Biosafety Level 2
Commonly encountered in the community and present a moderate health hazard. They are wide human disease and can usually be treated if identified in a timely manner. They usually cause infection through ingestion, inhalation, or penetration of the skin. You should work with a biosafety cabinet with aerosol generation and splashing.
Biosafety Level 3
Local or exotic origin and are associated with respiratory transmission. Serious or lethal disease where treatment/vaccine are not available. Must use special ventilation systems to prevent aerosol transmission, and lab access is restricted.
Biosafety level 4
Great potential for lethal infection. Droplets, aerosol, and autoinoculation are the concerns. The lab should be isolated from other facilities and access is strictly controlled. Ventalation and waste management are regulations to prevent it from being release into the environment. Specially trained professionals are the only ones handling this stuff. Must wear personal, positive pressure, one piece body suits
What are examples of organisms at biosafety level 1
Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Rhodospirillum rubrum, and Lactobacillus acidophilus.
What are examples of organisms at biosafety level 2
Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium dificile, and Borrelia burgdorferi
What are examples of organisms at biosafety level 3
Bacillus Anthracis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and West Nile virus
What are examples of organisms at biosafety level 4
Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa Fever
Which biosafety levels do we work with in our microbiology lab?
BSL-1 and BSL-2
Which biosafety level is being described:
§ Organism is associated with a serious disease, for which treatment is available but not always effective. Organism is handled only in a Class II or Class III biosafety cabinet. Access to lab is restricted, and special ventilation systems are used to prevent aerosol transmission out of the laboratory.
BSL-3
List the procedures we follow when entering and exiting the laboratory in order to reduce the transmission of contaminants to or from the lab.
Wash hands before and after each lab, and anytime you leave the room and come back.
At the beginning of lab, the tables are wiped with 75% ethanol and dried, and at the end of class, the tables are wiped with cleaner
What are some safety measures we follow during the lab, to reduce the possibility of contamination of self or others?
o No food or liquids are brought into the lab
o Appropriate clothing is worn in lab at all times
o Wearing safety goggles or glasses at all times in the lab
o Do not touch face or eyes with hands
o All wounds covered with bandages
o No mouth pipetting
How are contaminated glass slides disposed of?
They are disposed into the autoclave bag to be disinfected before thrown away.
How are bacterial liquid and solid cultures disposed of?
Placed in the autoclave bag.
What is the procedure for cleaning up a spilled bacterial culture from the lab bench?
Cover spills immediate with paper towels. Soak the towels immediately with disinfectant and allow them to stand for 20 minutes. Then place the paper towels in the autoclave bag.
What is difference between a bacterial cell and a bacterial colony?
A cell is only one bacteria, a colony is a visible mass of cells that arise from one bacterial cell
What is a pure culture?
Contains only one species or strain of bacteria
If you inoculate an LB plate with a cotton swab that you used to sample a door knob, and nothing grows on the plate after 3 days, can you assume that the door knob was sterile? Why/why not?
No you cannot assume the doorknob was sterile because some cultures take longer than three days to grow, so there could still be bacterial cells on the agar that are just not yet visible.
What terms would you use to describe the shape of the colony as a whole?
Round, irregular, punctiform
What terms would you use to describe the margin (edges) of the colony?
Entire, undulate, lobate, erose, filamentous
What terms would you use to describe the surface?
Surface- smooths, rough, wrinkled, shiny, dull
What terms would you use to describe the texture
Texture- moist, mucoid, buytrous, dry
What terms would you use to describe the elevation
Flat, raised, convex, pulvinate, umbonate, crateriform
Will a particular bacterial colony always appear the same color? Why/why not?
No they can appear to be different colors because they could be in different stages of growth could result in different colors of the cells.
How might you distinguish fungal growth from bacterial growth
Bacterial colonies are tiny, while the fungal colonies are larger. Fungal colonies look “hairy” and grow as powdery mats all over the agar. Fungal colonies arise from a single spore or mycelial fragment.
A medium that contains living microbes is called a ?
culture
What does it mean to transfer microbes aseptically?
Without contamination of yourself, others, the environment, the source culture, or the medium being inoculated.
Describe the steps you would perform when transferring a bacterial culture from one liquid broth medium to another, using an inoculation loop.
Label the sterile broth with name, date, medium, and organism you are inoculating with. Then flame loos from base to tip and make sure the loop becomes orange in color. Loosen the cap of the culture tube, then move the tube to your loop hand. Flame the lip of the tube two or three times. Angle the tube.
Why should you hold the tubes close to a horizontal angle, instead of straight up and down when transferring microbes aseptically?
If it is held vertically, it is harder to acquire the culture, and there is a larger chance of creating aerosol contamination from the broth.
What is aerosol production and why is it a concern when working with BSL-2 organisms?
It is when the bacteria becomes a droplet suspended in the air, this is worrisome with BSL-2 organisms because they can be spread through inhalation of the bacteria.
What is filiform growth?
slant, Dense and opaque with a smooth edge
What does friable mean?
slant, dry and crusty
What do rhizoid and echinulate describe?
A slant growth that is branched or spiny.
How would you describe differences in optical properties on slant?
Color, opaqueness, translucent
What is a pellicle (broth)?
Film floating on the surface
What is growth that sinks to the bottom of broth called?
sediment
What is the difference between uniform fine turbidity and flocculent growth in broth?
Uniform fine turbidity is when the bacteria is broken down throughout the broth, and flocculent growth is when the bacteria grows in flakes inside of the broth.
How do you calculate total magnification of a specimen viewed under our light microscopes?
Magnification by the objective lens times the magnification by the ocular lens
What is resolution
clarity of an image
Resolution improves as the limit of resolution is made….
smaller
What does the condenser lens do?
Concentrates the light and makes illumination of the specimen more uniform
What is numerical aperture?
The measure of a lens ability to capture light coming from the specimen and use it to make the image. It is marker on the lens
Using immersion oil between the specimen and the oil-immersion lens (increases or decreases?) its numerical aperture, which in turn makes its limit of resolution (smaller or larger?).
increases; smaller
Wet mount
There is no stain used and the cells are mostly transparent. Can be done to observe motility, cell size, binary fission, arrangement, and morphology
Hanging Mount
Longer observation of the specimen because it does not dry out as quickly. Allows for long periods of observation for cell size, morphology, arrangement, binary fission, and motility.
What is Brownian motion? How can you distinguish it from true motility?
Motion created by collision between cells and water molecules is Brownian motion, which makes it look like cells are vibrating in place. Non-motile cells still exhibit Brownian motion.
How does one prepare a hanging drop slide?
1) Apply light ring of petroleum jelly around the well of the depression with a toothpick 2) Apply a loop of water to a cover of glass (if using broth do not use water). 3) Aseptically transfer a loop of the culture, then flame the loop after transfer. 4) Inver
the depression slide so the drop is centered in the well. Press until the petroleum jelly makes a seal. Then turn the slides right side up and place on the microscope. 5) The drop should look like it is hanging
Define and differentiate between bacterial cell morphology and cell arrangements
The cell morphology is the shape of the bacteria, and the arrangement of the bacteria is how many different cells orient themselves to one another