Microbial Ecology Flashcards
Ecology
the study of how microbes interact w/ each other and their environment
What are the 2 Culture-Dependent Microbial Analysis methods?
Isolation and Enrichment Cultures
What is the Isolation method?
the separation of individual organisms from the mixed community through physical measures
What is the Enrichment Cultures method?
select for desired organisms through manipulation of medium and conditions
What is the FISH method?
- culture-independent method
- uses fluorescent probes to tag sample and look at the distribution
What is the tRFLPs method?
- culture-independent method
- terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism
- Steps
- target gene is amplified by PCR
- restriction enzymes cut PCR products
- analyze concentrations of the target genes btwn organisms
- will tell what’s similar/dissimilar btwn community profiles
- will not identify specific organism
What is the Metagenomics method?
- culture-independent
- sequences entire DNA sample
- can categorize by gene fxn
- tells what is there, not what is most active
What is the Metatranscriptomics method?
- culture-independent
- sequence entire RNA sample
- will tell what is active (expression), not what is there
Ecosystem
the sum total of all organisms and abiotic factors in a particular environment
has many habitats
Habitat
portion of an ecosystem where a community could reside
defined by the abiotic factors
Species Richness
the total # of diff species present
Shannon Diversity Index
Species Abundance
the proportion of each species in an ecosystem
Simpson Index
Biogeochemistry
the study of biologically mediated chemical transformations
Guild
metabolically related populations
organisms that metabolically do the same things
Niche
habitats shared by a guild
biotic and abiotic factors that contribute to the organisms ability to survive and colonize
Fundamental Niche
if limited all competition, the niche where organism could live
Realized Niche
the nich where the organism actually lives
Microbial Mats
very thick biofilms
built by phototrophic and chemolithotrophic bacteria
only in aquatic environments
What are the 4 Horizons that make up soils?
O Horizon, A Horizon, B Horizon, C Horizon
What is the O Horizon?
the top layer of undecomposed plant materials
What is the A Horizon?
the surface soil
high in organic matter
dark in color
lots of microorganisms and plants grow here
What is the B Horizon?
subsoil
minerals and humus
stuff from soil surface accumulate here
little organic matter
less microbe activity
What is the C Horizon?
soil base
develops directly from bedrock below
microbe activity very low
What are Piezophilic cells?
pressure loving cells
What are Psychrophilic cells?
cold loving cells
