Microbiology Flashcards by Xian Art Bigtas Aoanan

Include all organisms that are too small to be seen by the unaided eye.

Microorganisms (Microbes)

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Can be beneficial agents in the fields of biotechnology and medicine. However, some can infect humans and cause diseases.

Microbes

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Discase-Causing Microbes

Pathogens

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The scientific discipline that carefully studies, identifies, and characterizes microorganisms.

Microbiology

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Carries out laboratory procedures for the detection and identification of pathogens from human samples.

Microbiology Section

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These are not made up of true cells. They cannot reproduce independently and are considered non-living. Include viruses and prions.

Acellular Infectious Agents

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Do not have nuclear membranes and membrane-bound organelles. Hence, it can be said that these cells do not have ‘true nucleus’. Include the bacteria and archaea.

Prokaryotic Cells

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Has a ‘true nucleus’ that is bound by a nuclear membrane. These cells are also characterized by presence of membrane-bound organelles such as mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum. Include protozoa, microscopic fungi, and the microscopic algae.

Eukaryotic Cell

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Internal Mechanisms of Cells

Core

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External Mechanisms of Cells

Capsid

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Unit made up of the nucleic acid core and the proteinaceous capsid.

Nucleocapsid

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Not present in all viruses unlike the core and the capsid. Made up of glycoproteins and lipids

Envelope

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Viruses that do not have envelopes.

Naked Viruses

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Viruses that are equipped with envelopes.

Enveloped Viruses

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Proteinaceous material that protects the nucleic acid core. Made up of structural subunits known as capsomeres

Capsid

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Structural Subunits

Capsomeres

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TRUE OR FALSE: Some textbooks do not consider viruses as true microbes because of their acellular nature.

True

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Unicellular, prokaryotic microbes

Include the eubacteria (true bacteria) and the cyanobacteria (formerly known as
the blue-green algae)

Bacterial cell wall is unique due to presence of peptidoglycan

Taxonomic classification: Kingdom Monera, Domain Bacteria

Bacteria

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Unicellular, prokaryotic microbes that live in extreme conditions (environments with extreme heat, extreme cold, extremely high/ low pH, etc.)

Taxonomic classification: Kingdom Monera, Domain Archaea

Archaea

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Unicellular, eukaryotic organisms

Non-photosynthetic

Taxonomic classification: Kingdom Protista, Domain Eukarya

Protozoa (Protozoan)

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Non-photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms

Microscopic fungi include the unicellular yeasts and the multicellular molds

Microscopic fungi are capable of carrying out both sexual & asexual reproduction

Cell wall is predominantly made up of chitin

Taxonomic classification: Kingdom Fungi, Domain Eukarya

Fungi

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Reproduce via Budding

Yeast

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Grow via Apical Extension

Molds

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Photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms

Some are unicellular while others are multicellular

Cell wall is predominantly made up of cellulose

Taxonomic classification: The microscopic, unicellular algae are placed under Kingdom Protista; Domain Eukarya

Algae

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Focuses on the study of bacteria. As mentioned earlier, not all microorganisms do not cause infectious diseases. The same can be said for this, as not all bacteria are pathogenic.

Bacteriology

The subject that deals with the bacteria that infect humans and the diseases that they cause.

Clinical Bacteriology

The discipline that studies viruses and virus-like agents, including their classification, structure, and their disease-causing properties.

Virology

The discipline that studies the microscopic yeasts and molds.

Mycology

Also known as the study of algology, is the scientific study of algae. Within the context of microbiology, phycology is only concerned with the algae that are too small to be observed by the naked human eyes.

Phycology

The subject that studies the eukaryotic and unicellular protozoans. Take note that some of the protozoans are parasitic in nature.

Protozoology

Completely dependent on another organism (host) for shelter and nourishment while simultaneously harming the host in the process of being dependent.

Protozoans

One of the several individuals who discovered that if two convex lenses (two-lens instrument) were put together, it can be used to make small objects appear larger.

Zacharias Janssen

Coined the term ‘microscopio’ or microscope to refer to the two-lens system.

Giovanni Faber

Used a 25x microscope. In 1665, he published the book Micrographia which detailed his studies using the 25x microscope.

Robert Hooke

Studied a piece of cork using the 25x microscope: He used the word “cella” to describe the ‘great many little boxes’ he observed. He became the first person to describe and draw a microorganism (mold).

Robert Hooke

Came up with a 200x microscope. Described hundreds of tiny, living animals (probably protozoa and algae) which he called animalcules.

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

The study of the distribution and determinants of a disease in a specified population.

Epidemiology

Believed in the theory of miasma (“bad air”) which stated that the origin of epidemics such as cholera, malaria, and plague were due to ‘bad air’, emanating from rotting organic matter.

Naturalists

Was a Hungarian obstetrician. Observed the mortality of pregnant women due to puerperal fever (childbed fever). He also compared the performance between Medical Students and Midwifery Students.

Ignaz Semmelweis

“Father of Epidemiology”. Investigated the 1854 London cholera epidemic, concluded that cholera was waterborne and not spread by miasma.

John Snow

Snow interviewed the sick and healthy Londoners and plotted the location of each cholera case on a district map. He later found out that most cholera cases were clustered and were getting their water source from the street pump in Broad Street. Requested the parish Board of Guardians to remove the street pump handle, effectively breaking the spread of the disease

Spot-Mapping

Considered by many as the “father of bacteriology”. Was the first to correctly explain that fermentation involves converting sugar into alcohol (wine)by yeasts in the absence of oxygen. Concluded that souring and spoilage of wine and dairy products is caused by the presence of bacteria. Came up with the pasteurization technique as a practical solution for the “wine disease” (wine souring).

Louis Pasteur

Specific pathogens are responsible for specific infectious disease.

Germ Theory of Disease by Louis Pasteur

Verified the germ theory of disease by coming up with postulates. His postulates are used as the formalized standards when relating a specific organism to a specific disease.

Robert Koch

POSTULATES: Microorganisms from the pure culture are inoculated into a healthy, susceptible animal. The disease (same disease in postulate 1) is reproduced.

Postulate 3

POSTULATES: The suspected pathogen must be re-isolated from the tissue specimens of the experimental animal and shown to be the same as the original.

Postulate 4

POSTULATES: The microorganisms are isolated from the tissues of a dead animal and a pure culture is prepared. (The microorganisms are then later identified).

Postulate 2

POSTULATES: The same microorganisms are present in every case of the disease.

Postulate 1

A population of cells or multicellular organism growing in the absence of other species of type.

Pure Culture

Marked by many discoveries and innovations that were brought about by the healthy competition between the Pasteur Laboratory headed by Louis Pasteur and the Koch Laboratory headed by Robert Koch.

Classical Golden Age of Microbiology

Focused on mechanism of infection & immunity.

The Pasteur Lab

Attenuated (weakened) the bacterial cells of chicken cholera.

Louis Pasteur with Charles Chamberland

Applied the principle of attenuation to anthrax and demonstrated that he could protect sheep against the disease.

Louis Pasteur

Began testing of an experimental rabies vaccine against dogs.

Emile Roux

Gave the untested (in humans) rabies vaccine to a 9-year-old boy, Joseph Meister, who had been bitten and mauled by a rabid dog. The boy recovered and remained healthy.

Louis Pasteur

Identified the diphtheria toxin.

Alexander Yersin & Emile Roux

Discovered Phagocytosis.

Elie Metchnikoff

Focused on procedural methods for isolation, cultivation, & identification of pathogens.

The Koch Lab

Identified and cultured Mycobacterium tuberculosis Discovered Bacillus anthracis. Isolated Vibrio cholerae and confirmed John Snow’s suspicion that water is the key to transmission.

Robert Koch

Isolated Corynebacterium diphtheriae (diphtheria bacillus).

Friedrich Loeffler

Cultivated the typhoid bacillus.

George Gaffky

Suggested some dyes might control bacterial infections.

Paul Ehrlich

Isolated Clostridium tetani.

Shibasaburo Kitasato

Developed the diphtheria antitoxin.

Emil von Behring

Observed bacterial cells in leprosy patients.

Gerhard Hansen

Discovered Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Albert Neisser

Discovered that malaria is caused by a protozoan.

Charles Laveran

Discovered the bacterium responsible for infant diarrhea.

Theodore Escherich

Identified a bacterial causative agent of meningitis (Haemophilus influenzae).

Richard Pfeiffer

Independently discovered the bacterium causing plague (Yersinia pestis).

Shibasaburo Kitasato and Alexander Yersin

Cultivated Bordetella pertussis (pertussis bacillus).

Jules Bordet and Octave Gengou

Credited as the inventor of this indispensable test. It is performed to classify bacteria according to their cell wall structure.

Hans Christian Gram

This technique will also allow the microscopic observation and classification of bacteria according to shape.

Gram Staining (GS)

Spherical-Shaped Bacteria

Cocci

Rod-Shaped Bacteria

Bacilli

Purple Color Stain

Gram-Positive Bacteria

Pink/Red Color Stain

Gram-Negative Bacteria

This technique is used mainly for the differentiation of acid fast organisms (which will appear with a red stain after acid-fast staining) from non-acid fast organisms. This technique is most useful in the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Acid Fast Stain (AFS)

This technique utilizes 10% potassium hydroxide which dissolves the keratin of skin scrapings, nails and hair in order to detect fungal elements such as spores and hyphae.

KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) Preparation

The isolation of the bacterium from the actual site of infection and allowing the organism to grow in vitro using an artificially feasible environment. It allows the microbiologist to come up with a sufficient population of the pathogen which will eventually be used for identification of the pathogen.

Culture

Done after culture in order to determine the most appropriate antibiotics that can be used to treat the infection caused by the pathogen.

Sensitivity Testing/ Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST)

The most routinely used technique in the Microbiology Section.

Kirby-Bauer Technique (Disk Diffusion Susceptibility Test).