Microbiology Flashcards
What do Prokaryotes need to multiply? (3)
- Carbon source (building blocks for macromolecular synthesis)
- Energy source (electrons - drives anabolic + catabolic reactions)
- reducting power - Carriers of energy/electrons (NAD+/NADP+)
How do prokaryotes harvest energy?
Molecules - Chemical energy stored in bonds which are released when broken (can be captured in new bonds)
- ATP (most common) can be broken again later to release that energy
Auxotroph
an organism that is unable to synthesize one or more essential growth factors, and it will not grow (or cultured) unless factor provided
Cross-feeding
also called syntrophy - when one species gains metabolic products of another species
What is cross-feeding for?
allows for the survival of auxotrophs by harvesting resources generated by other organisms
Microbiome
the complete collection of microorganisms, and their genes, within a particular environment
Microbiota
individual microbial species in a biome - bacteria, fungi, archaea and viruses
Culture dependent methods
- Relies on culturing of microbes in the lab
- Uses pure cultures, or simple (reduced
diversity) enrichments
Pros - Culture dependent methods
- Allows access to phenotype
- Can study one organism at a time
- Can manipulate conditions to see
response of organism
Con - Culture dependent methods
- Not all organisms can be cultured
- Too many species to grow them all
- Culturing requires precise conditions to
match microbes needs - Does not match real world conditions
Culture independent methods
Pro - Culture independent methods
- Allows access to genotype
- Can study many organisms at a time
- Shows communities as they are in nature
- Can target non-culturable organisms
- Provides access to unknown
information/species
Con - Culture independent methods
- No pure culture, so no ability to manipulate
- Expensive and complex methods
