Microbiology Comprehensive vocab for final Flashcards
A complex of nucleic acids and proteins, primarily histones, in the cell nucleus that stains readily with basic dyes and condenses to form chromosomes during cell division.
Chromatin
A membrane-enclosed structure within a cell, such as a mitochondrion, vacuole, or chloroplast, that preforms a specific function.
Organelle
A mucopolysaccharide outer shell enveloping certain bacteria
Capsule
An organism of microscopic or submicroscopic size, especially a bacterium or protozoan
Microorganism
An RNA molecule with catalytic activity
Ribozyme
Any substance NEEDED for microbial growth
Nutrient
Culture media that distinguishes between groups of microorganisms based on differences within their growth and metabolic products.
Differential Media
Dyes that are anionic or have negatively charged groups such as carbozyls
Acid Dyes
Organic compounds that must be supplied in the diet for growth because they cannot be synthesized
Growth Factor
The characteristic movement of a cell along a chemical concentration gradient either towards or away from the chemical stimulus
Chemotaxis
The hypothesis that mitochondria and chloroplasts arose from bacterial endosymbionts of ancestral eukaryotic cells
Endosymbiotic Hypothesis
The lense of a microscope that first receives light rays from the object and forms the image
Objective Lense
The process in which a cell takes up solutes or particles by enclosing them in vesicles pinced off from its plasma membrane
Endocytosis
The process in which the internal and external structures of cells and organisms are preserved and fixed in position
Fixation
A series of chemical reactions that occurs as part of the dark reactions of photosynthesis, in which carbon is broken down away from gaseous carbon dioxide and fixed as organic carbon in compounds that are ultimately used to make sugars and starch as food.
Calvin Cycle
An organism that requires a salty environment.
Halophile
The rotating enzyme complex that couples ATP production to the flow of hydrogen ions.
ATP Synthase
A series of chemical reactions that occurs as part of the dark reactions of photosynthesis, in which carbon is broken away from gaseous carbon dioxide and fixed as organic carbon in compounds that are ultimately used to make sugars and starch as food.
Calvin Cycle
Inhibiting the growth and reproduction of bacteria.
Bacteriostatic
An organism, such as a bacterium, that can live in the absence of atmospheric oxygen.
Anaerobe
The plateau of the growth curve after the exponential growth, during which cell number remains constant.
Stationary Phase
The material or substance on which an enzyme acts.
Substrate
A substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected.
Catalyst
Making something free of germs as by sterilizing.
Sanitation
The spontaneous formation of a complex structre from its component molecules without the aid of special enzymes or factors.
Self-Assembly
The amount of energy that must be put into a system in order to cause a chemical process to occur.
Activation Enerby
A substance that inhibits the growth and reproduction of disease-causing microorganisms
Antiseptic
An ATP-generating metabolic process that occurs in nearly all living cells in which glucose is converted in a series of steps to pyruvic acid.
Glycolysis
A mode of gene transfer in procaryotes in which a piece of free DNA is taken up by a cell and integrated into its genome
Transformation
A polymerase that catalyzes the synthesis of RNA from a DNA template
RNA Polymerase
An enzyme that joins two DNA fragments together through the formation of a new phosphodiester bond.
DNA Ligase
Class of RNA molecules that transport amino acids to ribosomes for incorporation into a polypeptide undergoing synthesis
tRNA
The newly synthesized DNA strand that is oriented away from the replication fork and is made in small fragments that are later joined together
Lagging Strand
The process by which the genetic message carried by mRNA directs the synthesis of polypeptides with the aid of ribosomes and other cell constituents.
Translation
The RNA that is the structural and catalytic part of a ribosome.
rRNA
A mechanism for the regulation of transcription of some bacterial operons by aminoacyl-tRNA’s
Attenuation
The segment of DNA to which the repressor protein binds; it controls the expression of the genes adjacent to it.
Operator
A permanent, heritable change in the genetic material
Genetic Mutation
The typical form of an organism, strain, Gene, or characteristic as it occurs in nature.
Wild Type
A short, labled nucleic acid segment complementary in base to part of another nucleif acid, which is used to identify or isolate the particular nucleic acid from a mixture through its ability to bind specifically with the target nucleic acid.
Probe
Enzymes produced by host cells that cleave virus DNA at specific points and thus protect the cell from virus infection; they are used in carrying out genetic engineering.
Restriction Enzyme
To make identical copies of a DNA sequence.
Cloning
The protein Shell that surrounds a virus particle.
Capsid
The process by which an antigen selects the best-fitting B-Cell receptor, activating the B-cell, resulting in the synthesis of antibody and clonal expansion.
Clonal Selection Mechanism
of viruses with RNA genomes that carry the enzyme reverse transcriptase and form a DNA copy of their genome during their life cycle.
Retrovirus
Of or relating to an immune response by the body against one of its own cells or tissues.
Autoimmune Response
Any of several regulatory proteins, such as the interleukins and lyphokines, that are released by cells of the immune system and act as intercellular mediators in the generation of an immune response
Cytokines
An infectious agent consisting only of protein.
Prion
An area of the antigen molecule that stimulates the production of, and combines with, specific antibodies; also known as the antigenitc determinant site
Antigen Binding Site
A group of plasma proteins that plays a major role in an animal’s defensive immune response.
Receptor Proteins.
A gene whos activity is associated with the conversion of normal cells to cancer cells.
Oncogene
A foreign (non-self) substance to which lymphocytes respond.
Antigen
A double-Strand nucleic acid that is formed from a single-stranded viral genome and used to synthesize new copies of the genome.
Replicative Form
A complete virus particle that represents the extracellular phase of the virus life cycle.
Virion
A clear, often round patch of lysed cells in an otherwise opaque layer of a bacteria or cell culture.
Plaque
