Microbiology & Microorganisms

Question 1

Why is microbiology important?

Answer 1

Microbes are the largest mass of living material on Earth

Question 2

What is the cytoplasmic membrane?

Answer 2

Barrier that separates the inside of the cell from the outside environment

Question 3

What is the cytoplasm?

Answer 3

Aqueous mixture of macromolecules, ions, and proteins

Question 4

What do ribosomes do?

Answer 4

Synthesize proteins

Question 5

What is a genome?

Answer 5

A cell’s full complement of genes

Question 6

What is a plasmid?

Answer 6

A piece of DNA that carries non-essential genes

Question 7

What are protists?

Answer 7

Unicellular or multicellular without differentiation into tissues

Question 8

What are protozoa?

Answer 8

Animal-like microorganisms

Question 9

What are algae?

Answer 9

Photosynthetic plant-like microorganisms

Question 10

How do prokaryotes divide?

Answer 10

Binary fission

Question 11

Are archaea ever pathogenic?

Answer 11

Nope

Question 12

What are archaea known for?

Answer 12

Living in extreme environments

Question 13

What is unique about viruses?

Answer 13

They cannot reproduce outside of a host cell

Question 14

How can rRNA sequencing calculate evolutionary distance?

Answer 14

The more difference in the sequence means farther away on the phylogenetic tree

Question 15

What is the phylogenetic tree?

Answer 15

A graphic representation of the evolutionary distance between organisms

Question 16

What are 3 characteristics that all Bacteria share?

Answer 16

1) Most characteristic in common
2) Greater than 97% sequence similarity
3) High degree of genome similarity

Question 17

What are 3 rules for nomenclature of species?

Answer 17

1) Names are italicized or underlind
2) Genus capitalized, epithet not
3) Genus name may be abbreviated the second time it is used

Question 18

Who developed pasteurization?

Answer 18

Louis Pasteur

Question 19

What are Koch’s postulates?

Answer 19

1) The suspected pathogen must be present in all cases of the disease and absent from healthy animals
2) The suspected pathogen must be grown in pure culture
3) Cells from a pure culture of the suspected pathogen must cause disease in a healthy animal
4) The suspected pathogen must be reisolated and shown to be the same as the original

Question 20

What temperature does agar melt at?

Answer 20

97 C

Question 21

What temperature does agar solidify at?

Answer 21

43 C

Question 22

What are the steps of the streak plate technique?

Answer 22

1) One edge of a place is inoculated with a concentrated sample of bacteria
2) Sample is diluted by streaking it across the plate
3) Plate is incubated
4) Individual cells grow to form colonies

Question 23

What is a colony?

Answer 23

A mass of cells that (ideally) arose from one single cell

Question 24

What are the steps of the spread plate technique?

Answer 24

1) Sample is diluted before plating
2) Diluted sample can be spread over the plate with a sterile spreader
3) Separate cells grow into colonies on the surface of the plate

Question 25

What is the purpose of spread and pour plates?

Answer 25

To calculate the concentration of bacteria in a population

Question 26

What is the minimum temperature that bacteria can live in?

Answer 26

-13 C

Question 27

What are bacteria likely growing on if they live in ice?

Answer 27

Organic carbon trapped in the ice

Question 28

What is used as a model of bacterial cell shape, growth, and morphogenetic?

Answer 28

Bacillus subtilis

Question 29

Why is bacillus subtilis used as a model for study of bacterial cells?

Answer 29

Its cells are relatively large and easy to visualize

Question 30

What does lacking a cell wall allow cells to do?

Answer 30

Fuse and readily exchange genes