Microbiology Vocabulary Flashcards
Oval bacterium that is intermediate between the coccus and the bacillus forms.
Coccobacillus
A condition in which there are no infectious or contaminating microorganisms; the absence of sepsis.
Asepsis
A visible mass of bacteria growing on a solid medium, such as a clump or microorganisms that develop from a single cell or a group of cells; visible to the naked eye on solid or semisolid mediums.
Colony
Process of cell division in which the mother cell retains its identity; the daughter cell is formed by growth of a new daughter cell on one part of the mother cell.
Budding
Bacterial toxin confined within the body of a bacterium freed only when the bacterium is broken down, found only in gram negative bacteria.
Endotoxin
Minute, highly durable body, developed within certain bacterial cells and capable of developing into new vegetative cells; characteristic of the genera Bacillus and Clostridium.
Endospore
Vaccine against tuberculosis made from a bovine strain of tubercle bacilli attenuated through long culturing; name is derived from the two French scientists developing the strain.
BCG (Bacillus or Calmette-Guerin)
A gastrointestinal disturbance due to ingestion of food containing toxins or poisonous substances that have been excreted into the food by certain species of bacteria, frequently Staphylococcus aureus, less commonly Clostridium botulinum, and Clostridium perfringens.
Food Poisoning
An enzyme that, in concert with certain serum factors, causes blood plasma to clot; produced by Staphylococcus aureus.
Coagulase
An organism that lives on or within a living host from which it derives its nourishment.
Parasite
Property of movement of a cell under its own.
Motility
A group of diverse and widespread unicellular and multicellular organisms, lacking chlorophyll, usually bearing spores and often filamentous.
Fungus (Fungi)
Infection caused by a different organism than the one causing the primary infection.
Secondary Infection
The living together in close association of different species.
Symbiosis
Membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.
Meninges
A genus of gram-negative, pathogenic, intracellular parasitic bacteria.
Rickettsia
A cell or organism having a true nucleus.
Eucaryotem
Solution with a lower osmotic pressure than that of a reference solution.
Hypotonic Solution
Spirochete, causative agent of syphilis.
Treponema Pallidum
Brucellosis; disease caused by Brucella species.
Undulant Fever
Poisoning by microorganisms or their products.
Sepsis
The formation of a mass or clot.
Coagulation
Stain that colors the background while the cells appear clear.
Negative Stain
A type of cell division used to replenish body cells.
Mitosis
Large mononuclear wandering, phagocytic cell that originates in the reticuloendohelial system.
Macrophage
Antibodies that render invading viruses non-infective.
Neutralizing Antibodies
Having a greater osmotic pressure outside the cell than inside the cell. Forces the movement of water out of the cell resulting in plasmolysis or shrinking of the cell.
Hypotonic (Referring to the cell)
Mutual opposition or contrary action. The inhibition of one bacterial organism by another.
Antagonism
A living organism or object that is capable of transmitting infections by carrying the disease agent on its external body parts or surface.
Mechanical Vector
At both ends of the cell.
Bipolar
Disinfection procedures carried out throughout the course of an illness with rigid aseptic disposal of contaminated materials.
Concurrent Disinfection
The state of producing or being able to produce pathological changes and disease.
Pathogenicity
The presence of viruses in the blood.
Viremia
Round or oval bodies found in the nucleus or cytoplasm of cells during virus infections; may contain viral particles in some cases.
Inclusion Bodies
Antibody that causes agglutination of its particulate antigen, as bacteria, or other cells.
Agglutinin
Having flagella around the entire cell.
Peritrichous
A venereal disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum.
Syphilis
A disease affecting the majority of the population of a large region or one that is epidemic at the same time in many different parts of the world.
Pandemic
Affinity for the central nervous system or nervous tissue.
Neurotropic
The state or condition in which the body or part of it is invaded by a pathogenic agent that under favorable conditions, multiplies and produces injurious effects.
Infection
Genus of gram-negative diplococci; genus name for bacteria of gonorrhea and meningococcal meningitis.
Neisseria
An organism that prefers an aerobic environment but can survive without free oxygen if necessary.
Facultative Anaerobe
A substance that will prevent the growth of vegetative pathogenic microorganisms without necessarily destroying them.
Antiseptic
Bacteria of the Mycoplasma genus that are found in humans and most have no cell wall; the smallest free-living organisms presently known, being intermediate in size between viruses and bacteria.
Mycoplasmas
Visible to the naked eye.
Macroscopic
Unicellular chlorophyll-free plants, usually spherical or ovoid in shape, which multiply asexually by budding.
Yeast
An invertebrate animal with jointed legs, such as an insect or a crustacean.
Arthropod
The means by which an organism assimilates its food.
Nutrition
Round worms.
Nematodes
Situated between the center and the end of the cell as endospores.
Subterminal
Ischemic necrosis plus putrefaction.
Gangrene
A substance able to destroy phagocytes.
Leucocidin
Weakened.
Attenuated
Temperature above which bacterial growth will not take place.
Maximum Temperature
Prevention of growth or function.
Inhibition
A heat-liable substance in the blood that is necessary for the lytic action of certain antibodies.
Complement
Inhibiting growth or multiplication of bacteria.
Bacteriostatic
One in which the organisms are originally confined to one area but enter the blood or lymph vessel and spread to other parts of the body.
Focal Infection
An organism that requires one or more complex organic nutrients from a carbon source in order to grow and develop.
Heterotrophic Bacteria
Animal or plant of microscopic size.
Microorganism
Concentration of infective microbes in a medium; amount of one substance to correspond with a given amount of another substance.
Titer
Name proposed for a thid kingdom to include microorganisms.
Protista
Serum that contains antibodies.
Antiserum
The diploid cell formed through the sexual union of two haploid cells.
Zygote
Round glass dish with cover used for growing bacterial cultures.
Petri Dish
A foreign substance that stimulates the formation of antibodies that interact specifically with it.
Antigen
Measles; usually means red measles.
Rubeola
Compound in which energy is stored in high energy phosphate bonds; its components are the purine adenine, D-ribose, and three phosphoric acid groups.
Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)
Produced or arising from within a cell or organism.
Endogenous Infection
Immunity following recovery from disease.
Natural Active Immunity
The act of introducing disease germs or infectious material into an area or substance.
Contamination
A person who harbors and spreads pathogenic microorganisms without giving evidence of disease.
Healthy Carrier
A disease that may be transmitted directly or indirectly from one individual to another.
Communicable
State of hypersusceptibility to a protein into the body.
Anaphylaxis
Bluish-white specks on mouth lesions in early measles, before skin eruption.
Koplik Spots
Deeply staining bodies found in one or both ends of a certain species of bacteria.
Polar Bodies
The presence of viable bacteria in the blood stream.
Bacteremia
A reaction between a soluble antigen and its antibody resulting in the formation of antigen-antibody complex too large to stay in solution.
Precipitin Reaction
The settling out of materials so they can be removed; useful in water purification.
Sedimentation
Passage of soluble DNA from donor to recipient bacterial cell, with a subsequent change in character of the recipient.
Transformation
The study of a disease’s cause.
Etiology
A localized accumulation of pus in tissues.
Abscess
Temperature below which bacterial growth will not take place.
Minimum Temperature
Prefix meaning false.
Pseudo
An organism that exists as part of the normal flora but may become pathogenic under certain conditions.
Opportunist
State of being highly resistant to a specific pathogenic organism; the increased resistance to infection.
Immunity
Fat-splitting enzyme.
Lipase
The extent of acidity or alkalinity of a solution or medium; expresses the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration; 7 is neutral, acids have a number less that 7, bases have a number more than 7.
pH (Potential of Hydrogen)
White blood cell, capable of ingesting foreign particles, including microorganisms.
Phagocyte
An infection acquired from a hospital environment.
Nosocomial
Inflammation of the liver, frequently due to a virus.
Hepatitis
Introduction of material into an animal or other medium.
Inoculation
Resistance to disease that develops after administration of a vaccine or inactivated toxin.
Artificial Active Immunity
Appearance of an infectious disease or condition that attacks many people at the same time in the same geographical area.
Epidemic
A medium for microbial growth that contains complex substances such as beef extract, yeast extract, tryptones, and blood.
Artificial Medium
Acute infection of the skin that results in characteristic red, edematous lesions; found most commonly on the face and legs; caused by group A, beta hemolytic streptococci.
Erysipelas
Apparatus for sterilizing by steam under pressure; pressure steam sterilizer.
Autoclave
Acute Amebiasis.
Amebic Dysentery
A substance that alters the speed of a chemical reaction without itself being changed in the process.
Catalyst
Infection with streptococci or other pathogenic bacteria that occurs during the course of a chronic disease and causes death.
Terminal Infection
Microorganisms; usually meaning bacteria.
Germs
A microscope that has two sets of lenses, one in the objective next to the object to be studied, and the other in the ocular next to the eye.
Compound Microscope
Condition characterized by the multiplication of bacteria in blood.
Septicemia
The immunity that is present at birth and is not changeable.
Innate
Change or alteration in form or qualities; a permanent transmissible change in the characters of an offspring from those of its parents.
Mutation
Photosynthetic procaryotes that contain chlorophyll and phycocyanin pigments and often move by gliding.
Blue-Green Algae
Induction of specific immunity by injecting antigen or antibodies.
Immunization
An extreme antigen-antibody reaction in allergy,producing acute asthma, sometimes resulting in death; of most concern in drug allergies.
Anaphylactic Shock
Antibody found in blood serum that is capable of neutralizing or destroying its homologous toxin.
Antitoxin
Infection of the mucous membranes of the mouth by Candida albi cans.
Thrush
Diagnostic test for scarlet fever; antitoxin to erythrogenic toxin is injected intracutaneously and the skin rash is observed for blanching.
Schultz-Charlton Reaction
Diphtheria-tenanus-pertussis vaccine.
DTP
Due to antibodies produced against the individual’s own tissues; failure to differentiate between self and non-self.
Autoimmune Disease
Spread by sexual contact.
Venereal
Antiserum; blood serum containing antibodies.
Immune Serum
Sudden attack of a disease or acceleration of the manifestations of an existing disease.
Paroxysm
Earliest phase of growth, during which the cell number stays constant while cells adjust to the new medium.
Lag Phase
- Science that studies the fungi; both yeasts and molds.
2. The branch of science concerned with the study of fungi.
Mycology
Special type of cell division during the maturation of the sex cells by which the normal number of chromosomes is halved.
Meiosis
In the test tube versus in the living system.
In Vitro
Organism using an organic compound as a carbon source.
Heterotroph
An organism genetically different from its parent.
Mutant
Organic compound composed of many amino acids joined together by peptide bonds.
Protein
Having many forms.
Pleomorphic
The protein coat that surrounds the nucleic acid core of a virus.
Capsid
A disease caused by the exotoxin produced by Clostridum tetani.
Tetanus
Relating to a system; relating to the entire organism instead of a part.
Systemic
Diarrhea plus blood and mucus in the stood; related to inflammation of the alimentary tract.
Dysentery
The means by which a pathogenic organism enters the body to produce disease.
Portal of Enterance
An agent that destroys bacteria but not necessarily their spores.
Bactericide
“Blood-loving” genus name.
Hemophilus
Not productive of disease.
Nonpathogenic
Substance that enters into combination with cells and complement to produce dissolution of cells (for example, hemolysin).
Amboceptor
Loss of virulence of a pathogen. Generally due to overgrowth of non-virulent strains in laboratory culture; these strains are often used as vaccines.
Attenuation of Virulence
Within the cell.
Intracellular
Transfer of infection by means of inanimate objects; contaminated fingers, water, food, and fomites.
Indirect Contact
Produced or arising from within the organism.
Endogenous
Complex carbohydrate consisting of many monosaccharide molecules.
Polysaccharide
A membranous structure in bacteria, probably associated with the formation of cross walls.
Mesosome
Implies in the living system as opposed to in the test tube.
In Vivo
An individual who harbors and may disseminate pathogenic organisms but may or may not show symptoms of the disease.
Carrier
Self-nourishing bacteria that are capable of growing in the absence of organic compounds. Organisms that obtain carbon from carbon dioxide.
Autotrophic Bacteria
Infection caused by germs lodging and multiplying at one point in a tissue and remaining there.
Local Infection
Inflammatory enlargement and inflammation of a lymph node.
Bubo
Process whereby carbohydrates are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water in presence of light energy and chlorophyll.
Photosynthesis
A viral disease of the nervous system resulting in the loss of motor function. This disease is preventable by the oral Sabine vaccine.
Poliomyelitis
Composed of many cells.
Multicellular
The period of most rapid reproduction in the growth phases of a culture; the generation time is constant when plotted on a graph, and the log of the number of organism appears as a straight line.
Log Phase
Formation of pus.
Suppuration
Having a greater osmotic pressure than that of a reference solution.
Hypertonic Solution
Resistance resulting from having the disease or by receiving.
Active Immunity
An iron protein pigment in red blood cells; serves as any oxygen carrier.
Hemoglobin
Infection with pathogenic amebas.
Amebiasis
Vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of many hyphae.
Mycelium
German measles; three-day measles.
Rubella
