Midterm 1 Flashcards
How long ago did Bacteria and Archaea diverge?
~2 billion years ago
Deinococcus radiodurans
most radiation resistant organism ever known.
Conum the bacterium. Can survive 1000x the dose that would kill humans.
It has multiple copies of its genome that can be used as a backup after being exposed to the high radiation. It will then repair the previously exposed genome
Robert Hooke
First one to describe microbes. Illustrated the fruiting structure of molds
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek
He is considered the FIRST microbiologist. First one to describe bacteria (microscopes were more advanced at this time).
Louis Pasteur
Discovered fermentation and that alcohol fermentation was a biologically (as well as chemically) mediated process.
Disproved theory of spontaneous generation
Led to the development of methods for controlling the growth of microorganisms (aseptic technique)
Robert Koch
Demonstrated the link between microbes and infectious diseases.
Identified the causative agents for anthrax and tuberculosis
developed techniques (solid agar + Walter Hesse) for obtaining pure cultures of microbes.
Koch’s postulates
For proving cause and effect in infectious diseases
1. susp pathogen must be present in all cases
2. susp pathogen must be grown in culture
3. these cells must then cause associated disease upon introduction to healthy idvl
4. the susp pathogen must be isolated and show to be the same as the originall
Sergei Winogradsky
Demonstrated that specific bacteria are linked to specific biogeochemical transformations.
Proposed the concept of chemolithotrophy (oxidation of inorganic compounds to yield energy)
Demonstrated that chemolithotrophs are often autotrophs (ie they obtain carbon from carbon dioxide)
nitrogen fixation (N2 - NH3) and nitrification (NH3 - NO3-)
what is the winogradsky column?
Mixed water and dirt - eventually get a column with different colours and bacteria in each row of the column carrying out different chemical reactions (associated with their metabolism). No oxygen at bottom - where the sulfate oxidizing bacteria thrive
Ferdinand Cohn
Father of bacterial taxonomy. First to classify different species of bacteria.
He coined the term bacteria (small rod or staff)
Different cell shapes (look for images)
filamentous
spirillum
spirochete
budding and appendaged
What is a lithotroph?
energy source is inorganic chemicals
What is a phototroph?
Energy source is light
What is an organotroph?
Energy source is organic carbon
What is an autotroph?
carbon source is carbon dioxide
what is a heterotroph?
carbon source is organ carbon
What is a chemotroph?
Get their energy from chemicals
Energy source
Litho vs photo vs organo
Carbon source
Hetero vs auto
WHAT IS the largest pool of carbon on earth?
CO2 in the atmosphere
what is genetics vs genomics
Genomics - the studying of the entire genome
Genetics - just studying a few genes, but not all genes in the genome.
What is the ANI?
average nucleotide identity. It is an in silico methodof comparing two genomes computationally (basically tells us
What does Haeckel’s tree look like?
It is based on the belief that evolution strives towards increased complexity
But he was the first to recognize that microbes are quite important.
Moneres (@ bottom incl. bacteria)
Carl Woese
Decided that we should stop drawing the tree of life based on thought experiments or on fuzzy data like morphology but instead we should draw it based on hard, quantitative data like DNA.
- identified the rRNA gene as a good gene to track because it needed to be a gene that every organism on earth had, needed to be universal, and needed to mutate slowly and at a constant rate (so the mutations would act like a biological clock in a sense).
EVERY LIFE FORM THAT WE KNOW HAS RIBOSOMES
SSU rRNA or 16s rRNA
named Archaea
3 domain system - puts everyone in their place in terms of evolutionary ideas (not towards increased complexity).
How are phylogenetic trees constructed?
Taxonomic classification based on evolutionary history.
Align homologous sequences and compare. Find regions of homology and then start counting the differences
what are the four phyla of Bacteria?
Proteobacteria*
Actinobacteria
Firmicutes
Bacteroidetes
What are candidate phyla?
Groups of bacteria that actually have not been characterized/grown in the lab. They are just defined by environmental sequences.
Proteobacteria
40% of all cultured bacteria sp are Proteobacteria
Bacteria phylum
The most abundant and diverse group in nature. Divided into classes based on greek alphabet letters.
Endosymbiotic theory of eukaryotes
Mitochondria and chloroplasts are descendants of respiratory and bacterial cells respectively.
Absorbed by ancient-archaeal-like cells but instead of being destroyed, formed a mutual relationship
Supported by the fact that:
-Eukaryote have T and translational machinery most similar to those of Archaea
-Chloro and Mito are about the same size as bacterial cells and they independently replicate from the rest of the cell
-Mito and Chloro contain their own circular genomes that contain 16s rRNA (most-convincing evidence)
polyphasic approach
A method used to describe bacterial species. This requires a description of:
- Morphology (incl. chemical composition, Gram reaction, lipid composition, etc)
- Metabolism (energy and carbon source)
- genotype (DNA hybridization DDH or average nucleotide identity ANI to compare the genomes of related species (most important factor)
- phylogeny
If organisms have greater than 97% shared 16s rRNA similarity, are they the same species?
Not necessarily. They can be diff sp if their genomes are quite diff (often due to a strong selective pressure + rapid mutation rate of the genome)
Same species when?
Both the 16s rRNA sequence similarity is above 97% and when the ANI is above 96 or so.
What does 16s rRNA sequence similarity tell us?
The less similar the sequences, the longer ago that the species diverged.
Also if the similarity is lower than 97%, the two organisms being compared are not categorized as being the same species.
What does the ANI tell us when classifying species?
The lower the ANI, the more confident that we can be that they are different species.
What does the formal validation of a new prokaryotic species require?
Detailed description of the characteristics/features (metab, genetic comparisons, metab)
deposition of viable cultures of the organism in at least two international collections
proposal of a latin name and a publication in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology
Classification of the prokaryotic grouping hierarchy
Dinos -Domain
Playing - Phyla
Cards - Class
On - Order
Fine - Family
Greek - genus
Silk - species
species richness
Total number of species present in a given area
species abundance
the population size of each species in an ecosystem
Guilds
Metabolically-related microbial populations (perform similar metabolic rxns)
Perform key steps in biogeochemical cycles
rhizosphere
the area around plant roots where plants secrete sugars and other compounds
-rich in organic matter and microbial life