Topic 1 Flashcards

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1
Q

Taxonomy:

A

Science of classifying/naming biological organisms

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2
Q

Phylogeny:

A

Study of the evolutionary relationships between different organisms

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3
Q

Each organism has two names:

A

The genus (more broad) and species (more specific)

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4
Q

Scientific Names

A
  • Species names (species/genus) italicized(or underlined - handwriting only)
  • The genus is capitalized and species is lower case
  • Higher taxa (family, class, order, phylum, kingdom) are not italicized. They are capitalized, through.
  • After the first use in a manuscript, paper, or report, scientific names are abbreviated with the first letter of the genus plus the species name
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5
Q

Subspecies:

A

Essentially just the next finer classification after species

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6
Q

Biovar or biotype -

A

grouping based on physiological or biochemical

difference from other members of the species

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7
Q

Serovar or serotype -

A

grouping based on surface antigens

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8
Q

Phylogenetic trees

A
  • Visual means of showing predicted
    evolutionary relationships between different organisms
  • Evolutionary time goes from left(root) to right (modern lineages)
  • Branches show evolutionary history
    unique to connecting lineages
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9
Q

Determining phylogenetic relationships: comparing DNA sequences

A
  • Over evolutionary time, DNA sequences change
  • Comparing DNA sequences that are conserved amongst all organisms can be used to determine how closely related they are
  • More differences in DNA sequence = more evolutionary distance
  • Certain DNA sequences are better choices than others.Typically looking for highly conserved genes with a highly conserved function that accumulate mutations slowly over time.
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10
Q

Determining phylogenetic relationships: SSU rRNA sequencing

A
  • The ribosome is a conserved feature of all organisms of earth
  • The ribosomal RNA (rRNA) of the small subunit (SSU) of the ribosome is commonly sequenced to infer phylogenetic relationships
  • Variable regions useful for identifying relationships, conserved regions useful for PCR
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11
Q

The Woese tree of life

A
- Universal tree of life based on nucleotide sequence similarity in
ribosomal RNA (rRNA) 
  • Genealogy of all life on Earth
  • Established the presence of three domains of life: Bacteria,Archaea, Eukarya
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12
Q

16S rDNA to identify/classify bacteria

A
  • Isolate genomic DNA (pure culture, environmental/clinical sample)
  • Use PCR primers that bind highly conserved regions of 16S rDNA
  • PCR amplify & sequence 16S rDNA. Align/analyze sequences
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13
Q

Phylogenetic trees: Limitations

A
  1. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT)

2. homologous recombination

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14
Q

homologous recombination

A

DNA sequence of host genes can be replaced with that of homologous genes from another organism

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