What is Microbiology? Flashcards

Lectures 1-5

1
Q

What is microbiology?

A

Study of organisms too small to be seen by the naked eye.

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2
Q

Which microorganisms are visible to the naked eye?

A

Algae, Fungi

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3
Q

Which microorganisms are multicellular?

A

Myxobacteria, slime mold

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4
Q

Which technique(s) can be used to define microbiology?

A

Culture media for isolation and growth of organisms in pure culture
Biochemical to study cell components
Molecular and genetic techniques

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5
Q

What are the 5 reasons that explain why microbiology is important?

A
  • Microbes are the oldest form of life
  • Largest mass of living material on Earth
  • Carry out major processes for biogeochemical cycles
  • Can live in places unsuitable for other organisms
  • Other life forms require microbes to survive.
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6
Q

What attribute(s) do all cells have in common?

A

Cytoplasmic membrane
Cytoplasm
Ribosomes

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7
Q

What is the difference between genetic material and a genome?

A

Cells store their DNA as genetic material, which is then divided into functional units of genes. A genome is a cell’s full compliment of genes.

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8
Q

What is the difference between chromosomes and plasmids?

A

Chromosomes are genetic elements carrying genes essential to cellular function. Plasmids are a piece of DNA carrying non-essential genes.

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9
Q

What are the different characteristic(s) of eukaryotes?

A

Membrane bound nucleus
Membrane bound organelles
Complex internal organization
Division by mitosis and meiosis

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10
Q

Eukaryotes include protists. What are protists? What are three examples of protists?

A

Protists are unicellular or multi-cellular without differentiation into tissues. Three examples are: Protozoa– animal-like microorganisms
Algae– photosynthetic plant-like microorganisms
Slime molds and water molds– filamentous

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11
Q

Eukaryotes include fungi. What are fungi? What are three examples of fungi?

A

Fungi are unicellular, filamentous or multicellular. Three examples are:
yeasts
molds
mushrooms

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12
Q

What are the characteristic(s) of prokaryotes?

A
No membrane bound nucleus or organelles 
Generally smaller (approx 1 µm diameter)  
Simple internal structure 
Divide by binary fission  
Most are unicellular
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13
Q

Prokaryotes include bacteria. What are some differences between bacteria and other prokaryotes?

A

Genetically diverse
Extremely diverse metabolic styles
Includes both pathogens and non-pathogens

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14
Q

Prokaryotes include archaea. What are some differences between archaea and other prokaryotes?

A

Genetically and biochemically distinct from bacteria Also have diverse metabolism
Never pathogenic
Most famous for living in extreme environments

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15
Q

What are the characteristic(s) of viruses?

A

Acellular infectious particles
Extremely small
Obligate intracellular parasites
Lack independent metabolism

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16
Q

True or False: Viruses can be classified with other microbes due to their specific ribosomes and ribosomal DNA.

A

False: Viruses cannot be classified with other microbes because they contain no ribosomes and no ribosomal DNA.

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17
Q

When did the first anaerobic life appear?

A

3.8 to 3.9 billion years ago.

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18
Q

When did the first photosynthetic bacteria oxygenate the Earth?

A

2 billion years ago.

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19
Q

When did the first plants and animal appear?

A

0.5 billion years ago.

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20
Q

What classification of ribosomes do prokaryotes have? What small subunit (SSU) rRNA genes are they classified by?

A

70S ribosomes

16S SSU rRNA

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21
Q

What classification of ribosomes do eukaryotes have? What small subunit (SSU) rRNA genes are they classified by?

A

80S ribosomes

18S SSU rRNA

22
Q

What is a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR?

A

A technique used to synthesize many identical copies of a short sequence of DNA.

23
Q

What is a phylogenetic tree?

A

A graphic representation of the evolutionary distance between organisms.

24
Q

What ribosomal DNA sequence(s) are phylogenetic trees based on?

A

16S and 18S

25
Q

What 3 domains of life are organisms organized into on phylogenetic trees?

A

Bacteria, Eukarya and Archaea

26
Q

What is the phylogenetic species concept?

A

A group of strains that share certain diagnostic traits, are genetically cohesive and have a unique recent common ancestor.

27
Q

In practice, Bacteria and Archaea should have what?

A

Most (but not all) characteristics in common
Greater than 97% sequence similarity in the 16S rRNA gene
High degree of genome similarity

28
Q

What do microbiologists use to classify organisms?

A

Hierarchical classification

29
Q

What does Hierarchical classification use to organize organisms?

A

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

30
Q

What are the 5 rules for binomial species naming?

A
  1. Names are latinized
  2. Italicized or underlined
  3. Genus capitalized, epithet is not
  4. Genus name may be abbreviated the second time it’s used: E. coli
  5. Trivial names can be used, but do not follow these rules
31
Q

What did Robert Hooke (1635–1703) contribute to the discovery of microorganisms?

A

Robert Hooke was the first person to describe microbes and introduce the cell theory- every living thing is composed of cells.

32
Q

What type of microscope did Robert Hooke use? What was its max magnification?

A

Hooke used a compound microscope with a magnification of 30x.

33
Q

Which scientist built microscopes that magnified specimen by 50-300x?

A

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723)

34
Q

What did Leeuwenhoek first discover, and what did he call them?

A

He was the first person to discover bacteria, and named them animalcules.

35
Q

What did Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) develop?

A

Developed a method of gentle heating to kill unwanted bacteria – Pasteurization.

36
Q

Pasteur’s pasteurization method included boiling a meat infusion to sterilize it in a long swan-necked flask. As long as the flask remained upright it would stay uncontaminated and sterile. What technique did this method lead to?

A

The aseptic technique.

37
Q

Robert Koch (1843–1910) studied Bacillus anthracis, or anthrax, to study diseases. What did he do with this bacteria?

A

He injected healthy animals with anthrax and re-isolated the bacterium from the animals when they became ill. He determined the two bacteria samples (original and re-isolated) where the same and came up with a set of criteria for relating microbes to disease.

38
Q

What were the criteria Koch came up with called?

A

Koch’s Postulates

39
Q

What were Koch’s Postulates?

A
  1. The suspected pathogen must be present in all cases of the disease and absent from healthy animals.
  2. The suspect pathogen must be grown in a pure culture.
  3. The cells from the pure culture must cause disease in a healthy animal.
  4. The suspected pathogen must be isolated from the healthy-now-ill animal and be the same as the original.
40
Q

Solid media provides a simple way to isolate what?

A

Pure cultures

41
Q

What temperature does agar melt at? What does it solidify at?

A

Melts: 97 Celsius
Solidifies: 43 Celsius

42
Q

What does a petri plate usually contain?

A

Nutrient Broth Medium + 1.5% agar

43
Q

What is a colony?

A

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

44
Q

What is the streak plate technique?

A

One edge of a plate is inoculated with a concentrated sample of bacteria
Sample is diluted by streaking it across the surface of the plate
Plate is incubated
Individual cells grow to form colonies

45
Q

What is the spread and pour plate technique? Where do the bacteria grow in each technique?

A

Spread Plate: Diluted sample can be spread over the surface of the plate with a sterile spreader. Bacteria grows on the surface of the medium.
Pour plate: Bacteria sample mixed with molten agar (~45°C). Bacteria grow in medium.

46
Q

What do they spread and pour plate technique allow you to determine?

A

They allow you to. calculate the concentration of bacteria in a population (bacterial titre).

47
Q

How is the titre determined? What are the units?

A

Titre= #colonies/(volume)(dilution)

Titre is measured in CFU- colony forming units

48
Q

Between how many colonies do we count petri plates?

A

30-300

49
Q

How do you find the titre between multiple plates?

A

You take the average.

50
Q

Why do we not could less then 30 or more that 300 colonies?

A

Less than 30 colonies is not statistically significant, and more that 300 colonies will give statistically inaccurate counts.