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Introduction to Microbiology

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Termini in questo insieme (30)

  • What is microbiology?

    Microbiology is the study of living things too small to be seen without magnification, including bacteria, archaea, protozoa, fungi, helminths, algae, viruses, and prions.

  • Name two acellular microorganisms.

    Prions and viruses are acellular microorganisms, meaning they lack cellular structure.

  • What are prokaryotes?

    Prokaryotes are organisms without a membrane-bound nucleus, including bacteria and archaea.

  • List the order of microbes from biggest to smallest.

    Eukaryote, bacterium/archaeon, virus, prion.

  • Why are microbes both easy and difficult to study?

    Easy because they reproduce rapidly and grow quickly in labs; difficult because they cannot be seen directly and require indirect analysis or microscopes.

  • What is biotechnology in microbiology?

    Biotechnology is the manipulation of microorganisms to produce products industrially, including genetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, and bioremediation.

  • What is the Human Microbiome Project?

    A research initiative from the 2010s that genetically identified microbes living in and on the human body, advancing knowledge of their role in health and disease.

  • Name the four main types of macromolecules in microbes.

    Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.

  • What are monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides?

    Monosaccharides are single sugar units; disaccharides are two bonded sugars; polysaccharides are long chains of sugar monomers.

  • Give examples of polysaccharides important in microbes.

    Cellulose (plant cell walls), agar (culture media), chitin (fungal cell walls), peptidoglycan (bacterial cell walls), lipopolysaccharide (gram-negative bacteria cell wall), glycocalyx (bacterial protective outer layer).

  • Describe the structure of triglycerides.

    One glycerol molecule bound to three fatty acids; fatty acids can be saturated or unsaturated; stored as energy droplets.

  • What is the role of phospholipids in microbial cells?

    Phospholipids form cell membranes with hydrophilic heads attracted to water and hydrophobic tails repelled, creating bilayers.

  • What are proteins composed of?

    Proteins are made of 20 different amino acids linked in chains called peptides or polypeptides.

  • What determines a protein's function?

    The protein's unique three-dimensional shape, formed by primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures.

  • What is denaturation of a protein?

    Disruption of a protein's native three-dimensional structure by heat, acid, alcohol, or disinfectants, causing loss of function.

  • What is the function of enzymes in microbes?

    Enzymes act as catalysts to speed up all chemical reactions in cells.

  • What is ATP and its role in cells?

    Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the energy molecule of cells, releasing energy when bonds between phosphate groups are broken.

  • How are DNA and RNA different in microbes?

    DNA stores genetic information; RNA carries out DNA's instructions and is the genetic material for most viruses; RNA uses uracil instead of thymine.

  • What is taxonomy in microbiology?

    Taxonomy is the science of classifying living things, including naming (nomenclature), identifying, and arranging organisms hierarchically.

  • Explain the binomial system of nomenclature.

    Scientific names combine genus (capitalized) and species (lowercase), italicized in print; genus can be abbreviated to first initial with a period.

  • List the taxonomic ranks from most general to most specific.

    Domain, kingdom, phylum (or division), class, order, family, genus, species.

  • Eukaryotes

    true nucleus

  • Prokaryotes

    bacteria and archaea; pre-nucleus (no membrane bound nucleus)

  • Bacteria

    single-celled, no true nucleus

  • Archaea

    single celled, no true nucleus, distinct from bacteria

  • Akaryotes

    no nucleus

  • Where are microbes?

    Everywhere; they are ubiquitous

  • What are pathogens?

    Microbes that cause disease

  • smallest to largest microbes

    prion, virus, bacteria, protozoa, helminth

  • What is cholesterol?

    A steroid that reinforces the cell membrane in eukaryotic cells that lack a cell wall