Set: Micro- The Science of Microbiology

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All 52 Terms

Term Definition
microbes microorganisms or living things that are too small to be seen by the unaided eye. They maintain our environment, industrial tools, or can harm our crops and livestock and can even make us ill or dead!
pathogenic diseease causing
bubonic plague a pathogenic microbe that swept through Europe during the middle agesand killed about 25 million people, 1/3 of the population. Not until 500 years later in 1890 did microbiologists identify the causitive organism...bacterium called Yersinia pestis which was carried by infected fleas that infected the rats, but when the rats became a rarity, the fleas infected the humans. Characterized by buboes, fever.
buboes swolen lymph glands
Potato blight disease of plants caused by a fungus. This was responsible for the great Irish famine of the 1800s. Potatos, staple of the irish diet, were infected by the Phytophthora infestans, causing them to rot in the fields. By 1846, the potato harvest was so meager that hunger-based diseases were widespread. 1.24 million people died, and 1.2 million people emigrated. This remains an economic threat to potato farmers today.
Hernando Cortes a spaniard who brought ravages of dieases from Europe to mexico in 1519 and shrunk the local population by about 90% within 50 years. 3 million people died!
typhus a bacterial disease that caused Napoleon to lose more of his troops than any other cause when he invaded Russia.
environmental microbiology the study of how microorganisms affect the earth and its atmosphere
industrial microbiology the use of microbes to make and preserve food, now we are able to process food, make a variety of useful materials (vitamins, antibiotics, and other pharmaceuticals)
agricultural microbiology the use of microbes to largely protect livestock and crop plants from microbial diseases, pesticides, maintain soil fertility
Careers in microbiology research to find new microorganisms, new microbial activities, and new relationships among microorganisms
six subgroups of microbiology bacteria, archaea, algae, fungi, protozoa, and viruses...the only thing that links these subgroups is their small size. The reason they are all grouped together is because techniqes for identifying, cultivating and studying the groups are similar. a primary distinction is cell structure
prokaryotes "before a nucleus." their cells lack internal membrane bound structures
eukaryotes "true nucleus." their cells contain a membrane-bound nucleus as well as numerous other mermbrane bound structures called organelles.
acellular not a cell, but merely a packet of nucleic acid (the chemical form of genetic information) wrapped in a coat, usually made of protein. one example is a virus
bacteria prokaryotic cell structure, filled with a uniform grainy material; unicellular; quite small...about 1/1000 the volume of a typical eukaryotic cell; highly diverse, some are motile, some process organic compounds for energy, some are photosynthetic, some process inorganic materials (S and Fe) for energy, grow in a variety of different conditions; cause a variety of diseases
archaea ancient bacteria. distantly related to bacteria. discovered to be a separate group of microorganisms in the 1970s. superficially they resemble bacteria. small prokaryotic cells that occur singly. many live in hostile environments that would be deadly to most living things. one major group makes methane, none of these are human pathogens.
algae eukaryotic, carry out photosynthesis, they have a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles, including chloroplasts, unicellular and microscopic (phytoplankton) while others consist of many cells and are macroscopic (kelp),
fungi include mushrooms, yeast, mold. eukaryotic, nonphotosynthetic, micro/macroscopic, most are scavengers and decompose dead organisms, a few are pathogenic to humans, many are pathogenic to plants, mycelium,
mycelium a structure that most fungi grow in. they grow as multibranched tubes which make up this structure...mushrooms are the aboveground structures formed from an extensive underground _____.
yeast unicellular fungi
molds primitive fungi that infect plants but rarely humans.
protozoa "first animal", superficially they are animal like, are nonphotosynthetic, usually motile, microscopic, height of unicellular complexity, cause diseases (malaria, African sleeping sickness)
amoebae the class of protozoa that move by extending tubelike structures called pseudopods
flagellates the class of protozoa that move by the waving of long flagella
ciliates the class of protozoa that move by the bearing of short hairlike extensions of cilia
parasitic diseases protozoan- and helminth- caused diseases....although in fact every infectious disease is a case of parasitism ( a relationship in which one organism benefits at the expense of another)
parasitology the study of protozoan- and helminth-caused diseases
viruses not cells, particles of nucleic acid (either RNA or DNA) packaged in a protein coat and sometimes surrounded by a membrane; are incapable of reproducing themselves, they can reproduce only inside a host cell...they are obligate intracellular parasites; can infect animals, plants and even other microorganisms; are extremely small, even compared with bacteria, the largest are about 1/10 the typical size of a bacterium and the smallest are about 1/1000 the size; can cause major diseases in plants, humans, and other animals (smallpox, yellow fever, polio, AIDS)
prions chemically and structurally simpler than viruses, these are very simple infectious agents. they are xomposed exclusively of protein, their reproduction is not understood, but they cause rare neurological diseases in humans, cattle, and sheep.
helminths worms, belong in the animal kingdom, most are macroscopic, studies in microbiology because they often cause infectious disease. two types are roundworms (hookworms and Trichinella, which is aquired by humans from eating contaminated pork) and flatworms (beef tapeworms, liver flukes)
Antony van Leeuwenhoek a Dutch merchant, made small hand-held microscope as a hobby. he discovered tiny animals living on a pin. He jealously guarded his simple, single-lens microscopes; refusing to sell them or teach others how to make them. it wasn't for another 200 years that a superior microscope was developed
spontaneous generation the formation of living things from inanimate matter. this was thought to be the origin of many organisms (rats and flies) that routinely appeared in certain materials
Louis Pasteur a microbiologist whi used barriers that allowed free passage of air but not microorganisms. in his most famous experiment, he boiled meat broth in a flask and then curved the neck of the flask in a flame. He proved that spontaneous generation of microbes does not occur even in the presence of air. His experiment was simple and elegant. Microorganisms could now be studied by rational scientific means.
endospores highly heat resistant bacterial structures that are not killed by boiling. the cause of many previously failed attempts at disproving spontaneous generation of microbes. Plant broths usually carry bacterial endospores....but meat broths rarely do.
Robert Koch a German Physician, building on Pasteur's work, was able to prove that microorganisms (aka germs) cause disease. He proved that specific microorganisms cause specific diseases. he also introducedhigher scientific rigor to microbiology. he also developed a technique to ontain a pure culture of a bacteria.
Koch's postulates four steps, that upon completion, will provide absolute proof that a particular microorganism causes a particular disease
immunity one branch of medical microbiology that specializes in stimulating the body's own ability to combat infection
public hygiene one branch of medical microbiology that specializes in promoting cleanliness and reducing exposure to disease-causing microorganisms.
Edward Jenner an English physician who noticed that dairymaids who had naturally contracted a mild infection called cowpox seemed to be protected against smallpox....a horribly disfiguring disease and a a major killer. So he created a vaccination.
vaccination aka immunization, a technique of inducing immunity
vaccine the agent that induces such immunity, in Jenner's case, it was the extract of cowpox blisters
attenuated weakened. this is how to describe the disease-causing organisms that Pasteur cultured (near lethal temperature) for use in vaccinations. these strains would lose the ability to cause disease, but they could still confer immunity.
chemotherapy treatment of disease with chemicals called drugs. a major microbiologic advancement during the 1900s. now allowed the microbiologists the ability to treat infections once they had started.
Paul Ehrlich the father of chemotherapy because he articulated selective toxicity
selective toxicity a guiding principle of Paul Ehrlich, in order for a drug to be effective against infection, it must be deadly or inhibitory to the infecting microorganism but relatively harmless to the affected human.
Synthetic drugs organic chemicals manufactured in the laboratory that come into widespread clinical use
antibiotics chemotherapeutic agents that are produced by microorganisms were discovered at the same time as sulfa drugs, but these proved to be much more effective.
Alexander Fleming the microbiologist who, in 1929, discovered the first useful antibiotic, penicillin. the availability of penicillin in the 1940s, during the WWII, gave penicillin the title "wonder drug"
Dmitri Iwanowski a Russian microbiologist, discovered that viruses existed. He filtered the bacteria out of the juice from a diseased tobacco plant, but he found that the filtered juice still caused disease. He called these tiny disease causing agents "filterable viruses"...they could not be seen under the most powerful microscopes of that time, not until 1930.
genetic engineering aka recombinant DNA technology. intensive laboratory studeies on microorganisms have led to the development of a remarkable set of techniques
bioremediation the use of microorganisms to degrade toxic chemicals, a key in environmental microbiology to clean up our environment

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Created September 10, 2007
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nicholhm : Changed Henando Cotes → a spaniard who brought ravages of dieases from Europe to mexico in 1519 and shrunk the local population by about 90% within 50 years. 3 million people died! to Hernando Cotes → a spaniard who brought ravages of dieases from Europe to mexico in 1519 and shrunk the local population by about 90% within 50 years. 3 million people died!
nicholhm : Changed microbes → the study of microorganisms or living things that are too small to be seen by the unaided eye. They maintain our environment, industrial tools, or can harm our crops and livestock and can even make us ill or dead! to microbes → microorganisms or living things that are too small to be seen by the unaided eye. They maintain our environment, industrial tools, or can harm our crops and livestock and can even make us ill or dead!
nicholhm : Changed Hernando Cotes → a spaniard who brought ravages of dieases from Europe to mexico in 1519 and shrunk the local population by about 90% within 50 years. 3 million people died! to Hernando Cortes → a spaniard who brought ravages of dieases from Europe to mexico in 1519 and shrunk the local population by about 90% within 50 years. 3 million people died!
nicholhm : Changed immmunity → one branch of medical microbiology that specializes in stimulating the body's own ability to combat infection to immunity → one branch of medical microbiology that specializes in stimulating the body's own ability to combat infection
nicholhm : Changed viruses → not cells, particles of nucleic acid (either RNA or DNA) packaged in a protein coat and sometimes surrounded by a membrane; are incapable of reproducing themselves, they can reproduce only inside a host cell...they are obligate intracellular parasites); can infect animals, plants and even other microorganisms; viruses are extremely small, even compared with bacteria, the largest viruses are about 1/10th the typical size of a bacterium and the smallest are about 1/1000 the size; can cause major diseases in plants, humans, and other animals (smallpox, yellow fever, polio, AIDS to viruses → not cells, particles of nucleic acid (either RNA or DNA) packaged in a protein coat and sometimes surrounded by a membrane; are incapable of reproducing themselves, they can reproduce only inside a host cell...they are obligate intracellular parasites; can infect animals, plants and even other microorganisms; are extremely small, even compared with bacteria, the largest are about 1/10 the typical size of a bacterium and the smallest are about 1/1000 the size; can cause major diseases in plants, humans, and other animals (smallpox, yellow fever, polio, AIDS)
nicholhm : Changed Dimitri Iwanowski → a Russian microbiologist, discovered that viruses existed. He filtered the bacteria out of the juice from a diseased tobacco plant, but he found that the filtered juice still caused disease. He called these tiny disease causing agents "filterable viruses"...they could not be seen under the most powerful microscopes of that time, not until 1930. to Dmitri Iwanowski → a Russian microbiologist, discovered that viruses existed. He filtered the bacteria out of the juice from a diseased tobacco plant, but he found that the filtered juice still caused disease. He called these tiny disease causing agents "filterable viruses"...they could not be seen under the most powerful microscopes of that time, not until 1930.
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Most Missed Words

  1. acellular → not a cell, but merely a packet of nucleic acid (the chemical form of genetic information) wrapped in a coat, usually made of protein. one example is a virus - 6 misses
  2. Paul Ehrlich → the father of chemotherapy because he articulated selective toxicity - 5 misses
  3. Louis Pasteur → a microbiologist whi used barriers that allowed free passage of air but not microorganisms. in his most famous experiment, he boiled meat broth in a flask and then curved the neck of the flask in a flame. He proved that spontaneous generation of microbes does not occur even in the presence of air. His experiment was simple and elegant. Microorganisms could now be studied by rational scientific means. - 4 misses
  4. Alexander Fleming → the microbiologist who, in 1929, discovered the first useful antibiotic, penicillin. the availability of penicillin in the 1940s, during the WWII, gave penicillin the title "wonder drug" - 4 misses
  5. Dmitri Iwanowski → a Russian microbiologist, discovered that viruses existed. He filtered the bacteria out of the juice from a diseased tobacco plant, but he found that the filtered juice still caused disease. He called these tiny disease causing agents "filterable viruses"...they could not be seen under the most powerful microscopes of that time, not until 1930. - 4 misses
  6. buboes → swolen lymph glands - 3 misses
  7. six subgroups of microbiology → bacteria, archaea, algae, fungi, protozoa, and viruses...the only thing that links these subgroups is their small size. The reason they are all grouped together is because techniqes for identifying, cultivating and studying the groups are similar. a primary distinction is cell structure - 3 misses