VO 1 microbiology

• Microbiology is the scientific study of microorganisms, including unicellular, multicellular, or acellular organisms.
• Microbiology encompasses sub-disciplines such as virology, bacteriology, protistology, mycology, immunology, and parasitology.
• Archaea have a cell wall structure that includes pseudopeptidoglycan and S-layers.
• Gram staining is a method used to differentiate between gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria based on the cell wall structure.
• Penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) are responsible for the synthesis of peptidoglycan in bacterial cell walls.
• Microbes are the origin of all forms of life and are phylogenetically more diverse than plants or animals.
• The phylogenetic tree categorizes organisms into three domains: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya.
• Louis Pasteur is known as the "Father of Microbiology" and made significant contributions to the field.
• Robert Koch developed Koch's postulates, a method for proving cause and effect in infectious diseases.
• Ruminant animals rely on microbes to digest their food.
• Microbes compose the majority of biomass on Earth and can grow everywhere if water is available, mainly under the Earth's surface.
• Microbes are essential for the food chain, affect climate, cause diseases, and can be symbionts with animals, humans, and other microbes.
• Not all microbes are harmful; most are beneficial and play important roles in human life and health.
• Microbes can cause various health problems and infectious diseases in humans.
• The mutualistic symbiosis between nitrogen-fixing bacteria and leguminous plants is an example of the positive impact of microbes on agriculture.
• Examples of microbe-related health problems include infantile diarrhea, severe anemia, acute and chronic diarrhea, hemorrhagic fever, Legionnaire's disease, toxic shock syndrome, Lyme disease, AIDS, peptic ulcer disease, and liver infections.
• Industrial microbiology involves the use of microorganisms to produce various products.
• Ruminant animals, such as cows, have a complex system of stomachs that harbor microorganisms which help in the digestion of tough plant material.
• All other organisms in the phylogenetic tree are microorganisms.
• The size of microorganisms is inversely proportional to the ratio of surface area to volume in cells.
• Prokaryotic cells differ from eukaryotic cells in terms of their structure and organization.
• Hyperthermophiles are prokaryotes that reach their optimal growth at a temperature of 80 °C or higher.
• The metabolism of a cell is inversely proportional to its size.
• The ultrastructure of bacteria can be observed through transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images.
• Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) is credited with the discovery of cellular life through his observations of microorganisms.
• The morphology of prokaryotes includes different shapes such as cocci, rods, spirals, spirochetes, budding, and filamentous.
• Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing is used to analyze the differences in rRNA sequence between organisms and generate a phylogenetic tree.
• The groups highlighted in red on the phylogenetic tree are macroorganisms.
• Infectious diseases were the leading cause of death in 1900, whereas they are less significant today
• Microbial Diseases transmitted from person-to-person
• Pathogenic microorganisms have greatly affected human populations throughout our existence
• Archaeal membranes have glycerol diethers or diglycerol tetraethers as their main lipids, with hydrocarbons attached to glycerol by ether linkages.
• Gram-positive bacteria have a thick cell wall composed of several peptidoglycan layers with teichoic acids.
• The structure of peptidoglycan in Archaeal Pseudopeptidoglycan is similar to that of peptidoglycan in bacteria, with peptide crosslinks between N-acetyltalosaminuronic acid residues.
• The gram-negative envelope contains hydrophobic lipopolysaccharides, and the stability of the lipopolysaccharide layer is maintained by Ca2+ ions.
• The cytoplasmic membrane of bacteria and archaea has various import mechanisms, including passive diffusion, facilitated diffusion, and active transport.
• Capsules in bacteria are mostly composed of polysaccharides, while the capsule of species of Bacillus is composed of protein.
• The cytoplasmic membrane of bacteria and archaea is a phospholipid bilayer that adapts its composition to maintain membrane fluidity.
• Bacteria have surface structures such as flagella, fimbriae, pili, and capsules, which serve different functions like motility, attachment, and colonization of host cells.
• The S-layer in Aquaspirillum serpens, a gram-negative bacteria, exhibits hexagonal symmetry and is part of the cell wall structure.