microbiology

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    • Microbiologists study microscopic life forms and processes, including bacteria, algae, fungi, and some parasites and their vectors
    • Microbiologists aim to solve health, environmental, climate, and food and agriculture problems by understanding microbes
    • Micro-organisms include bacteria, fungi, protoctista, and viruses
    • Bacteria and fungi decay dead organisms, releasing and recycling nutrients
    • Some bacteria are pathogens and cause disease, while others are beneficial
    • Bacteria reproduce asexually by binary fission
    • The human body contains approximately one hundred trillion bacteria
    • Bacteria can be distinguished by their size, shape, staining characteristics, metabolic features, antigenic features, and genetic features
    • Bacteria sizes vary but are usually 1-10 µm in length
    • Bacteria can be classified by shape: Coccus (spherical), Bacillus (rod-shaped), Spirillum (spiral/comma/corkscrew)
    • Bacteria can be classified by metabolic features and antigenic features
    • Gram staining technique distinguishes between Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria based on cell wall composition
    • Gram positive bacteria have a thick peptidoglycan cell wall and appear purple, while Gram negative bacteria have a thin peptidoglycan cell wall and appear red
    • Bacteria can undergo binary fission and reproduce quickly in suitable environments
    • Bacteria require specific conditions for growth including pH, oxygen requirement, temperature, and nutrients
    • Obligate aerobes require oxygen, obligate anaerobes cannot survive with oxygen, and facultative anaerobes can survive with or without oxygen
    • Clostridium perfringens are obligate anaerobes that grow in wounds and produce toxins causing gas gangrene
    • Bacteria can use different substrates for respiration and release energy to synthesise ATP
    • Aerobic and anaerobic respiration have similarities in glycolysis but differ in the final electron acceptor
    • Tubes can represent cultures of obligate anaerobes, facultative anaerobes, and obligate aerobes based on oxygen requirements
    • Glycolysis produces 2 ATP and 2 NADH/H+
    • Alcoholic fermentation and aerobic respiration both produce CO2
    • Differences between aerobic respiration and anaerobic respiration:
      • Aerobic respiration uses O2 as the final electron acceptor, but anaerobic respiration does not
      • Aerobic respiration includes the link reaction, Krebs cycle, and ETC (oxidative phosphorylation) inside mitochondria, while anaerobic respiration does not
    • Different substances and their pathways:
      • Glucose enters glycolysis
      • Fatty acids convert to acetyl-CoA that enters the Krebs cycle
      • Glycerol enters glycolysis as triose phosphate
      • Amino acids enter the Krebs cycle
    • Aseptic techniques:
      • Purpose: prevent contamination of pure culture by microbes from the environment
      • Sterilize all media and equipment before use
      • Handle cultures carefully, flaming the neck of culture bottles before opening and closing
    • Sterilization methods:
      • Plastic equipment sterilized by gamma irradiation before use
      • Autoclave preferred method for sterilizing glassware and metal equipment
      • Autoclave process: sealed vessel, heated to 121°C in steam under high pressure for 15 minutes
    • Measuring microbial growth:
      • Importance of estimating population growth
      • Methods: directly counting cells (total cell count, total viable count) and indirectly measuring turbidity
    • Directly counting cells:
      • Plating and counting colonies
      • Serial dilution technique for total viable count
      • Inaccuracies in serial dilution: under-dilution leads to clumping, over-dilution results in too few colonies for accurate counting
    • Indirectly counting cells:
      • Turbidimetry measures turbidity of culture as cell numbers increase
      • Colorimeter used to measure absorbance for total cell count
    • Prokaryotae is the Kingdom that bacteria are found in
    • Different shapes of bacteria include:
      • Coccus: a spherical bacterium
      • Spirillum: a spiral-shaped bacterium
      • Bacillus: a rod-shaped bacterium
    • Gram positive bacteria stain purple due to crystal violet, while gram negative bacteria stain red due to safranin
    • Peptidoglycan is the only component of a gram positive bacterial cell wall
    • Lipopolysaccharide is a layer of the cell wall found only in gram negative bacteria
    • Binary fission is the process by which bacteria divide
    • Different types of bacteria based on oxygen requirements:
      • Obligate aerobe: can only survive and metabolize in the presence of oxygen
      • Obligate anaerobe: can only survive and metabolize in the absence of oxygen
      • Facultative anaerobe: prefer to metabolize in the presence of oxygen, but can metabolize in the absence of oxygen
    • Aseptic technique is the process by which apparatus and equipment are kept free of microorganisms
    • Autoclave is a sealed vessel in which glass and metal equipment are heated to 121°C at high pressure to sterilize them
    • Total cell count is the total number of living and dead cells in a bacterial sample
    • Total viable count is the total number of living cells in a known volume of liquid medium
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