micropara prelim

• Cell wall


  Feature that helps distinguish a plant cell from an animal cell
• Nucleus


  Feature that helps distinguish a plant cell from an animal cell
• Matter- Anything that takes up space and has a weight; composed of elements
• Microbiology


  The study of microbes. Individual microbes can be observed only with the use of various types of microscopes.
• Major categories of Microbes

  • Acellular microbes (also called infectious particles)
  • Cellular microbes (also called microorganisms)
• Microbes are said to be ubiquitous, meaning they are virtually everywhere
• Acellular microbes


  • Viruses
  • Prions
• Cellular microbes


  • Bacteria
  • Archaea
  • Some algae
  • All protozoa
  • Some fungi
• Indigenous microflora (or indigenous microbiota)


  The microbes living on and in our bodies
• We have, living on and in our bodies, approximately 10 times as many microbes as the total number of cells that make up our bodies
• Perhaps as many as 500 to 1,000 different species of microbes live on and in us
• Pathogens


  Microbes that cause disease
• Nonpathogens


  Microbes that do not cause disease
• Opportunistic pathogens


  Microbes that usually do not cause us any problems, but have the potential to cause infections if they gain access to a part of our anatomy where they do not belong
• Opportunistic pathogens can be thought of as microbes awaiting the opportunity to cause disease
• Microbes are essential for life on this planet as we know it. For example, some microbes produce oxygen by the process known as photosynthesis.
• Decomposers or saprophytes


  Microbes involved in the decomposition of dead organisms and the waste products of living organisms
• Microbes are involved in elemental cycles, such as the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorous cycles
• Algae and bacteria serve as food for tiny animals. Then, larger animals eat the smaller creatures, and so on. Thus, microbes serve as important links in food chains.
• Phytoplankton


  Tiny marine plants and algae
• Zooplankton


  Tiny marine animals
• The Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago and, for the first 800 million to 1 billion years of Earth's existence, there was no life on this planet
• Fossils of primitive microbes (as many as 11 different types) found in ancient rock formations in northwestern Australia date back to about 3.5 billion years ago
• Candidates for the first microbes on Earth

  • Archaea
  • Cyanobacteria
• Animals made their appearance on Earth between 900 and 650 million years ago, and, in their present form, humans (Homo sapiens) have existed for only the past 100,000 years or so
• Infectious diseases of humans and animals have existed for as long as humans and animals have inhabited the planet
• Diseases observed in mummies and early human fossils

  • Bacterial diseases (e.g. tuberculosis, syphilis)
  • Parasitic worm infections (e.g. schistosomiasis, dracunculiasis, tapeworm infections)
• The earliest known account of a "pestilence" occurred in Egypt about 3180 BC
• Around 1900 BC, near the end of the Trojan War, the Greek army was decimated by an epidemic of what is thought to have been bubonic plague
• Early accounts of diseases

  • Rabies
  • Anthrax
  • Dysentery
  • Smallpox
  • Ergotism
  • Botulism
  • Measles
  • Typhoid fever
  • Typhus fever
  • Diphtheria
  • Syphilis
• Syphilis made its first appearance in Europe in 1493. Many people believe that syphilis was carried to Europe by Native Americans who were brought to Portugal by Christopher Columbus
• The green colour of leaves is due to the presence of the pigment chlorophyll
• true or false. All the cells have a nucleus?

  true
• Cells of a tissue have similar structure
• In unicellular organisms, cells respire and reproduce
• Saprophyte


  An organism that lives on dead or decaying organic matter
• Microbiologist


  A scientist who studies microbes. He or she might have a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree in microbiology.
• Career fields within microbiology

  • Bacteriologist
  • Phycologists or Algologist
  • Protozoologist
  • Mycologist
  • Virologist
• Clinical microbiology or diagnostic microbiology


  A branch of medical microbiology concerned with the laboratory diagnosis of infectious diseases of humans
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek was the first person to see live bacteria and protozoa, and is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Microbiology", the "Father of Bacteriology", and the "Father of Protozoology"