1. Intro

Question 1

What is environmental microbiology?

Answer 1

It is concerned with the broader scale impacts of microbial presence and activities. It is the study of micro organisms that inhabit the earth and their roles in carrying out processes in both natural and man-made systems.

Question 2

Define vertical descent.

Answer 2

Offspring inherit the genetic traits of their parents.

Question 3

What are characteristics of an evolutionarily indicator/chronometer?

Answer 3

Structure should be found in all forms of life, structure should be able to accommodate variation overtime without loss or change in function, and changes in the structural features should be amenable to numerical description.

Question 4

Why was SSU rRNA used as an indicator?

Answer 4

Ribosomes are found in all forms of life, the structure of SSU rRNA was already known to exhibit differences between organisms without loss of ribosomal function, and differences between the nucleotide sequence of different SSU rRNA molecules could be reduced to a number.

Question 5

What are some difficulties with phylogenic tree building?

Answer 5

Some changes in variable regions involve deletion or insertion of nucleotides which makes alignment a variable regions difficult, different organisms have different reproductive cycles (more mutations vs less), and there is also the issue of what type of computer data analysis to use.

Question 6

Define bacterial/archaeal species.

Answer 6

A collection of organisms characterized by a high degree of similarity in nucleotide sequences of their genomes in the phenotypic properties.

Question 7

What are the three major phyla?

Answer 7

Proteobacteria, actinobacteria, firmicutes

Question 8

What is a pure culture?

Answer 8

A population of a single kind of bacteria or archaea free of unwanted organisms.

Question 9

What do you need in order to isolate a pure culture?

Answer 9

A nutrient medium, a way to ensure the nutrient medium is sterile, and a way of separating individual organisms from each other.

Question 10

Describe the process of using a wire loop.

Answer 10

Sterilize the loop with heat, dip the loop in a sample containing microbes, drag it over the surface of the agar-solidified nutrient medium. Isolated colonies will form near the end.