27 Bacteria and Archaea Flashcards
(221 cards)
What is a genus of microorganism that can tolerate wide salt ranges?
Halobacterium, which is actually a archaea
What is Halobacterium?
An archaea genus that can tolerate high levels of salt.
What is the basic premise of the the Gram stain?
It dies peptidoglycan as purple so that bacteria that have it on their plasma membrane can be distinguished from those who do not have it on their plasma membrane
How can bacteria be classed based on how they appear under a Gram stain?
‘Gram-positive bacteria’ and ‘Gram-negative bacteria’
What is the structure of gram-postive bacteria?
The differences lie in the plasma membrane. In Gram positive bacteria the plasma membrane is covered with an external layer of peptidoglycan, which acts a the cell wall.
What is peptidoglycan?
A polymer composed of sugars cross-linked with polypeptides
It is the primary component of bacterial cell walls.
What is the structure of a gram-negative bacteria?
They have a phospholipid membrane bilayer that acts as the plasma membrane.
External to this is a comparatively thin layer of peptidoglycan.
External to this is an outer membrane, which consists of a phospholipid membrane bilayer.
Note that the peptidoglycan layer and the external phospholipid membrane bilayer are collectively called the ‘cell wall.’
Generally speaking, are Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacteria more resistant to antibiotics? Why
Generally Gram-negative bacteria as many antibiotics work by inhibiting the peptidoglycan cross linking (this allows them to not affect human cells, which lack peptidoglycan)
What is the cell wall of a bacterium covered with?
Either a ‘slime layer’ or a ‘capsule’
What is a ’slime layer’?
An outer coating of a bacterium that is not dense or defined like a capsule
What is a ‘capsule’?
An outer coating of a bacterium that is very dense and defined, unlike a ’slime layer’
What can the slime coats/capsules of bacteria be covered with?
Fimbriae or pili
What is a pilus?
The singular form of pili
What are fimbriae?
Hairlike appendages that are shorter and more numerous than ‘pili’
What are ‘pili’?
Appendages that pull to cells together prior to horizontal gene transfer between bacteria.
They are longer but less numerous than fimbriae.
What is a taxis?
A directed movement toward or away from a stimulus.
What is a directed movement towards or away from a stimulus called?
A taxis
What is a positive taxis?
When the bacterium etc. moves towards a stimulus i.e. positive phototaxis towards light
What is the structure of a prokaryotic flagellum?
Embedded in the inner plasma membrane is a ‘motor’ which appears as a set of discs
In the centre of these disks is a ‘rod’ which extends outside the cell wall.
Just outside the cell wall the rod bends to form the ‘hook’. The ‘filament’ is the long trailing tail that extends form the hook
What is exaption?
When evolution repurposes features for other uses.
Where is the DNA of a bacterium located?
In a ’nucleoid’
What is a ’nucleoid’?
A region in a bacterium’s cytosol which holds the chromosome.
Note that it is not membrane bound and is thus loosely defined.
It appears lighter than surrounding areas in an electron microscope
What is a common way that bacteria tolerate changing environmental conditions i.e. periodic drought?
When they lack certain nutrients or during harsh conditions they can become dormant ‘endospores’
What are ‘endospores’?
A dormant form that many bacteria can assume when they lack certain nutrients or under harsh conditions.
The original cell produces a copy of its chromosome and surrounds it with a tough multilayered structure, forming the endospore.
Water is removed from the endospore, and its metabolism halts. The original cell then lyses, releasing the endospore.
When dehydrated they become active bacteria