Microbial World Flashcards
What is microbiology?
The study of microorganisms which cannot be seen with the naked eye
What are some differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells?
Prokaryotes: No nucleus singular DNA Cell walls contain peptidoglycan divide by binary fission
Eukaryotes: Nucleus DNA double strands in chromosomes membrane bound organelles mitosis
What is the germ theory?
micro-organisms are the causes of many diseases
What research did Jenner carry out?
Smallpox- if vaccinated with cowpox you couldn’t get small pox
What did Ignaz Semmelweis discover?
the incidence of puerperal fever decreased by hand washing
What did John Snow discover?
Cholera was transmitted by infected water
What did Louis Pasteur discover?
- showed that bacteria were responsible for food spoilage
- invented pasteurisation
- proposed use of antiseptics to prevent infection
What did Joseph Lister discover?
-used carboxylic acid to fight infections
What did Alexander Fleming discover?
penicillin
What did Bayer discover?
prontosil, first commercially available antibiotic which was effective against some gram positive bacteria
Why are antifungals hard to develop?
fungi are eukaryotic so selective toxicity is harder to achieve
Why are antivirals hard to produce?
viruses have small genomes so few drug targets which are often highly mutable so resistance is a problem
-tend to inhibit virus life cycle rather than killing it
What have genomes allowed us to investigate?
Evolution
What is metagenomics?
the study of a community based on the DNA present and does not rely on culturing strains
What are the classifications of bacteria?
Gram posititve
Gram negative
