Exam 1 Study Guide Flashcards
Chapters 1-5, 7
List the top three cause of death in the US. Describe how the role of microbes has changed in the last 100 years.
- Heart diseases
- Cancer
- stroke
- In the last 100 years, microbes used to be the main cause of death, but now, because of clean water and no sewage contamination, vaccination, discovery of antibiotics by Alexander Flemming
what were the first living creatures on planet earth?
- microbes are the first living creatures on planet earth
- microbes are more diverse than plants and animals
- more abundant than any other living thing
where do microbes grow?
- in every ecological niche on earth that has a source of liquid H2O
what effect do microbes have on the environment?
- they can transform the geosphere
- Can affect the climate by production/use of CO2, N2, O2, and CH4
- Participate in symbiotic relationships with other organisms
what are microbes involvement in diseases?
- only a small fraction of microbes cause diseases
- diseases caused by microbes are called “infectious diseases”
where in the human body can bacteria be found?
- colonization can only occur at body sites that provide nutrients and the right environment for the microbes to flourish
- can live stably in/on the human body
when do microbiota start to collect in the human body and how long do they stay?
- begin to acquire as newborns
- may colonize the body indefinitely
- may colonize the body fleetingly
how does microbiota help the body?
- normal microbiotas prevent growth of pathogens
- normal microbiotas produce growth factors such as vitamins B and K
- may help train the immune system to discriminate threats
swan-neck flask experiments
Louis Pasteur had swan-neck flasks that once the solution was boiled within them, no new growth occurred. But, if they were broken, then microbial growth did occur. He learned that no new growth occurred was because all the dust and germs from the air were trapped in the neck instead of in the solution. This helped to develop a new way to keep solutions sterile.
disproved theory of spontaneous generation
- Spontaneous generation: living organisms could develop from nonliving matter
- Challenged multiple times: Francesco Redi in covering meat; when they were covered, no maggots, when they were open, there were maggots.
- Lazzaro Spallanzani: boiling water in a flask prevented microbial growth, concluded that germs must be in the air
- Swan-neck experiments
- John Tyndall & Ferdinand Cohn: broth was sterile even when exposed to air, proved that dust had germs in it
yeast fermentation to make alcohol
- Louis Pasteur proved that fermentations were carried out by living organisms and not by the degradation of sugars from chemical instability
- Specific yeasts and bacteria have to do with fermentation
- Beet sugars: yeast was replaced with bacteria
- Wine in France: contamination of wines by other microbes
pasteurization
Developed by Louis Pasteur, used to heat liquids to destroy microbes, found out when he consulted the wine industry in France
Louis Pasteur
Trained as a chemist, contributed much to the world of microbiology, Developed pasteurization, discovered fermentation was done by specific yeasts and bacteria, developed a vaccine after discovering attenuated bacteria could not cause disease and developed the anthrax and rabies vaccines, and disproved spontaneous generation through the swan-neck experiments
Antony van Leeuwenhoek
In 1673, he constructed simple microscopes composed of double convex glass lenses held between two silver plates. These microscopes could magnify 50-300 times and illuminated them by shining a light at a 45 degree angle of the specimen plane (dark field illumination).
Edward Jenner
Pasteur named attenuated bacteria a vaccine (vacca meaning cow) after Jenner because he used material from cowpox lesions to protect people against smallpox.
Ignaz Semmelweis
First person to realize that a pathogen could be transmitted from one person to another (1847-1848). Found that doctors and medical students were infecting pregnant women with fluids from other procedures due to a lack of hand washing. Pioneer of antisepsis in obstetrics.
Robert Koch
- Developed the first demonstration that bacteria can cause disease, mycobacterium tuberculosis can cause TB, developed pure culture methods using agar,
- Developed Koch’s postulates
etiology of anthrax
- The first direct demonstration that bacteria could cause disease came from Koch’s study of anthrax, realizing that Bacillus anthracis caused anthrax outbreaks
- Pasteur and Chamberland later developed a vaccine for it
what are Koch’s postulates
- The microorganism must be present in every case of the disease but absent from healthy organisms
- The suspected microorganisms must be isolated and grown in a pure culture
- The same disease must result when the isolated microorganism is inoculated into a healthy host
- The same microorganism must be isolated again from the diseased host
John Snow
- Discovered the cause of cholera was from unwashed hands and shared foods and not by bad air. Also found that the Broad street pump was contaminated, which was causing people to get the disease.
Alexander Flemming
- In 1929, he rediscovered the fungus penicillium that produced penicillin. It was the first antibiotic that could successfully control bacterial infections
- It was mass produced by WW 2
Paul Ehrlich
- father of antibiotics
- developed arsenic based medication for syphilis
define cell
- the smallest structural and functional unit of an organisms, typically microscopic and consisting of cytoplasm and nucleus enclosed in a membrane, can be eukaryotic or prokaryotic
- Made of molecules, those molecules are used to create structure, and that structure performs a function
define microbe
entities that cannot be seen with the naked eye
- need magnification to see them