Lecture 10: Classification of Microorganisms

Question 1

What is Taxonomy?

Answer 1

science of classifying organisms

Question 2

What is systematics, or phylogeny?

Answer 2

study of evolutionary history of organisms

Question 3

What did Linnaeus do in 1735?

Answer 3

founded the two kingdoms Plantae and Animalia

Question 4

What did Murray do in 1968?

Answer 4

founded the kingdom Prokarotae

Question 5

What did Whittaker do in 1969?

Answer 5

founded 5 kingdom system

Question 6

Who founded the 3 domain system?

Answer 6

Woese in 1978

Question 7

How did Eukaryotes originate?

Answer 7

from infoldings or prokaryotic plasma membranes

Question 8

What are the three domains?

Answer 8

Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya

Question 9

Eukaryotic cells: DNA, Histones, First amino acid in protein synthesis, ribosomes, growth

Answer 9

dna: linear
histones: yes
first amino acid: methionine
ribosomes: 80S
growth: mitosis

Question 10

Prokaryotic cells: DNA, Histones, First amino acid in protein synthesis, ribosomes, growth

Answer 10

dna: one circular; some two circualr; some linear
histones: in archaea
first amino acid: formylmethionine (bacteria) methionine (archaea)
ribosomes: 70s
growth: binary fission

Question 11

What is Binomial Nomenclature? What does it consist of?

Answer 11

used to consistently and accurately name organisms
- genus
- specific epithet
- always italicized

Question 12

What is the Taxonomic Hierarchy?

Answer 12

series of subdivisions developed by Linnaeus to classify plants and animals

Question 13

What is the eukaryotic species?

Answer 13

group of closely related organisms that breed among themselves

Question 14

What is the prokaryotic species?

Answer 14

population of cells with similar characteristics

Question 15

What are 3 different ways cells are grown?

Answer 15

culture - bacteria grown in lab media
clone - population of cells derived fro a single parent cell
strain - genetically different cells within a clone

Question 16

What are the different classifications of eukaryotes? define them.

Answer 16

protista - catchall kingdom for variety of organisms
fungi - chemoheterotrophic; uni/multicellular; cells walls of chitin; develop from spores or hyphal fragments
plantae - multicellular; cellulose cell walls; undergo photosynthesis
animalia - multicellular; no cell walls; chemoheterotrophic

Question 17

How are viruses classified?

Answer 17

• not part of any domain

Question 18

What is a viral species?

Answer 18

population of viruses w/ similar characteristics that occupies a particular ecological niche

Question 19

Classification vs Identification

Answer 19

placing organisms in groups of related species
- matching characteristics of unknown organisms to lists of known organisms

Question 20

Are gram staining and acid-fast staining useful for bacteria without cell walls?

Answer 20

no

Question 21

What are biochemical tests?

Answer 21

determine presence of bacterial enzymes

Question 22

What are rapid identification methods?

Answer 22

perform several biochemical tests simultaneously

Question 23

What is an automated rapid identification system?

Answer 23

cellular proteins are detected by mass spetrophotometry create a spectrum that can be compared to a database

Question 24

What is serology?

Answer 24

science that studies serum and immune responses

Question 25

What is an antiserum?

Answer 25

solution of antibodies is tested against an unknown bacterium

Question 26

What is a slide agglutination test?

Answer 26

bacteria agglutinate when mixed with antibodies produced in response to bacteria

Question 27

What is serological testing

Answer 27

can differentiate between species and strains within species

Question 28

What is enzyme linker immunosorbent assay (ELISA)?

Answer 28

known antibodies and an unknown type of bacterium are added to a well; reaction identifies bacteria

Question 29

What is western blotting?

Answer 29

identifies antibodies in a patients serum; confirms hiv & lyme disease

Question 30

What is phage typing?

Answer 30

test for determining which phages a bacterium is susceptible to

Question 31

Define Flow Cytometry

Answer 31

uses differences in electrical conductivity between species and fluorescence

Question 32

When is Flow cytometry used?

Answer 32

used to identify bacteria without culturing bacteria

Question 33

What is DNA base composition?

Answer 33

the moles-percentage of guanine plus cytosine in an organisms DNA

Question 34

What is DNA fingerprinting?

Answer 34

analysis of DNA by electrophoresis of restriction enzyme fragments of the DNA

Question 35

What is nucleic acid hybridization?

Answer 35

process of combining single complementary strands of DNA

Question 36

What is the process of nucleic acid hybridization?

Answer 36

1) heat to separate strands 2) combine single strands of dna 3) cool to allow renaturation of double stranded dna 4) determine degree of hybridization

Question 37

What are dichotomous keys?

Answer 37

identification keys based on successive questions

Question 38

Wha are cladograms?

Answer 38

maps that show evolutionary relationships among organisms; base don rRNA sequences