lecture3 and 4 Flashcards
microbial growth (79 cards)
How can bacteria and archaea reproduce?
- binary fission (one cell becomes two through asexual reproduction) - parents stay
- budding or multiple fission ( divides into multiple equal-sized daughter cells and parents breakaway)
What is growth?
What does it refer to?
how can growth be measured?
- increase in cells that is caused by an increase in cell size and number
- this refers to population growth
- spectrophotometer (measures light at different wavelengths - only an issue when solution becomes too dense, so it’ll compete)
- The proper way is to dilute and do serial dilution
- when is a microbial growth curve observed?
what is a batch culture
- when microbes are grown in liquid culture
- growth of microbes in a closed culture vessel with a single batch of medium (w/o adding fresh or removing
old medium
what are the five phases of a microbial growth curve?
- Lag phase (slow increase)
- exponential phase (increase)
- stationary phase (plateau)
- death phase: decrease
- long term stationary phase- up and down
what happens during the lag phase?
- cells synthesize new components, replicate DNA, divide
What happens during the exponential phase?
- the rate of growth and division is constant and maximal, and cells grow as quickly as they can for conditions available (increase)
What happens in the stationary phase?
- in a closed system, growth eventually seizes
- nutrient limitation, O2 availability, toxic waste accumulation
- total number of viable cells remains constant
What happens during the death phase?
- # of viable cells declines exponentially, with cells dying at a constant rate
- nutrient deprivation and the build-up of toxic wastes cause irreparable harm to the cells (decrease)
What is the long-term stationary phase?
- bacterial population continually evolves
- successive wave of genetic distinct variants
- natural selection occurs within the single culture
growth rate calculations
k:
No:
Nt:
n:
g:
k: number of generations
No: initial pop number
Nt: population at the time
n: number of generations in time
g: generation time
binary fission formula
Nt=No x 2^n
k = n/g
n = logNt - logNo
g = log2(T)
What are the four environmental factors that influence growth?
- osmosis
- pH
- temperature
- oxygen concentration
How do solutes affect osmosis and water activity?
what kind of environment does a microbe prefer?
- changes in osmotic concentrations in the environment might affect the cell
- hypotonic because they are protected by a cell wall that will prevent overexpansion of the plasma membrane
What are two mechanisms that a microbe does to lower its solute concentration in the cytoplasm?
- MS (mechanosensitivity) channels in plasma membrane to allow solutes to leave
- protists use contractile vacuoles to expel excess water
what salt concentration do halophiles and extreme halophiles prefer? what is salt in and salt out?
- H: 0.2 M, and E: 3-6.2 M
- salt in K and Cl in the cytoplasm; proteins need high salt levels
- salt out: blocks uptake
what is pH?
What pH can acidophiles and alkaliphiles grow optimally in?
How can microorganisms respond to external pH changes?
- measures the acidity of the solution ( negative log of H ions in the concentration)
- Acid: 0-5.5 and Alk 8 -11.5
- by using mechanisms that maintain a neutral cytoplasmic pH
why is regulating temperature an issue for microbes?
- they cannot regulate their internal temperature so they cannot build against heat like how pH and solutes can
- enzymes have optimal temperature
how do proteins stabilize against temperature?
- more H-bonds, more proline (less flexible peptides) , chaperons (helps protein bind to its structure)
how do membranes stabilize against temeprature?
- more saturated, more branched and higher molecular weight
- ether linkage and resistance to hydrolysis
psychrophiles
0-20 C
psychrotrophic
0-35
mesophiles
20-45
thermophiles
45-85
hyperthermophiles
85-100