Microbes Pt1 Lec 1-4

Question 1

What is Taxonomy?

Answer 1

the classification and naming of species based on similarities and differences.
Binomial nomenclature - linnean naming system; system for naming certain species

Question 2

What is the ancromy for taxonomy levels to their actual name

Answer 2

Daring King Philip Came Over For Good Soup

Domain Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species

Question 3

Define a Phylogenetic tree

Answer 3

trees that use lots of evidence to show the relationship between species and their ancestors

Question 4

Define parsimony

Answer 4

Parsimony - the least number of evolutionary changes

Question 5

What are the three main domains?

Answer 5

Eukaryota
Archaea
Bacteria

Question 6

What are the five main kingdoms?

Answer 6

Plantae
Fungi
Animalia
Monera
Protista

Question 7

Define monophyletic

Answer 7

a group of one ancestral species and all the direct descendants of it

Question 8

define paraphyletic

Answer 8

a group from one ancestral species that includes a part of the whole group of direct descendants

Question 9

define polyphletic

Answer 9

some descendants of one ancestral species and different descendant species from a different ancestor.

Question 10

Define biodiversity and why its important:

Answer 10

the amount of different species in a given area, ranging from animals, plants, fungi, and microbes.

A higher biodiversity means a better chance of adaptation and survival as there’s a higher amount of adaptability and variation in morphology

Question 11

Explain the Shannon Wiener Index

Answer 11

A calculation taken that uses the species “richness” and species diversity present in an area; proportional abundance of each species

This shows the relative diversity of an area

Question 12

Name the three types of diveristy and why they measure:

Answer 12

Alpha - the species diversity and richness within a singular habitat

Gamma - total species diversity over a large landscape (forest, or coral reef)

Beta - species diversity difference between two different areas, or the same area from different times.
(this is calculated from gamma diversity divided by alpha diversity)

Question 13

What si the Benefit of Genetic Diversity:

Answer 13

more material for natural selection
high varied morphology increases ability of species to resist change

Question 14

explain the term microorganism and waht it is and what it is not:

Answer 14

not an actual kingdom, but a generalized classification method for Bacteria, Archaea, Fungi, and Viruses

Question 15

how are microorganisms measured?

Answer 15

µm- micrometer - used to measure microorganisms like virus, bacteria, and fungi
nm - nanometers

Question 16

Waht si an extremophile

Answer 16

Extremophiles - microorganisms that can live in very intense environments (extreme salinity, heat, pH, etc.)
found in hot springs around the world. Maybe they’re all the same same, maybe not?

Question 17

Give the 5 most important poeple for microbiology history and what htey did:

Answer 17

Leeuwenhoek - dentist that used plaque to see microorganisms for the first time
Pasteur - swan-neck flask to see contamination of contents - spontaneous generation
Koch - established anthrax and Bacillus anthracis
Waese - used RNA sequence to distinguish between archaea and bacteria using HGT
Kary Mullis - first to create DNA replication (PCR)

Question 18

what is a species

Answer 18

a class of organisms with main characteristics that can successfully reproduce fertile offspring.

Question 19

Waht si HGT?

Answer 19

Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) - when microorganisms combine DNA through 3 main methods

Question 20

What are the three parts of HGT and explain them:

Answer 20

Transformation - when environmental DNA is picked up and incorporated into the DNA of the microorganism

Transduction - when a bacteriophage injects it’s own DNA into another host, which then replicates and produces more organisms with combines DNA sequences.

Conjugation - cell-to-cell contact is required where DNA is then transferred directly between organisms

Question 21

What is ASVs?

Answer 21

Amplicon Sequencing Variants - non-species specific method of identifying similar microbes using 16S rRNA sequences

Question 22

Explain 16S ( or ITS2 for fungi)

Answer 22

using the rRNA of microbes to see if >97% of the gene sequence is the same

Question 23

How can we apply microbe diversity to alpha, beta, and gamma diversity?

Answer 23

Main uses of measuring microbial diversity through 16S rRNA gene sequencing and PCR

Microbial function = shotgun metagenomics (using TCA cycle)

Rarefaction curves - tells us if we’ve accurately sampled or sequenced enough for an accurate community understanding

Question 24

What are the main steps to microbe official classification?

Answer 24

Cell Growth characteristics
16S rRNA gene sequences >97%
Correct naming
Phenotypic characteristics
Cultivated - quite hard