Midterm 1 Flashcards
(102 cards)
How long ago did Bacteria and Archaea diverge?
~2 billion years ago
Deinococcus radiodurans
most radiation resistant organism ever known.
Conum the bacterium. Can survive 1000x the dose that would kill humans.
It has multiple copies of its genome that can be used as a backup after being exposed to the high radiation. It will then repair the previously exposed genome
Robert Hooke
First one to describe microbes. Illustrated the fruiting structure of molds
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek
He is considered the FIRST microbiologist. First one to describe bacteria (microscopes were more advanced at this time).
Louis Pasteur
Discovered fermentation and that alcohol fermentation was a biologically (as well as chemically) mediated process.
Disproved theory of spontaneous generation
Led to the development of methods for controlling the growth of microorganisms (aseptic technique)
Robert Koch
Demonstrated the link between microbes and infectious diseases.
Identified the causative agents for anthrax and tuberculosis
developed techniques (solid agar + Walter Hesse) for obtaining pure cultures of microbes.
Koch’s postulates
For proving cause and effect in infectious diseases
1. susp pathogen must be present in all cases
2. susp pathogen must be grown in culture
3. these cells must then cause associated disease upon introduction to healthy idvl
4. the susp pathogen must be isolated and show to be the same as the originall
Sergei Winogradsky
Demonstrated that specific bacteria are linked to specific biogeochemical transformations.
Proposed the concept of chemolithotrophy (oxidation of inorganic compounds to yield energy)
Demonstrated that chemolithotrophs are often autotrophs (ie they obtain carbon from carbon dioxide)
nitrogen fixation (N2 - NH3) and nitrification (NH3 - NO3-)
what is the winogradsky column?
Mixed water and dirt - eventually get a column with different colours and bacteria in each row of the column carrying out different chemical reactions (associated with their metabolism). No oxygen at bottom - where the sulfate oxidizing bacteria thrive
Ferdinand Cohn
Father of bacterial taxonomy. First to classify different species of bacteria.
He coined the term bacteria (small rod or staff)
Different cell shapes (look for images)
filamentous
spirillum
spirochete
budding and appendaged
What is a lithotroph?
energy source is inorganic chemicals
What is a phototroph?
Energy source is light
What is an organotroph?
Energy source is organic carbon
What is an autotroph?
carbon source is carbon dioxide
what is a heterotroph?
carbon source is organ carbon
What is a chemotroph?
Get their energy from chemicals
Energy source
Litho vs photo vs organo
Carbon source
Hetero vs auto
WHAT IS the largest pool of carbon on earth?
CO2 in the atmosphere
what is genetics vs genomics
Genomics - the studying of the entire genome
Genetics - just studying a few genes, but not all genes in the genome.
What is the ANI?
average nucleotide identity. It is an in silico methodof comparing two genomes computationally (basically tells us
What does Haeckel’s tree look like?
It is based on the belief that evolution strives towards increased complexity
But he was the first to recognize that microbes are quite important.
Moneres (@ bottom incl. bacteria)
Carl Woese
Decided that we should stop drawing the tree of life based on thought experiments or on fuzzy data like morphology but instead we should draw it based on hard, quantitative data like DNA.
- identified the rRNA gene as a good gene to track because it needed to be a gene that every organism on earth had, needed to be universal, and needed to mutate slowly and at a constant rate (so the mutations would act like a biological clock in a sense).
EVERY LIFE FORM THAT WE KNOW HAS RIBOSOMES
SSU rRNA or 16s rRNA
named Archaea
3 domain system - puts everyone in their place in terms of evolutionary ideas (not towards increased complexity).