micro. vocabulary

Microbe

A living organism that requires a microscope to be seen

• algae

• Bacteria

• Protozoa

• Fungi

• Helmets

• Viruses

• Acellular pathogens

Cell

The smallest unit of life composed of a membrane enclosed compartment

Pathogen

A disease causing microbe

causes disease state, obtain nutrients from a host cell, pandemic and fear response, antimicrobial resistance and super bugs (the more we take, the more resistance we build)

Species

A set of individual organisms that share a defined set of genetic traits

Genome: the genetic material of an organism

Domains: the highest level of taxonomy (grouping) of life = 3 ( archaea, bacteria, eukarya)

Microbial benefits

Digestion, stimulate immune response, gut-brain feedback, produce antimicrobials, metabolites & essential nutrients (ex. Vit. K), produce essential nutrients (ex. O2 and N)

• play a role in causing disease and fighting off disease

Microscopes: what they reveal about the microbial world

• instrument that uses one or more lenses to magnify the image in our eyes

• Magnification: amount of enlargement

• Robert Hooke: 1665, observed cells

• Leeuwenhoek: 1723, first to build a microscope

Species and genomes specifics

Species: organisms that share a set of genes and traits (scientific name includes genus and species)

• underline when handwriting scientific names

Genomes: provide a genetic relatedness information

• prokaryotes and eukaryotes: DNA, double stranded

• Viruses: RNA OR DNA, single or double

Prokaryote

No true nucleus or nuclear membrane

• Include bacteria and archaea

Eukaryote

Have a true nucleus (mitochondria)

• fungi, Protozoa, and algae

Bacteria, archaea, eukarya

B: prokaryotic cells, .2-20 um

A: evolved by diverging from bacteria, prokaryotic cells the produced the ancestor of all eukaryotes, including humans

E: evolved from a form of archaea

Viruses

Noncellular microbes, genetic material may be DNA OR RNA, nonmetabolic, Invade cells to generate more virus particles

Golden age of microbiology

1850-1920s

Germ theory of disease, Koch’s postulates, linking of pathogens to specific disease, sanitization, early antimicrobials

• colonization and new land “discoveries”

• Key historic diseases:

   Smallpox

   Tuberculosis (TB)

   Plague

   Cholera

Twentieth century

Time: 1920s-1990s

 Key discoveries:

 Genetic work

 Lancefield’s Streptococcus work (any gram positive bacteria that grew in groups or chains)

 Antibiotics

 Archaea gets a domain

 Eradication of Smallpox

 HIV/ AIDS

Modern microbiology

Time: 1990s- current

 Major Discoveries & Impacts:

 Genetic & Bioengineering

 Gene gun treatment of cancers

 Microbial production of insulin - to avoid religious related reasons

 Genome Metagenome Projects

 PCR

Molecular biology drives (almost) everything

• Modern pandemics

• Rapid vaccine development - through molecular studies

 Human Microbiome Project

Microbes in the 21st century

Increased knowledge of Human Microbiota’s role in health

 Gut-brain axis

 Probiotics

 Diet & Stress

Chain of infection

How communicable diseases are spread

Pure cultures

Made up on one genus species organism

• a pure culture may be made up on millions of individual cells but they will all be the same organism

Attenuated

A weakened version of a pathogen

Health disparity

Differences in disease occurrence among people groups

Health equity

Equal care and disease burden among all individuals

• the goal