Microbial Life: Origin & Discovery Flashcards

Comprehensive fill-in-the-blank practice questions covering the history, discovery, and classification of microbial life based on the provided lecture transcript.

Microbes range in size from __________ to a few mm.

$$0.2\,\mu\text{m}$$

The three domains that evolved from a common ancestral cell are Bacteria, Archaea, and __________.

Eukaryotes

Viruses are __________ times smaller than the smallest cells.

ten

__________ developed the first method of DNA sequencing fast enough to sequence large genomes and shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

FRED SANGER

In 1995, scientists completed the first genome sequence of the cellular microbe __________.

Haemophilus Influenzae

__________ are collections of sequences from diverse populations of microbes taken directly from the environment.

Metagenomes

The term for "rock-eating" bacteria that aid in metal mining and deteriorate stone monuments is __________.

lithotrophs

The 14th-century bubonic plague was caused by the organism __________.

Yersinia Pestis

__________ founded the science of medical stats and devised the "Polar Area Chart" to show soldier deaths.

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

__________ built the first compound microscope and coined the term "cell".

ROBERT HOOKE

The first person to observe single-celled microbes, which he called "animalcules", was __________.

ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK

__________ showed that a sealed flask of meat broth sterilized by boiling failed to grow microbes.

LAZZARO SPALLANZANI

Louis Pasteur produced data refuting spontaneous generation using a __________ flask.

swan-neck

According to the Germ Theory of Disease, many diseases are caused by __________.

microbes

To prove that Mycobacterium caused tuberculosis, Robert Koch needed to establish a __________ of the microbes.

pure culture

__________ were the first to use the gelling agent agar to solidify liquid culture medium.

ANGELINA & WALTER HESSE

The set of criteria used for establishing a causative link between an infectious agent and a disease is known as __________.

Koch's Postulates

In 1717, __________ introduced the practice of smallpox inoculation to Europe.

LADY MARY MONTAGU

Edward Jenner's practice of cowpox inoculation was called vaccination, based on the Latin word __________ meaning cow.

Vacca

Louis Pasteur developed the first vaccines based on __________ (weakened) strains of microbes such as fowl cholera and rabies.

attenuated

__________ ordered doctors to wash their hands with chlorine, an antiseptic agent.

IGNAZ SEMMELWEIS

__________ developed carbolic acid to treat wounds and clean surgical tools.

JOSEPH LISTER

Alexander Fleming discovered that __________ mold generated a substance that kills bacteria.

Penicillin

__________ discovered that the causative agent of tobacco mosaic disease could pass through a $0.1\,\mu\text{m}$ porcelain filter.

DIMITRI IVANOSKY

__________ discovered lithotrophs and built a model wetland ecosystem called a Winogradsky column.

SERGEI WINOGRADSKY

Microbes that live inside a larger host organism are called __________.

Endosymbionts

Endosymbiotic bacteria known as __________ induce legume roots to form nodules for nitrogen fixation.

rhizobia

Ernst Haeckel devised a third category of life for microbes called the __________.

MONERA

__________ proposed that eukaryotic organelles, such as mitochondria and chloroplasts, evolved by endosymbiosis.

LYNN MARGULIS

Carl Woese analyzed __________ to reveal that Archaea were a distinct form of life from Bacteria and Eukarya.

$$16\text{S rRNA}$$

The study of internal cell structures was significantly impacted by the development of the __________ by Ernst Ruska.

Electron microscope

The separator of subcellular parts known as the ultracentrifuge was developed by __________.

THEODOR SVEDBERG

__________ used x-ray crystallography to determine that DNA is a double helix.

ROSALIND FRANKLIN

The theory that cells once used RNA for all functions including information storage and catalysis is called the __________.

RNA world

A heat-stable DNA polymerase, such as __________, is used for amplifying DNA via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Taq