The Main Themes of Microbiology Book

100 Vocabulary Flashcards from the transcript provided.

Microbiology

Area of biology that deals with living things ordinarily too small to be seen without magnification.

Microorganisms/Microbes

Microscopic organisms collectively referred to as microbes.

Cellular Microorganisms

Cellular microorganisms studied, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and protozoa.

Helminths

Multicellular animals whose mature form is visible to the naked eye, causing human infections.

Acellular Microorganisms

Acellular microorganisms causing human disease, which include viruses and prions.

Archaea

Single-celled microorganisms, no clear evidence links them to human disease.

Medical Microbiology

The study of microbes that cause diseases in humans and animals.

Public Health Microbiology and Epidemiology

Branches that monitor and control health and the spread of diseases in communities.

Immunology

Studies the complex web of protective substances and cells produced in response to infection or cancer.

Industrial Microbiology

Safeguards our food and water, and also includes biotechnology.

Agricultural Microbiology

Concerned with the relationships between microbes and farm animals and crops.

Environmental Microbiology

Study the effect of microbes on the earth’s diverse habitats.

Aquatic microbiology

The study of microbes in the earth’s surface water.

Soil microbiology

The study of microbes in terrestrial parts of the planet.

Geomicrobiology

The study of microbes in the earth’s crust.

Astrobiology (exobiology)

The search for/ study of microbial and other life in places off of our planet.

Ubiquitous

Means that microbes can be found nearly everywhere.

Ecosystems

Communities of living organisms and their surrounding environment.

Oxygenic photosynthesis

The light-fueled conversion of carbon dioxide to organic material, accompanied by the formation of oxygen.

Anoxygenic photosynthesis

A process that did not produce oxygen.

Decomposition

The breakdown of dead matter and wastes into simple compounds that can be directed back into the natural cycles of living things.

Baker’s and brewer’s yeasts

Types of single-celled fungi, cause bread to rise and ferment sugar into alcohol to make wine and beers.

Empirical finding

When humans figure something out through experience, rather than through research or being taught it.

Biotechnology

When humans purposely manipulate microorganisms to make products in an industrial setting.

Recombinant DNA technology

An area of biotechnology that manipulates the genetics of microbes, plants, and animals.

Bioremediation

The introduction of microbes into the environment to restore stability or to clean up toxic pollutants.

Pathogens

Microorganisms that cause human misery as pathogens.

Infectious

Diseases caused by microbes.

Noninfectious

Diseases not caused by microbes.

Virus particle (Virion)

A small amount of hereditary material wrapped up in a protein covering that is sometimes enveloped by a protein- containing lipid membrane.

Prions

Small proteins folded in intricate ways, can be transmitted from one human to another.

Organelles

Small, double-membrane-bound structures in the eukaryotic cell that perform specific functions.

Abiogenesis

“Beginning in the absence of life.”

Binomial system of nomenclature

The method of assigning a scientific or specific name that is always a combination of the genus name followed by the species name.

Classification

Attempts to arrange organisms into a hierarchy of taxa (categories).

Nomenclature

The assignment of scientific names to the various taxonomic categories and individual organisms.

Identification

The process of discovering and recording the traits of organisms so that they may be recognized or named and placed in an overall taxonomic scheme.

Taxonomy

The science of classifying living beings into categories.

Phylogeny

Scheme that represents the natural relatedness (relation by descent) between groups of living beings.

Evolution

States that the hereditary information in living beings changes gradually through time.

Natural selection

A process that Charles Darwin called this.

ssuRNA

The nucleic acid in the small subunit of the ribosome is highly conserved.

Microbiome

The sum total of all the microbes in a certain environment.

Coevolution

A term describing the influence that two organisms occupying the same niche have on each other.

Sterile

Being completely free of all life forms (including spores) and virus particles.

Aseptic techniques

Aim at reducing microbes in a medical setting and preventing wound infections.

Koch’s postulates

Series of proofs that verified the germ theory and could establish whether an organism was pathogenic and which disease it caused.

Hypothesis

A tentative explanation to account for what has been observed or measured.

Deductive reasoning

The reasoning of mathematics, philosophy, politics, and ethics.

Inductive reasoning

The process of discovering general principles by careful examination of specific cases.

A theory

A collection of statements, propositions, or concepts that explain or account for a natural event.

Law, or principle

The level of confidence when the accuracy and predictability of a theory is so compelling.

Staphylococcus aureus

A species of Staphylococcus that is under a microscope and looks like a bunch of grapes, and often has a yellow color when grown on agar.

Campylobacter jejuni

A curved rod that causes intestinal infection.

Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis

A bacterial species used to make sourdough bread.

Giardia lamblia

A protozoan that causes a severe intestinal infection named for scientists that worked on the organism.

True Nucleus

What does the term 'Eukary' mean?

Akaryotes

What term refers to cells with no true nucleus?

Biotechnology

What process involves the use of microbial metabolism to achieve a desired product?

Bioremediation

What process involves the introduction of microbes into the environment to restore stability or clean up pollutants?

Louis Pasteur

Which scientist designed swan-neck flasks to disprove spontaneous generation?

Curses from God or damp fogs

Early scientists attributed disease to what cause before germ theory?

Joseph Lister

What scientist's work led to initial aseptic techniques and the use of antiseptics during surgery?

Conversion of soft tissues to liquids and gases

What is the role of bacteria in decomposition?

Applied to wounds, as in ancient Egypt

How did household molds serve humans?

Bacteria, archaea, fungi, protozoa, helminths, viruses, prions

What are the seven types of microorganisms studied in microbiology?

Metabolic capabilities

The overall set of microbes' metabolic abilities in a community

Inductive Reasoning

The process by which a new theory is created through observation of the physical world.

Deductive Reasoning

The process by which the acceptance of a general theory is created.

Microbiology Science

The science is an ever-evolving collection of new information, gleaned from observable phenomena and synthesized with old information to come up with the current understandings of nature.

Molecular Genetics

The science of genetics as a molecular science that allows an in-depth study of the structure and function of the genetic material at the molecular level.

Human Use of Microorganisms

The process in which humans were using microorganisms for thousands of years to improve life and even to shape civilizations.

Spontaneous generation.

An incorrect concept that was finally proven wrong in dramatic fashion by a very clever experiment by Louis Pasteur in the mid-1800s.

Scientific Method

An approach taken by researchers to explain certain natural phenomena, and was refined into its present form by Western scientists in the 1600s.

Virion.

In the present, a single virus particle.

The importance of small RNAs - 2000s

The concept that new approaches to how diseases are treated can happen such as small RNAs important in bacteria that infect humans, they can be new targets for antimicrobial therapy.

Quiet but slowly destructive diseases of microorganisms.

One of the most eye-opening discoveries in recent years is that many diseases that were not previously thought to be caused by microorganisms probably do involve microbial infection

Patients with weakened defenses

A condition of many patients with weakened defenses that are kept alive for extended periods.

Cellular Organization

The three basic cell lines that appeared during evolutionary history.

Viruses and Prions

The two types of acellular microorganisms.

Genetic identification of the human microbiome

First detailed information produced by the Human Microbiome Project (HMP).

CRISPR technology

Refers to a system found naturally in bacteria and archaea that they use to repel second attacks by viruses and other invaders.

The findings of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP).

Has led to new knowledge of our microbial guests and their role in our overall health and disease.

The invention of the microscope

Was crucial to the explosion of microbiological knowledge.

Disproving the idea of spontaneous generation

Paved the way for true scientific progress in microbiology.

The causative agent

For many infectious diseases, microbiologists have identified this.

Emerge and cause disease

For some infectious diseases, new ones continue to do this.

A weblike branching that represents the divergence of all life forms from a common ancestor.

As evolutionary patterns, what do these indicate?

Evolving

To produce these new life forms organisms are constantly doing what?

The cycling of nutrients and exchange

If it was not for microbes, what critical process would not occur on earth?

Biological and physical activities

Microbes influence these activities on earth, in every known habitat.

Microbes

These are critical to the health of humans, and occasionally cause harm.

Akaryotic (bacterial and archaeal) microbes

Give the opposite of eukaryotic microbes.

Naming, classifying, and identifying organisms

Why is taxonomy important in microbiology?

eukarya, archaea, and bacteria

What were the three Domains in the tree of life

Human manipulation of microbial genes

What term describes the process of manipulating microbial genes?

Microbes are crucial to the cycling of nutrients and exchange on earth.

What critical role do microbes fill in the cycling of nutrients and exchange on earth

Low-income countries

Which population typically suffers a higher expense in income countries, is high or low due to epidemics and pandemics

Crucial to the explosion of microbiological knowledge.

What did the invention of the microscope lead to?

Identified the causative agent for many infectious diseases.

What is a key discovery microbiologists have made?