Micro. Chapter 1: Intro. to Microbiology

Abiogenesis

• “Life from non life”

• Long held belief before Louis Pasteur disproved it in the 1800s

- Francisco Redi had the same facts in the 1600s but nobody believe him

Experiments to disprove Abiogenesis

• Francisco Redi (1600s): Placed a piece of meat in 3 separate containers: one uncovered, one sealed, one covered with non-permeable cloth

• Louis Pasteur (1800s): Placed boiled water in 2 flasks: one sealed and one open

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

• A high end carpet merchant that wanted a way to inspect carpet fibers, developed the first microscope in an effort to see fibers as close as possible

• Pointed his microscope at rain water and discovered animacules

- Animacules: “wee little beasties”

• Didn’t share his knowledge, people only got ahold of the microscopes after he died

Miasma

• Belief that disease comes from “bad air”

John Snow

• Determined that people were getting sick from poop contaminated water and food

Robert Koch

• German physician who was the rival of Louis Pasteur

• Developed the concepts of causative agents

- “Koch’s postulates” was developed, still used today

Fanny Eilshemius Hesse

• An unpaid lab assistant

• Discovered that agar was superior to gelatin for making culture plates

Joseph Lister

• British surgeon

• Started to soak his instruments in phenol and suggest that doctors wash their hands before surgery

• Started using phenol for wound care

- Disinfectant but still better than nothing

Taxonomy

• The process of grouping living things by shared characteristics

• Linnaeus (1700s) came up with this

• Two criteria: Visible and genetic

- Bergey’s manual is a mammal used to this day for bacteria genetic mapping

Nomenclature

• The first time a

Phylogenetic Tree of Life

• Three sections: Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya

Bacteria

• Category of micro. organism that contains peptidoglycan

• Prokaryotic cell type

• Single celled

• Shapes: Coccus (Round), Bacillus (Rod), Curved (vibrio or spiral)

• Relevant types

- MRSA: methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (Group of bacteria)

- Anthrax: Bacillus anthrasis

- Gas gangrene: Clostridium perfringens

- Botulism – Clostridium botulinum

- Gonorrhea – Neisseria gonorrheae

- Salmonellosis – Salmonella enterica

Archaea

• Prokaryotic that exists between bacteria and Eukarya

- Have characteristics of both, not enough to be solidly one or the other

Fungi

• Eukaryotic

• Unicellular – yeasts

• Multicellular – mushrooms and molds

• Reproduce either sexually (male/female) or asexually (from one comes more)

Protozoa

• Eukaryotic

• Unicellular

• Able to move through the environment

- Use flagella, cilia, pseudopods

Animal parasites

• Eukaryotic, not microorganisms but still included in microbiology

• Multicellular

Algae

• Eukaryotic

• Gets energy through photosynthesis

- Releases majority of worlds O2

• Can either be unicellular or multicellular

Viruses

• Not made of cells

- Organized but no cells

• Can’t reproduce independently

- Needs a host

• Do not assimilate energy

• Has genetic information but no DNA

• Questionable if they grow and develop over time

• Very tiny, can only be seen with electron microscope

Measles

• Virus that causes immune amnesia

- Kills the adaptive immunity

“-idae”

• Suffix that means something is a family name