Microbiology Lecture Review Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key terms across Chapters 1, 3, 4, and 5 of introductory microbiology lecture notes.

Microbiology

A specialized area of biology that deals with tiny life forms that are too small to be seen without magnification.

Immunology

The branch of microbiology that studies complex body defenses that protect against infection and invading microbes.

Biotechnology

A branch of microbiology using any process that harnesses the actions of living things to arrive at a desired product.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

A Dutch merchant and self-made microbiologist known as the 'Father of Bacteriology' who observed 'animalcules' using small primitive microscopes.

Joseph Lister

An English surgeon who introduced the aseptic technique aimed at reducing microbes in a medical setting and preventing infections using heat for sterilization.

Louis Pasteur

A French scientist known as the 'Father of Microbiology' who disproved spontaneous generation, invented pasteurization, and contributed to the Germ Theory of Disease.

Robert Koch

A leading German microbiologist who established Koch's Postulates to link specific pathogens with specific diseases and won the Nobel Prize in $1905$ for work on M. tuberculosis.

Taxonomy

The formal system for organizing, classifying, and naming living things through classification, nomenclature, and identification.

Six I's

The six major laboratory procedures used by microbiologists to investigate microbes: inoculation, incubation, isolation, inspection, information gathering, and identification.

Resolving Power

The capacity of an optical system to distinguish two adjacent objects or points as two separate points, reaching a maximum limit of $200\text{ nm}$ (or $0.2\text{ }\frac{1}{1000}\text{ mm}$ / $0.2\text{ }\frac{1}{10^6}\text{ m}$) in optical microscopes.

Gram Stain

A diagnostic differential staining technique developed by Hans Christian Gram that delineates bacteria into Gram-positive (purple) and Gram-negative (red) based on cell wall type.

Pure Culture

A culture container that is growing only a single known species or type of microorganism.

Selective Media

Media containing one or more agents that inhibit the growth of certain microbes while selecting for and allowing a specific microbe to grow.

Differential Media

Media designed to grow several types of microbes while displaying visible differences among them, such as variations in colony color or media changes.

Fastidious

A term describing bacteria that require complex organic nutrients and specific growth factors that they cannot synthesize on their own.

Chemotaxis

Flagellar movement in response to chemical signals, performing smooth linear runs toward favorable stimuli or tumbles away from harmful repellents.

Peptidoglycan

A structural network of repeating glycan chains cross-linked by short peptide fragments that forms the bacterial cell wall.

Bacterial Endospore

A dormant, non-vegetative structure formed by certain bacteria capable of withstanding extreme heat, drying, freezing, radiation, and chemicals.

Pleomorphism

The tendency for individual cells of the same bacterial species to vary to some extent in shape and size.

Gracilicutes

A taxonomic category in Bergey's Manual representing prokaryotes with Gram-negative cell walls that are thin-skinned.

Rickettsias

Tiny, Gram-negative obligate intracellular pathogenic bacteria that alternate between a mammalian host and blood-sucking arthropods such as fleas, lice, or ticks.

Archaea

Single-celled prokaryotic organisms constituting the third domain of life, characterized by unusual biochemistry and adaptation to extreme habitats.

Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum

A eukaryotic membrane network studded with ribosomes that originates from the nuclear envelope and produces proteins.

Golgi Complex

An organelle consisting of stacked, flattened sacs where proteins collected from the endoplasmic reticulum are chemically modified and packaged into vesicles.

Lysosome

A vesicle originating from the Golgi apparatus containing digestive enzymes for intracellular digestion, protection against invading microbes, and removal of cell debris.

Hyphae

Long, threadlike cells that make up the structure of filamentous fungi or molds.

Saprobes

Organisms, including most fungi, that obtain organic substrates and nutrients from dead plants and animals in soil or aquatic habitats.

Dimorphic

The characteristic of certain fungal cells to exist in either yeast form or hyphae form depending on growth conditions.

Protozoa

A diverse group of single-celled, non-photosynthetic eukaryotic protists that lack a cell wall and exhibit movement and feeding behaviors.

Helminths

Multicellular parasitic animals including tapeworms (cestodes), flukes (trematodes), and roundworms.