Lecture 1: The Scope and History of Microbiology Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards generated from Lecture 1 covering the scope of microbiology, major microbial groups, historical developments, key scientists, and microbial classification.

Microbiology

The study of organisms too small to be observed with the naked eye.

Bacteria

Single-celled prokaryotic organisms that contain peptidoglycan in their cell walls and divide exclusively by binary fission.

Klebsiella pneumoniae

A Gram-negative bacterium often associated with humans.

Archaea

Unicellular prokaryotes that lack peptidoglycan in their cell walls and live in extreme environments, including methanogens, extreme halophiles, and extreme thermophiles.

Protozoans

A diverse group of mostly unicellular, eukaryotic 'animal-like' microbes, many of which are motile.

Amoeba proteus

A common protozoan found in fresh water.

Fungi

Eukaryotic organisms containing chitin in their cell walls; can be unicellular (yeast) or multicellular (molds and mushrooms).

Aspergillus niger

A common fruit mold.

Penicillium notatum

A fungus that produces the antibiotic penicillin.

Helminths

Multicellular eukaryotic animals whose adult forms are not microscopic, but whose eggs and sometimes larvae are microscopic.

Ascaris lumbricoides

A common roundworm infection in humans.

Algae

Eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms containing cellulose in their cell walls.

Viruses

Acellular, obligate intracellular parasites that require a host to replicate.

Bacteriophage

A virus capable of infecting bacteria.

Prions

Non-living, non-cellular proteinaceous infectious particles that contain no genetic material and are not microorganisms.

Pathogen

A disease-causing microbe.

Mutualism

A symbiotic relationship in which both organisms benefit, such as Escherichia coli in the human gut producing vitamin K and breaking down food.

Microbial Competition

The process by which normal flora out-compete pathogenic organisms in human body sites.

Bioremediation

The use of microbes to clean up waste and toxins, such as oleophiles destroying oil spills or microbes used in sewage treatment.

Biological Insecticides

Bacteria, such as Bacillus thuringiensis, that are fatal to insects but harmless to animals, humans, and plants.

Biotechnology

The use of microbes to produce foods and medicines.

Recombinant DNA Technology

A technique that enables bacteria and fungi to produce proteins, vaccines, and enzymes by inserting a gene from one species into another.

Robert Hooke

The scientist who used a compound microscope to first observe cells in cork (non-living material).

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

The first scientist to observe living cells, which he referred to as 'animacules'.

Cell Theory

The principle that all living things are composed of cells and come from preexisting cells.

Louis Pasteur

The scientist who disproved spontaneous generation using S-neck flasks (1861), studied microbial metabolism, developed pasteurization, and created cholera and rabies vaccines.

Germ Theory

The theory stating that microbes are the cause of human disease.

Aseptic

Without germs; a state or technique preventing microbial contamination.

Joseph Lister

A scientist who pioneered aseptic surgery and methods in 1860.

Robert Koch

The scientist who proved in 1876 that Bacillus anthracis causes anthrax and established Koch's Postulates.

John Snow

The father of epidemiology who traced an 1854 waterborne cholera epidemic in London to a contaminated street pump.

Edward Jenner

The scientist who developed the first vaccine in 1796 using cowpox to protect against smallpox.

Variolation

An early practice of immunizing individuals by infecting them with a milder form of a disease.

Paul Ehrlich

The scientist who introduced the concept of the 'Magic Bullet' and created Salvarsan in 1910 to treat infectious disease.

Magic Bullet

A chemical agent capable of targeting a microbe without affecting human cells.

Alexander Fleming

The scientist who discovered the antibiotic penicillin in 1928.

Metchnikoff

An 1880s scientist who studied immunology and phagocytosis.

Dmitry Iwanowski

The scientist who discovered Tobacco Mosaic Virus in 1892, establishing the foundation of virology.

Three Domains System

The current classification system based on ribosomal RNA (rRNA) that categorizes organisms into Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya.

Scientific Nomenclature

The formal system for naming organisms using Genus species, which is underlined when handwritten and italicized when typed.