This assignment has 17 short essay type questions. The task is to answer each question correctly and as concisely as possible.
MICROBIOLOGY QUESTIONS OF THE DAY
1. Imagine that all microorganisms suddenly disappeared from Earth. Would animals be able to survive? Give two reasons to justify your answer. Would plants be able to survive? Give two reasons to justify your answer. If by contrast, all higher organisms (plants and animals) suddenly disappeared, what would happen to the microbes? Give two reasons to justify your answer.
2. It is thought that a metabolic waste product produced by a certain group of prokaryotic organisms made possible the evolution of the eukaryotic cell. Name the metabolic waste product and the group of prokaryotic organisms that produce it. Name the metabolic reaction that leads to this waste product being produced. Discuss two ways that the build-up of this waste product helped pave the way for the evolution of higher organisms (plants and animals).
3. There are several hypotheses for the origin of cellular life. Name and describe two opposing hypotheses. Discuss the pros and cons for each of the hypotheses. Which hypothesis is currently considered more likely? Explain.
4. What kind of energy and carbon metabolism most likely characterized early cellular life? Describe this metabolism noting the source of carbon, the source of energy, and how the energy was most likely processes to generate ATP in the cell. What type of energy metabolism would not have been possible in these early life forms? Explain why.
5. You have been given several bacterial strain from various countries around the world. It is thought that all the strains cause the same gastrointestinal illness and are genetically identical. After carrying out a DNA fingerprint analysis of the strains, you find that four different strain types are present. How would you know this based on your DNA fingerprint results? Explain. Explain how you could use DNA-DNA hybridization and multilocus sequence typing to determine if these four strains would belong to the same species. Would you also be able to use a G-C ratio to determine if they were the same species? Why or why not? Explain.
6. In order for the Gram stain to work properly the ethanol in the decolorizer must be at a concentration greater than 60%. Imagine that you are working in the microbiology laboratory. You are instructed to make more Gram stain reagents. You mistakenly prepare a 50% ethanol solution. How will this affect the results of your Gram stains? Explain. You realize your mistake and prepare the decolorizer using the proper concentration of ethanol. The post-doc in the lab tells you about the Mycoplasma bacteria. These are bacteria that are taxonomically related to the Gram positive bacteria but do not have a cell wall. You are curious and decide to conduct a Gram stain on the Mycoplasma that you have in the lab. What result will you observe? Explain why.
7. All living organisms must maintain homeostasis in order to survive. The environment that the bacterial cell is in can affect the stability of its plasma membrane. The cell must constantly adjust the chemistry of its plasma membrane in order to maintain homeostasis. Imagine that the temperature in the environment is rising. What would you expect to see happening with the chemistry of a bacterial cell’s plasma membrane to deal with this change? Explain. If the temperature cools down what would happen then? Explain. Often bacteria produce metabolic waste products such as alcohol that can destabilize membranes. What would happen to the chemistry of the bacterial cell’s plasma membrane if the alcohol were to build up in its environment? Explain.
8. Which transport mechanism can be visualized as a relay race? What is being transported like a baton in a relay race? What is being transported into the cell by this process? Explain the steps of this transport process from start to finish noticing what happens at each step.
9. On a past episode of House M.D., House was treating a patient suffering from cryoglobulinemia. With this disorder proteins in the blood will precipitate and clump together if the body temperature drops. After a few unsuccessful treatments House orders a lipopolysaccharide I.V. to treat the patient. What component of lipopolysaccharide was House planning on using and explain how this could help the patient. Dr. Cuddy said that by doing this treatment House could kill the patient. Explain what she meant by that.
10. You are in charge of developing a new antimicrobial chemical substance that will be used to make food grade cutting boards. Devise and experiment using hollow capillary tubes and a nutrient broth solution to determine whether or not your new chemical will act as an attractant or a repellent to Escherichia coli bacteria. Explain the results you would expect to obtain if your new chemical was in fact an antimicrobial repellent.
11. Briefly outline the steps involved in a bacteriophage plaque assay. A clear plaque would indicate which replication pathway? Explain. A cloudy plaque would indicate which replication pathway? Explain.
12. Which Baltimore group are the retroviruses in? Which Baltimore group are the positive-stranded mRNA bacteriophages in? What does it mean to be a positive strand of mRNA? Contrast the enzyme present in the virions of a retrovirus and the positive-stranded mRNA bacteriophages. Why do they differ if each has a plus configuration single-stranded RNA as their genome?
13. Which version of iron would predominate in early Earth condition? Explain why. Which version of iron predominates today? Explain why. Outline the process by which modern bacteria obtain iron and how they convert it into a form that they can metabolize.
14. The antibiotic penicillin interferes with transpeptidation of the peptidoglycan cell wall. In simple terms explain what this means. Give three reasons why this leads to lysis of the cell. During which phase of the bacterial growth curve would penicillin be most effective? Explain why.
15. How would a strain of Escherichia coli look under a microscope if it had a mutation that inactivated the protein MreB compared to a strain that had a functional MreB? Why does this happen? Would this effect cell division in the mutant strain? Explain. Which Fts protein has a similar cell division roll to MreB? Explain. Hypothesize the problems a mutant bacterium would have if they were unable to produce functional Min proteins. Would this mutant be easy or difficult to isolate and grow? Explain.
16. Some Gram negative bacterial cells are considered non-autolytic, which means they will not lyse or break down immediately after cell death. Diagram and label a growth curve comparing the log of the viable cells over time and a growth curve of the optical density of the sample over time. Explain the similarities and differences your would see between the two curves.
17.
Listeria monocytogenes infections are often transmitted through contaminated food. A person who has contracted listeriosis usually has a high fever, muscle aches, and gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea. In severe cases meningitis can develop and the disease can be deadly. Refrigeration of food contaminated with this microbe does not prevent the transmission of the disease as the microbe can grow in refrigerator temperatures. How would you categorize Listeria based on its ability to grow in the refrigerator? Explain. Which temperature category would most pathogens fall into? Explain. Which temperature category or categories would you not expect to find any pathogen? Explain.
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