BIOL 1011 : Microbiology Exam 1 Study Guide
Microbiology Exam 1 Study Guide
Robert Hooke- Curator at Royal Society of London. In 1665, he published Micrographia.
Description of microscope included the compound microscope. He is believed to be the first
person to see yeast, but since he did not document he did not get any credit for it.
Antoni Leeuwenhoek- clothe merchant. First person to see bacteria. Skilled in gtinding single
piece glass lens microscopes (simple). Communicated his observation with Royal Society of
London. In 1674, he found “wee animalcules” in pond water (protozoa). In 1684, he found
bacterial cells from dental plaque.
The Transition Period: in Leeuewnhoek’s time, people believed that animalcules arised from
spontaneously. There was no correlation between disease and microbes.
Spontaneous Generation
Belief that life arises spontaneously from non-living matter. Popular belief in the 18th century.
- Francesco Redi- disproved that maggots arise from decaying meat. Only when the jar
was uncovered did the maggots appeared
- Fact: extracts of meat broth was prepared and left at room temperature, the broth would
become cloudy from the growth of microbes. Two schools of thought: Spontaneous Gen.:
decay of complex organisms results in their molecules reorganizing into animalcules.
Formed from seeds or germs: living cells arise only from other living cells.
- John Needham: British clergyman and vitalist. Vitalist: believed a “vital force” pervaded
all organism. In his experiment, he boiled mutton gravy and sealed the tube with cork.
The results of his experiment, he found microscopic animal. He proved that putrefaction
could generate the vital force needed for spontaneous generation.
- Spallanzani: Italian priest that suggested that life arised only from other living things.
Showed that theory by heating a sealed flask of meat broth resulted in no growth of
organisms.
- Spallanzani’s skeptics: claimed that excess heating destroyed the vital force or it was the
lack of fresh air prevented growth. Needham was skeptic.
- Louis Pasteur:
- French Academy of Science sponsored a contest for the person who prove or disprove
spontaneous generation.
- Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation in 1859.
- Considered the father of microbiology.
- The swan neck experiment disproved spontaneous generation. Yeast and fermentation.
The germ theory of disease.
- Saved France’s wine in 1857, by observing that good wine contained one kind of microbe
aka yeast. Sour wine contained a smaller microbe aka bacteria. He found that he could
heat the wine to kill the microbes but still preserve the flavor. Process known as
pasteurization.
- Proposed that wine spoiling is an analogy for disease. Bacterial growth made the wine
sick. In 1857, he hypothesized that microorganisms were responsible for infectious
disease aka the germ theory of disease.
- Anaerobic growth (no air). Yeast fermentation produced alcohol. Microorganism in beer
and wine can be killed by heat. Milk pasteurization. Different microbes caused different
types of fermentation. Developed vaccines for disease such as rabies.
- Epidemiology- study from which the source, cause and mode of transmission of a disease
can be identified. Suggestions of how diseases could be spread: human contact and bad
air aka miasma. Disease could be controlled by quarantine.
- Semmelweis- Hungarian physician found hand washing and chlorine disinfections
prevented disease.
- John Snow: in 1854, performed first epidemiological study of a cholera epidemic in
London. Interview the sick and the healthy, found a high number of cases surrounding a
local street pump that residents used, removed the pump handle= no more cholera.
Proposed that cholera was a waterborne disease.
- Résistance comes from exposure to and from recovery from disease. Smallpox was very
severe, most kids died before the age of three. However, survivors were protected from
suffering the disease the second time.
- Variolation: purposefully infecting someone with smallpox (variola) in a controlled
manner to gain immunity and decrease the severity of the disease. Chinese and Indians
blew ground smallpox powder into people’s nose. Europeans- put dried smallpox scab
under skin.
- Jenner: noticed the people who got cowpox were immune to smallpox. In 1796, he
performed a vaccination on a boy with mild smallpox with cowpox. 6 weeks later the boy
did not have smallpox. By 1801, over 100,000 people in England vaccinated.
- Microscope optics were advanced in 1830s.
- Ernberg- suggested tiny “rod-like” looking organism be called bacteria. Bakterion= little
rod.
- Henle- suggested that living organisms can cause disease.
- Pacini- saw comma shaped bacteria in the stool samples of cholera patients.
- Lister- Professor of Surgery in Glasgow Scotland. Fact: nearly 50% of amputation
patients died from postoperative infections. He heard about Pasteur’s Germ Theory of
Disease. Argued that surgical infections are from living organisms in the air. Found the
survival rate of his patients increased if used carbolic acid (phenol solution spray) in
surgery, wounds and on medical instruments.
- Robert Koch
- German country physician who developed microbiology into a science.
- Developed pure culture techniques by using potato slices, in these slices he found
individual bacterial colonies growing with different appearance. Microscopic
examination revealed cells within a single colony were similar or pure.
- Pure Culture- is a population of organisms, all of which are the progeny of a single
organism. In nature, microbes almost never occur as pure culture techniques.
- Wanted to culture pathogens so he used something similar to body tissue. Meat extracts.
Gelatin was initially used but it had its problems: many organism could digest it and it
melts at 37 C, which is the favorite incubation temperature for most pathogens. Agar was
used instead.
- Established the Microbial Taxonomy: pure cultures of bacteria do not change shape-
even after being transferred. There are many types of species of bacteria.
- Showed with anthax (cattle disease) that sick animals had the bacterium in their blood,
while healthy animals did not, and blood from sick animals could make healthy animals
ill. He was able to culture the bacterium from a sick animal in nutrient media. A pure
culture of bacteria when injected into healthy animals caused the disease, (and it was
not something else in the blood)
- Postulates: that a specific microorganism is present is present in all cases of the diseases.
That the organism can be obtained in pure culture outside of the host. that the
organisms, when inoculated into a susceptible host, causes the same disease symptoms.
The organisms can be isolated impure culture from the experimentally infected host.
- His lab studied: isolation, cultivation, and identification of pathogens. Tuberculosis,
typhoid fever, diphtheria.
- Koch and his coworkers discovered: bacteria caused: Tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria (
friederich loeffler), typhoid fever (georg gaffky), gonorrhea, pneumonia.
Agar
- Complex polysaccharide derived from seaweed. Melts at 100 C, but solidifies at 45 C. non
toxic to most microbes and other forms of life. Stable at sterilization temperatures.
Physiologically inert.
- Suggested to Koch by Fannie Hesse Walter’s wife.
- Used as a gelling agent in Asia
Petri Dish: shallow glass plate invented in 1887 by R.J. Petri. Koch’s assistant.
Hans Christian Gram: A colleague of Koch developed the Gram Stain to distinguish between
different types of bacteria that look the same.
Pasteur Lab Studied: the mechanism for infection. Developed vaccines for chicken cholera and
human rabies.
John Tyndall: In 1877, found microorganism in a hay infusion could survive boiling.
Ferdinand Cohn: demonstrated heat resistant microbes were “endospores”
- Structures in favorable conditions germinate and form new Bascillus cells.
- Structure is made by bacteria ( such as Bacillus)
Ivanowsky and Beijerinick- provided the first evidence for viruses as infectious agents.
- Tobacco mosaic diasese was a contagious, living liquid can pass through filters that traps
bacterial cells. Acted like a poison or virus.
Roux and Yersin- identified the diphtheria toxin
Von Behring- developed the diphtheria antitoxin
Nicolle- proved that lice transmits typhus fever
Ogata- discovered that rat fleas transmits plague
Reed- proved that mosquitoes transmits yellow fever.
Ehrlich- arsenic containing chemical called salvarsan to treat syphilis
Fleming- penicillin (first antibiotic)
Domagk- sulfa drugs
Atomic #= # of protons
Atom= smallest unit of life, cannot be broken down.
Document Summary
Robert hooke- curator at royal society of london. He is believed to be the first person to see yeast, but since he did not document he did not get any credit for it. Skilled in gtinding single piece glass lens microscopes (simple). In 1674, he found wee animalcules in pond water (protozoa). In 1684, he found bacterial cells from dental plaque. The transition period: in leeuewnhoek"s time, people believed that animalcules arised from spontaneously. There was no correlation between disease and microbes. Belief that life arises spontaneously from non-living matter. Francesco redi- disproved that maggots arise from decaying meat. Only when the jar was uncovered did the maggots appeared. Fact: extracts of meat broth was prepared and left at room temperature, the broth would become cloudy from the growth of microbes. Two schools of thought: spontaneous gen. : decay of complex organisms results in their molecules reorganizing into animalcules.
