Biochemistry of the Genome
These four nitrogenous bases make up the center rungs of the the double-helix structure of DNA.
What are adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine?
During translation, this type of RNA molecule carries amino acids to the growing polypeptide chain.
What are transfer RNA (or tRNA) molecules?
This type of chemical is used to reduce the microbial load on a fomite but is unable to completely kill all microbes.
What is a disinfectant?
This term refers to the capability of a disease to be spread from person to person, regardless of how easily it can be transmitted.
What is communicable?
This branch of the immune system includes physical and chemical barriers that prevent the entry of pathogens into the body and cellular defenses that nonspecifically destroy pathogens that break through those barriers.
What is the innate immune system?
This is composed of one circular chromosome, is supercoiled and condensed with nucleoid associated proteins, and is usually haploid.
What is the bacterial genome?
This type of mutation can occur when there is an insertion or deletion of 1 or 2, but not 3, nucleotides in a DNA sequence.
What is a frameshift?
This large piece of equipment is one of the most effective means of sterilization and involves exposing materials to high pressure and hot steam.
What is an autoclave?
The most contagious of pathogens typically enter and exit through this portal of entry and exit.
What is the respiratory tract (or nose and mouth)?
Granulocytes include these three cell types that can be distinguished by H&E staining.
What are neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils?
Frederick Griffith was the first to demonstrate this form of horizontal gene transfer, which Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty later used to support the idea that DNA is the genetic material.
What is bacterial transformation?
Only prokaryotes have these genetic elements for simultaneously regulating the expression of multiple genes involved in the same metabolic pathway. These elements may be repressible or inducible.
What are operons?
Most antifungals work by interfering with the synthesis or function of ergosterol, a fungal-specific component of the cell membrane. This term refers to such an ability to target only the infecting pathogen and not the human host.
What is selective toxicity?
A person is most susceptible to secondary infections during this stage of disease.
What is the period of decline?
Also called immunoglobins, these glycoproteins bind to either free-floating antigens or antigens on pathogens, neutralizing them, and triggering other components of the immune system to destroy or eliminate them.
What are antibodies?
This term refers to the orientation of the two strands in a DNA molecule: the 5' and 3' ends of the two strands are on opposite ends.
What is antiparallel?
An experiment by Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl showed that DNA replication occurs by this mechanism, in which each new DNA molecule contains one original or parent strand and one new strand.
What is semi-conservative replication?
This type of antimicrobial is a chemically modified variant of a naturally occurring antimicrobial that has improved effectiveness or spectrum of activity.
What is a semi-synthetic antimicrobial?
This type of virulence factor is present on the surface of pathogenic cells or viral particles and aids in the attachment stage of infection.
What is an adhesin?
This is the name for cell structures, such as peptidoglycan and flagella, that are common to many pathogens and are recognized by pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs) on phagocytes.
What are pathogen associated molecular patterns (or PAMPS)?
Theodor Boveri and Walter Sutton confirmed this theory by observing eukaryotic chromosomes under the microscope.
What is the chromosomal theory of inheritance?
Non-ionizing radiation, more specifically UV radiation, can cause these lesions on a DNA molecule.
What are pyrimidine (or thymine) dimers?
This class of antibiotics, which includes penicillin, works by preventing the cross-linking of peptidoglycan and is only effective on Gram-positive bacteria.
What are Beta-lactams?
This component of Gram-negative outer membranes can induce excessive inflammation and septic shock.
What is endotoxin (or lipopolysaccharide)?
This type of lymphocyte has CD8 on its surface, is activated by antigens presented on MHC I, and destroys infected host cells by releasing perforin and granzymes.
What are cytotoxic T cells?