Home Sweet Home, for a Microbe
As a group, these prefer living on the edge! Extreme salt, heat, pressure, or sulfur are where they're most comfortable.
What are Extremophiles?
More info:
hyperthermophiles (high or very high temperatures)
psychrophiles (grow best at low temperatures)
acidophiles and alkaliphiles (acidic or basic pH value)
barophiles (grow best under pressure)
halophiles (organisms that require NaCl for growth)
The oldest family group, these species have adapted to live almost anywhere, even in space!
What is Domain Archaea?
MMM... salt! These 2 love it. But one has more of a sweet tooth than the other.
What are Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus?
These mean that we must infect the healthy with the cultures pathogen... otherwise we'll never know what is truly causing a disease.
What are Koch's postulates?
These "microbes" are made of only molecule.
What are prions?
Further info- only have protein called PrP; same sequence as host, but arranged differently.
These exist in the body normally, and can ferment glucose.
What is a enterobacteria?
A robust group of microbes, they come dressed to the 9's in purple.
What is Gram-positive bacteria?
These microbes prefer their food in a deep dark hole, drowning in fat, thank-you-very-much.
What are obligate anaerobes?
This microbe is the most common opportunistic pathogen of burns and external ear infections; it loves to hang out in catheters too!
What is Pseudomonas aeruginosa?
These undead microbes are only released by 'budding'.
What are enveloped viruses?
A sugar fiend, it loves to hang out in our dough, our beer, and our, ahem, nether regions.
What is a yeast?
Microbes that are real movers and shakers you'll see once stained with this special dye used to view motility structures.
This gram-negative, oxygen tolerant milk lover can eat sugar too, but please excuse it...it gets gassy afterwards!
What is E. coli?
As a group, these microbes would make Darwin proud; they have used their reproductive strategies to survive antibiotic treatment.
What are antibiotic-resistant microbes?
Also acceptable: MRSA, VRSA, MRE, VRE or nosocomial microbiota.
These host molecules aid viruses in step 1 of their invasion process.
What are extracellular protein receptors?
This bacteria may seem harmless on the surface, but once it gets under your skin it'll eat you up... literally.
What is Streptococcus pyogenes (aka Necrotising Fasciitis)?
This stain will help you identify the real baddies of the family... Mycobacteria and Nocardia.
What is Ziehl-Neelsen or acid-fast staining?
These prefer to eat "al fresco" (aka in the open air) but only if there's room available.
What are facultative anaerobes?
This factor cannot be eliminated when trying to prevent nosocomial infections.
What is a compromised host?
Viral biosynthesis of DNA viruses involves hijacking these 2 normal genetic processes.
What are host transcription (for viral nucleic acid) and host translation (for viral capsid and envelope if applicable)?
In every reach of your body it resides in harmony... Just don't open your heart to it (it has been known to cause endocarditis)!
What is Lactobacillus?
This group is shy. It is the only one to cluster up together.
What is Staphylococci?
This group is just happy to be invited! They'll pass on all food offered.
What are autotrophs?
These factors allowed the emergence of novel infectious diseases, specifically COVID-19 to emerge as a global pandemic (remember ALL of them)...
What are:
1. Ecological changes
2. Genetic changes
3. Failure of local, national, and global public health offices
4. Global travel capabilities
(not necessarily overuse of antibiotics... in the case of COVID)
These undead microbes are pathogenic to plants only.
What are viroids?