Random Notre Dame Facts
What is "Touchdown Jesus" actually called?
The Word of Life mural!
In 1673, this scientist directly observed the first microbes, which he called “animalcules.”
Anton van Leeuwehoek
This abbreviation stands for the sticky matrix that surrounds biofilm cells.
EPS (extracellular polymeric substances)
This is the cell-to-cell communication process that lets bacteria coordinate group behavior based on population density.
Quorum sensing
These are costly molecules, like siderophores and enzymes, that microbes secrete to benefit their neighbors.
Public Goods
How many National Championships has Notre Dame won in football?
8
Robert Koch developed these four criteria to prove that a specific microbe causes a particular disease.
Koch’s postulates
These dormant “sleepers” in the deep core survive severe antibiotic attacks.
Persister cells
These are the signal molecules bacteria release to “count” their neighbors.
Autoinducers
Microbes that enjoy the public goods without paying the metabolic cost of making them are called this.
Cheaters
Which dorm "succeeded" from Notre Dame to protest the Vietnam War?
Sorin College
This is a group of individual bacteria of the same species living in the same place at the same time.
Microbial population
Mature biofilms grow into these complex 3D pillar-like structures that maximize surface area.
Towers and mushrooms
This glowing bacterium lives in the Hawaiian bobtail squid, where quorum sensing was discovered.
Vibrio fischeri
This “needle” system, abbreviated T6SS, injects toxins directly into a neighboring cell.
What is the Type VI Secretion System?
Lord Farquaad's castle and the name of Duloc itself in this 2001 animated film were inspired by the campus of the University of Notre Dame.
Shrek
A culture starts with 100 E. coli and a generation time of 20 minutes. This many generations occur in 8 hours.
24
EPS makes up this range of the total biofilm mass.
65% to 95%!
Gram-negative bacterial signal with these chemical compounds, while gram-positive bacteria use these protein-based signals.
Acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) and autoinducing peptides (AIPs)
Toxin producers survive their own weapons by making these antidote proteins.
immunity Proteins
In _____, the main building and library were destroyed in a fire.
What is 1879?
This marker gene is the “barcode” used to profile bacteria.
16s rRNA gene
Because of the EPS barrier and dormant persisters, biofilms can be up to this many times more resistant to antibiotics than free-swimming bacteria.
1000 times
Bacteria use quorum sensing to act as a group only when this is high enough.
Population/cell density
When microbial cells kill their own siblings, for reasons like DNA uptake or nutrient harvesting, it is called this.
Fratricide