Microbiology Chapter 3

Front 1

bacillus

Back 1

A rod-shaped procaryote.

Front 2

capsule

Back 2

A layer of well-organized material, not easily washed off, lying outside the bacterial cell wall.

Front 3

cell envelope

Back 3

All the structures of a procaryote from the plasma membrane outward.

Front 4

chemotaxis

Back 4

The movement of a microorganism toward chemical attractants and away from chemical repellents.

Front 5

coccus

Back 5

A spherical procaryotic cell.

Front 6

endospore

Back 6

An extremely heat- and chemical-resistant, dormant, thick-walled spore that develops within some gram-positive bacteria.

Front 7

fimbriae

Back 7

Fine, hairlike protein appendages on some procaryotes; some help attach cells to surfaces and others are involved in a type of twitching motility.

Front 8

Fluid mosaic model

Back 8

The currently accepted model of cell membranes in which the membrane is a lipid bilayer with integral proteins buried in the lipid and peripheral proteins more loosely attached to the membrane surface.

Front 9

gas vacuole

Back 9

A proteinaceous cytoplasmic organelle composed of clusters of gas-filled vesicles; used by aquatic procaryotes to change location in a water column.

Front 10

glycocalyx

Back 10

A network of polysaccharides extending from the surface of procaryotes.

Front 11

inclusion bodies

Back 11

Granules of organic or inorganic material in the cytoplasm of bacteria.

Front 12

lipopolysaccharides (LPSs)

Back 12

Molecules containing both lipid and polysaccharide, which are located in the outer membrane of the cell wall of gram-negative bacteria.

Front 13

nucleoid

Back 13

An irregularly shaped region in the procaryotic cell that consists of its genetic material.

Front 14

peptidoglycan

Back 14

An essential component of the bacterial cell wall composed of long chains of alternating N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylmuramic acid residues; chains are linked to each other by short chains of amino acids.

Front 15

periplasmic space

Back 15

The space between the plasma membrane and outermost layers of the cell wall in procaryotes.

Front 16

plasmid

Back 16

A double-stranded DNA molecule that can exist and replicate independently of the chromosome or may be integrated with it; it is not required for the cell's growth and reproduction.

Front 17

porin proteins

Back 17

Proteins that form channels for the transport of small molecules across the outer membrane of gram-negative bacterial cell walls.

Front 18

sex pili

Back 18

Thin protein appendage required for bacterial conjugation; cells with sex pili donate DNA to recipient cells.

Front 19

S-layer

Back 19

A regularly structured layer composed of protein or glycoprotein that lies on the surface of many procaryotes.

Front 20

slime layer

Back 20

A layer of diffuse, unorganized, easily removed material lying outside the cell wall.

Front 21

spirillum

Back 21

A rigid, spiral-shaped bacterium.

Front 22

spirochete

Back 22

A flexible, spiral-shaped bacterium with periplasmic flagella.

Front 23

cocci (s., coccus)

Back 23

roughly spherical cells.

Front 24

diplococci (s., diplococcus)

Back 24

divided cocci that remain together to form pairs.

Front 25

vibrios

Back 25

comma-shaped, rod-like procaryotes.

Front 26

mycelium

Back 26

a branch network of long filaments (hyphae) formed by actinomycetes.

Front 27

pleomorphic

Back 27

procaryotes that are variable in shape and lack a single, characteristic form.

Front 28

(function of) inclusion bodies?

Back 28

storage of carbon, phosphate, and other substances.

Front 29

amphipathic

Back 29

term used to describe polar and nonpolar ends of structurally asymmetric membrane-associated lipids.

Front 30

hopanoids

Back 30

stabilize eucaryotic membranes

Front 31

protoplants

Back 31

the plasma membrane and everything within.

Front 32

gas vesicle

Back 32

a rigid, enclosed cylinder that is hollow and impermeable to water but freely permeable to atmospheric gases. (gas vacuoles are made up of enormous numbers of gas vesicles.)

Front 33

magnetosome

Back 33

an inorganic inclusion body used by magnetotactic bacteria to orient themselves in Earth's magnetic field.

Front 34

define a Svedberg unit

Back 34

(e.g. 50S, 30S, 70S, etc.) The unit of sedimentation coefficient, a measure of the sedimentation velocity in a centrifuge; the faster a particle travels when centrifuged, the grater its Svedberg value or sedimentation coefficient.

Front 35

episomes

Back 35

plasmids that are integrated into the chromosome and subsequently replicated.

Front 36

What is curing?

Back 36

The loss of a plasmid.