2025/2026
Microbiology - Answers the study of living things that individually are too small to be seen with
the naked eye
Who created the system of nomenclature? - Answers Carolus Linnaeus (1735)
genus - Answers the first name and is always CAPITALIZED
specific epithet - Answers follows the genus and is not capitalized
Prokaryote - Answers genetic material is not enclosed in a special nuclear membrane.
Which microorganisms are prokaryotes? - Answers - bacteria
- archaea
Eukaryote - Answers organism's who's cells have a distinct nucleus containing the cell's genetic
material (DNA), surrounded by a special envelope called the nuclear membrane.
Which microorganisms are eukaryotes? - Answers - fugi
- protozoa
- algae
Although animal parasites are not strictly microorganisms, they are also eukaryotic
Bacteria (ex. cell type, cell wall, reproduction, and nutrition?) - Answers - unicellular
- cell walls contain peptidoglycan
- reproduce through binary fission (dividing into 2 equal cells)
- Acquire nutrients through organic chemicals (dead or living), or manufacture their own by
photosynthesis, or can derive nutrition from inorganic substances.
- move via flagella
Archaea - Answers - unicellular
- cell walls lack peptidoglycan
- found in extreme environments (methanogens, extreme halophiles, extreme thermophiles)
Fungi - Answers - unicellular (yeasts) or multicellular (mushrooms)
,- chitin in their cell walls
- reproduce sexually or asexually
- obtain nourishment by absorbing solutions of organic material from the environment
Protozoa - Answers - unicellular
- move via pseudopods (aid in motility and phagocytosis), flagella, cillia
- live either as free entities or as parasites (derive nutrients from living hosts) or absorb or
ingest organic compounds from their environment.
- some are photosynthetic (Euglena)
- reproduce sexually or asexually
Algae - Answers - unicellular
- cell walls composed of cellulose
- reproduce sexually or asexually
- photosynthesizers (they need light water and carbon dioxide for food and growth but don't
generally require organic compound from the environment)
- produce oxygen and carbohydrates that are utilized by other organisms (play important role in
the balance of nature)
Viruses - Answers - acellular (not cellular)
- reproduce only by using cellular machinery of other organisms
- only considered living when they multiply within the host they infect (inert outside living host)
- contains a core made up of only one type of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA)
- core surrounded by protein coat, sometimes encased by a lipid membrane (envelope)
Animal Parasites - Answers - multicellular
- parasitic worms (flatworms and roundworms "called helminths"
Robert Hooke - Answers - 1665
- saw eukaryotic cells, called them "little boxes, or cells"
- observed slices of corks
- his discovery marked the beginning of the cell theory
, Cell Theory - Answers "all living things are composed of cells"
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek - Answers - 1673
- first to observe microorganisms
- called them "animalcules"
Spontaneous Generation - Answers "some forms of life can arise spontaneously from nonliving
matter"
Francesco Redi - Answers - 1668
- disproved spontaneous generation
- experiment included filling 2 jars with decaying meat, one unsealed and one sealed. Flies laid
eggs on unsealed meat producing maggots.
- 2nd experiment, he covered a jar with fine net so air could get in and still no larvae appeared
Biogenesis - Answers "living cells arise only from pre-existing cells"
Robert Virchow - Answers - 1858
- challenged spontaneous generation with his idea of biogenesis
- couldn't offer proof
Louis Pasteur - Answers - 1861
- proved that microorganisms are present in the air and can contaminate sterile solutions, but
that the air itself doesn't create microbes.
- S neck flasks
- aseptic techniques
- fermentation
The golden age of microbiology - Answers the time between 1857 to 1914
who led to the establishment of microbiology - Answers Pasteur and Koch
Fermentation - Answers yeasts convert sugars to alcohol in the absence of air
Pasteurization - Answers to heat something just enough to kill the bacteria that cause spoilage
Germ Theory of Disease - Answers "microorganisms might cause disease"
Pasteur in (1865) - Answers proved that a disease in silk worms was caused by a protozoan