Introduction to Microbiology
Exam Solutions
Course Introduction
Introduction to Microbiology provides a foundational understanding of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. The course explores the structure, function, genetics, and ecological roles of microbes, as well as their significance in health, industry, and the environment. Students will learn about microbial metabolism, growth, and control, along with basic laboratory techniques for culturing and identifying microorganisms. This course serves as a basis for further study in microbiology and related fields, emphasizing the impact of microbes on human society and the natural world.
Recommended Textbook
Living in a Microbial World 1st Edition by Bruce Hofkin
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16 Chapters
208 Verified Questions
208 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Living in a Microbial World
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following are not composed of cells?
A) Bacteria and archaea
B) Fungi and protozoa
C) Viruses and prions
Answer: C
Q2) Which of the following statements is true?
A) Most microorganisms have eukaryotic cells.
B) Most microorganisms have cells containing organelles.
C) Many microorganisms have cells in which the genetic material is not surrounded by a nuclear membrane.
D) Animals have prokaryotic cells.
E) Plant cells do not contain organelles.
Answer: C
Q3) Metabolism refers to:
A) the transfer of genetic information from generation to generation.
B) the changes in the characteristics of living things over time.
C) the response of living things to chemical signals in their environment.
D) the ability to reproduce.
E) the ability to assimilate and use energy.
Answer: E
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Chapter 2: The Chemistry of Life
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements is correct?
A) A base is a H<sup>+</sup> ion donor.
B) Pure water is completely neutral and has a pH of 0.
C) As the concentration of H<sup>+ </sup>goes up, the pH also goes up.<sup> </sup>
D) If the hydroxyl ions outnumber the H<sup>+</sup> ions, the pH will be less than 7.0.
E) Bases reduce the concentration of H<sup>+</sup> in water.
Answer: E
Q2) The purines of nucleic acids are ________ and ________.
A) thymine; guanine
B) adenine; guanine
C) adenine; cytosine
D) thymine; cytosine
E) cytosine; guanine
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: The Cell: Where Life Begins
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following describes the correct pathway used by eukaryotic cells for the synthesis of proteins transported out of the cell?
A) endoplasmic reticulum » ribosomes » Golgi apparatus » plasma membrane
B) plasma membrane » ribosomes; Golgi apparatus » endoplasmic reticulum
C) Golgi apparatus; ribosomes » endoplasmic reticulum » plasma membrane
D) ribosomes » endoplasmic reticulum » Golgi apparatus » plasma membrane
Answer: D
Q2) As cells increase in size:
A) their surface/volume ratio increases, and they become more metabolically efficient.
B) their surface/volume ratio decreases, and they become more metabolically efficient.
C) their surface/volume ratio increases, and they become less metabolically efficient.
D) their surface/volume ratio decreases, and they become less metabolically efficient.
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: A Field Guide to the Microorganisms
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is different about the synthesis stage in a plus- and a minus-strand RNA virus?
Q2) The feeding and reproducing stage of many protozoa is known as a:
A) trophozoite.
B) cyst.
C) vector.
D) protista.
E) mastigophora.
Q3) The classification of living things according to their evolutionary relationships is called:
A) taxonomy.
B) phylogenetics.
C) taxonomic hierarchy.
D) the five-kingdom system of classification.
E) the three-domain system of classification.
Q4) What are mycorrhizial relationships? Provide an example.
Q5) How are rRNA genes used to deduce evolutionary relationships?
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Chapter 5: The Microbiology of History and the History of Microbiology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is not a vector-borne disease?
A) bubonic plague
B) yellow fever
C) malaria
D) typhus
E) anthrax
Q2) Which of the following statements about the Weil-Felix test for typhus is false?
A) It relies on the fact that antibodies generated against Rickettsia do not react with Proteus OX19.
B) It relies on cross-reactivity between the pathogen and the soil bacterium.
C) When blood serum is drawn from a person to be tested, the serum is mixed with a solution containing Proteus OX19.
D) Humans are not normally infected with Proteus OX19.
E) If the individual being tested is positive, clumping will be seen on the test slide.
Q3) Why is a large population of hosts more important for the maintenance of a "crowd disease" than it is for other types of diseases?
Q4) What are Koch's Postulates? Explain how they are used to determine the cause of a particular disease.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Microbial Genetics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following mutations is most likely to prove beneficial to the cell experiencing the mutation?
A) samesense mutation
B) missense mutation
C) nonsense mutation
D) frameshift mutation
E) spontaneous mutation
Q2) ________ use(s) codons to specify which amino acid should be added to the growing polypeptide chain during protein synthesis.
A) DNA
B) mRNA
C) tRNA
D) rRNA
E) operons
Q3) How does "proofreading" by DNA polymerase occur during DNA replication?
Q4) Explain how RNA differs in structure from DNA.
Q5) Identify and describe three distinct ways in which genetic recombination occurs in bacteria.
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Chapter 7: Metabolism and Growth
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Sample Questions
Q1) When cells catabolize biological molecules for the purposes of ATP production, energy in the biological molecule is released in a large number of small steps, rather than in a single large step. Why is this necessary?
Q2) Why is pyruvate reduced during fermentation?
A) to regenerate NAD<sup>+</sup>, permitting glycolysis to continue
B) to produce additional NADH, which can be oxidized in electron transport
C) to produce additional ATP by coupling ATP production to the reduction of pyruvate. The now reduced form of pyruvate can then enter the Krebs Cycle.
D) Pyruvate is toxic to cells. It is therefore reduced to a non-toxic form.
Q3) During the stationary phase of microbial growth:
A) cells are preparing to divide.
B) production of new cells exceeds cell death.
C) production of new cells is approximately equal to cell death.
D) there is no production of new cells or cell death.
E) cell death exceeds the production of new cells.
Q4) Describe differences that would be seen in the growth curve of a facultative anaerobe that is grown in the presence of oxygen, and the same facultative anaerobe grown in the absence of oxygen.
Q5) Describe how ATP is produced in electron transport.
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Chapter 8: Microbial Evolution: the Origin and Diversity of Life
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is believed to be the correct sequence for the order in which the following metabolic processes evolved?
A) glycolysis » aerobic respiration » photosynthesis
B) photosynthesis » aerobic respiration » glycolysis
C) aerobic respiration » glycolysis » photosynthesis
D) photosynthesis » glycolysis » aerobic respiration
E) glycolysis » photosynthesis » aerobic respiration
Q2) Under which of the following conditions would resistance to a specific antibiotic most likely evolve?
A) when the antibiotic is not commonly used
B) when the antibiotic is routinely used, even in inappropriate situations
C) when the antibiotic is used, but only in carefully controlled and appropriate situations
D) when the use of the antibiotic is suddenly curtailed
E) when several antibiotics, including the specific antibiotic under consideration, are used together
Q3) Why is it that natural selection can never result in organisms that are perfectly adapted to their environment?
Q4) Explain the rationale for the "RNA world" hypothesis.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: An Ecologists Guide to Microbiology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why does the addition of extra nutrients into a lake often result in a die-off of fish and other animals?
Q2) Which of the following represents a producer in a food web?
A) a fungus that is parasitic on plants
B) a herbivore
C) a carnivore
D) bacteria that break down organic material and return inorganic nutrients to the environment
E) photosynthetic cyanobacteria
Q3) Which process in the nitrogen cycle, carried out by certain microorganisms, converts atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, which can then be utilized by plants?
A) nitrogen fixation
B) ammonification
C) nitrification
D) denitrification
Q4) Describe why decomposers are so important in ecosystems.
Q5) What exactly is a biofilm? Where are biofilms found?
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11
Chapter 10: The Nature of Disease: a Pathogens Perspective
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Sample Questions
Q1) For a given pathogen:
A) the ID<sub>50 </sub>will always be lower than the LD<sub>50.</sub>
B) the ID<sub>50</sub> will always be higher than the LD<sub>50.</sub>
C) the ID<sub>50</sub> and the LD<sub>50</sub> will always be equal.
D) the ID<sub>50 </sub>may be lower or higher than the LD<sub>50.</sub>
Q2) In terms of how a pathogen might affect a host, which of the following is the correct sequence of events?
A) contamination » disease » infection
B) disease » contamination » infection
C) infection » contamination » disease
D) infection » disease » contamination
E) contamination » infection » disease
Q3) Eradication of any pathogen is very unlikely unless that pathogen uses:
A) human reservoirs only.
B) animal reservoirs only.
C) environmental reservoirs only.
D) human or animal reservoirs.
E) animal or environmental reservoirs.
Q4) What is the difference between biological vector transmission and mechanical vector transmission?
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Chapter 11: Host Defense
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Sample Questions
Q1) In what way can the fever response be used to illustrate the point that response to pathogens can both be protective and harmful?
Q2) Which of the following cell types can be considered to be part of the innate immune system?
A) red blood cells
B) neutrophils
C) helper T cells
D) cytotoxic T cells
E) B cells
Q3) Which of the following is true about interferon?
A) It is released by uninfected cells during a viral infection.
B) It is produced by virally infected cells during a viral infection, whereupon it inhibits further viral replication within the cells where it is made.
C) It is produced by virally infected cells to activate helper T-cells.
D) It is released by virally infected cells to induce an antiviral state in uninfected cells.
E) It is released by cells in lymph nodes to attract T cells to the lymph node.
Q4) How does HIV reduce immune function?
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13
Chapter 12: Control of Microbial Growth
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Sample Questions
Q1) In which of the following situations might a bacteriostatic drug be preferable to a bactericidal drug?
A) when a patient is infected with an unknown pathogen
B) when the patient is immunocompromised
C) when antibiotics are being used prophylactically
D) when an infection is in a well-oxygenated region of the body
E) when Gram-negative bacteria have infected an ordinarily sterile region of the body
Q2) Which of the following most accurately describes the activity of acyclovir?
A) It prevents uncoating by viral particles.
B) It is phosphorylated by a viral enzyme, producing a false nucleotide, which is then incorporated into replicating viral DNA.
C) It prevents the release of newly replicated influenza viral particles from an infected cell.
D) It interferes with the activity of the viral enzyme reverse transcriptase.
E) It binds to and inhibits the viral protease enzyme, which cleaves large viral proteins into the smaller proteins needed for viral assembly.
Q3) In what situations would UV radiation be an appropriate method for microbial control?
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Epidemiology: Who,
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Sample Questions
Q1) Describe the design of a case-control study and how it is used to identify the cause of an epidemic.
Q2) When a new disease appears, which of the following is developed first?
A) a case-control study
B) personal characteristics of the disease
C) place characteristics of the disease
D) time characteristics of the disease
E) a case definition
Q3) The likelihood of a host-to-host epidemic is highest when:
A) the proportion of immune individuals in a population is below the epidemic threshold.
B) the proportion of immune individuals in a population is above the epidemic threshold.
C) the proportion of immune individuals in a population is at the epidemic threshold.
D) anytime the proportion of immune individuals in a population rises above 50%.
E) the second time a pathogen is introduced into a particular population.
Q4) What is antigenic drift? Why are RNA viruses more prone to this phenomenon than DNA viruses are?
Q5) How can a vaccine program prevent epidemics?
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Chapter 14: The Future Is Here: Microorganisms and Biotechnology
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Sample Questions
Q1) When DNA fragments are separated by gel electrophoresis:
A) smaller fragments migrate further on the gel than larger fragments.
B) larger fragments migrate further on the gel than smaller fragments.
C) fragments that contain larger amounts of purines, relative to pyrimadines, migrate further.
D) fragments that contain many G-C pairs, relative to A-T pairs, migrate further.
E) all fragments containing genes with related functions migrate to an identical spot on the gel.
Q2) If a gene of interest is inserted into a plasmid, and the plasmid also has a lethal gene and an antibiotic resistance gene, to later identify those plasmids:
A) the inserted gene must not disrupt either the resistance or the lethal gene.
B) the inserted gene must interrupt the resistance gene.
C) the inserted gene must interrupt the lethal gene.
D) the inserted gene must interrupt both the resistance gene and the lethal gene.
Q3) What exactly is a DNA library? What is a genomic library?
Q4) What is the polymerase chain reaction? Briefly state how it works.
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Guess Whos Coming to Dinner: Microorganisms and Food
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Sample Questions
Q1) Microbial fermentation only occurs under certain environmental conditions. Why, in terms of metabolism, do these organisms ferment under such conditions?
Q2) In what way are microorganisms used in the production of coffee?
A) Extracts of coffee beans are fermented by bacteria.
B) Extracts of coffee beans are fermented by yeast.
C) Extracts of coffee beans are first fermented by yeast. Fermentation waste products released by the yeast are then converted in different products by aerobic bacteria.
D) Microorganisms that grow naturally on coffee beans provide the coffee with desirable flavors.
E) Bacteria are used to remove the coating of coffee beans prior to roasting.
Q3) Probiotics are:
A) any microbially fermented food.
B) food items that are produced by aerobic bacteria.
C) hormones that are produced by bacteria.
D) products that contain living microorganisms, thought to be beneficial.
E) antibiotics added to animal feed to encourage more rapid growth.
Q4) In what way is the production of vinegar different from the production of the fermented food products discussed in this chapter?
Page 17
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Chapter 16: Better Living With Microorganisms: Industrial and Applied Microbiology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Metabolites are:
A) the substrate that is converted into a useful product by microorganisms.
B) an intermediate compound in a biochemical pathway, the final product of which is a useful product.
C) the final product in a biochemical pathway.
D) either "a" or "c" above
E) either "b" or "c" above
Q2) In what way does metabolite production by a microorganism often depend on other microorganisms that may be found in the same environment?
Q3) If bacteria that have undergone strain improvement are introduced into a natural environment:
A) they will usually outcompete and replace naturally occurring, wild-type strains.
B) they will usually be outcompeted by naturally occurring wild-type strains.
C) they will usually act as predators on naturally occurring wild-type strains.
D) they will usually serve as prey for naturally occurring wild-type strains.
E) they will usually act as commensals with naturally occurring, wild-type strains.
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