Microbial Biology Study Guide Questions - 208 Verified Questions
Microbial Biology Study Guide Questions
Course Introduction
Microbial Biology explores the diversity, physiology, genetics, and ecological roles of microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, viruses, and selected eukaryotic microbes such as fungi and protists. The course examines the structure and function of microbial cells, their metabolic strategies, genetic regulation, and mechanisms of adaptation to various environments. Topics include microbial interactions with hosts and ecosystems, microbial evolution, and the applications of microbes in biotechnology, medicine, and environmental processes. Students gain foundational knowledge of microbiological methods and the significance of microbes in health, industry, and global biogeochemical cycles.
Recommended Textbook
Living in a Microbial World 1st Edition by Bruce Hofkin
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Sample Questions
Q1) Cells have the ability to maintain internal conditions within ranges compatible with life. This ability is called:
A) homeostasis.
B) evolution.
C) metabolism.
D) environmental response.
Answer: A
Q2) Which typical characteristics of living things are not observed in viruses?
Answer: Viruses are not composed of cells. They are unable to replicate outside the cells of other organisms and they have little if any independent metabolism.
Q3) Which of the following is not an example of a microorganism?
A) a bacterium
B) a protozoan
C) a flea
D) a virus
E) a single-celled fungus
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: The Chemistry of Life
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Q1) An atom has 1 electron in an outer shell that holds a maximum of eight electrons. This atom:
A) is most likely an inert gas.
B) will most likely form polar covalent bonds.
C) will most likely gain electrons to achieve stability.
D) will most likely become a negatively charged ion to achieve stability.
E) will most likely lose its outer electron to achieve stability.
Answer: E
Q2) The building blocks of ________ are ________ .
A) polysaccharides; fatty acids
B) DNA; nucleotides
C) nucleic acids; amino acids
D) polysaccharides; glycerol
E) fats; monosaccharides
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: The Cell: Where Life Begins
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Q1) Which of the following describes the correct pathway used by eukaryotic cells for the synthesis of proteins transported out of the cell?
Q3) Which of the following are the most closely related?
A) Two animals that are in the same phylum
B) Two plants that are in the same class
C) Two fungi that are in the same order
D) Two bacteria that are in the same family
Q4) What is different about the synthesis stage in a plus- and a minus-strand RNA virus?
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Chapter 5: The Microbiology of History and the History of Microbiology
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Q1) Why is a large population of hosts more important for the maintenance of a "crowd disease" than it is for other types of diseases?
Q2) The principle of attenuation discovered by Pasteur had important implications for:
A) antibiotic development.
B) vaccine development.
C) aseptic surgery.
D) pure culture technique.
E) the development of variolation as a defense against smallpox.
Q3) What was the important contribution to microbiology made by Anton Van Leeuwenhoek in the 1600s?
A) He invented the microscope.
B) He was the first to observe microorganisms.
C) He disproved spontaneous generation.
D) He was the first to show that a disease could be caused by a microorganism.
E) He was the first to describe fermentation.
Q4) What are Koch's Postulates? Explain how they are used to determine the cause of a particular disease.
Q5) What is the danger associated with agricultural monocultures?
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Microbial Genetics
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Sample Questions
Q1) The uptake of naked DNA by some bacterial cells is called ________.
A) transduction
B) conjugation
C) an insertion
D) transformation
E) a point mutation
Q2) Which of the following statements is true?
A) Individuals of the same species have the same genes, but may have different alleles of those genes.
B) Individuals of the same species have different genes but the same alleles.
C) Individuals of the same species have the same genes and alleles as each other.
D) Individuals of the same species have different genes and alleles from each other.
Q3) How does "proofreading" by DNA polymerase occur during DNA replication?
Q4) Identify and describe three distinct ways in which genetic recombination occurs in bacteria.
Q5) Explain how RNA differs in structure from DNA.
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Chapter 7: Metabolism and Growth
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Q1) Bacteria that grow well only at very low temperatures are termed:
A) extreme thermophiles.
B) mesophiles.
C) thermophiles.
D) psychrophiles.
E) psychotolerant.
Q2) In a coupled reaction:
A) a catabolic exergonic reaction supplies the energy needed for an anabolic endergonic reaction to occur.
B) a catabolic endergonic reaction supplies the energy needed for an anabolic exergonic reaction to occur.
C) an anabolic endergonic reaction supplies the energy for a catabolic exergonic reaction to occur.
D) an anabolic exergonic reaction supplies the energy for a catabolic endergonic reaction to occur.
Q3) 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.
Q4) 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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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
Q2) Which of the following facts provides evidence for endosymbiosis?
A) Mitochondria and chloroplasts have their own DNA, which replicates independently of the nuclear DNA.
B) Ribosomes in mitochondria and chloroplasts have a structure similar to bacterial ribosomes.
C) Chloroplasts have certain gene sequences in their DNA, which indicate a relationship with cyanobacteria.
D) Both "a" and "b" above provide such evidence.
E) All of the above provide such evidence.
Q3) Explain the rationale for the "RNA world" hypothesis.
Q4) Why is it that natural selection can never result in organisms that are perfectly adapted to their environment?
Page 10
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Chapter 9: An Ecologists Guide to Microbiology
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Q1) Mycorrhizal associations would most likely be found in:
A) benthic marine environments.
B) a freshwater lake.
C) a stream or river.
D) the soil environment.
E) microbial biofilms.
Q2) Most of the bacteria that live in lakes can be classified as:
A) oligotrophs.
B) eutrophs.
C) Gram-positive.
D) Gram-negative.
E) thermophiles.
Q3) In aquatic environments, the ________ zone represents the part of the environment where sunlight reaches the bottom.
A) photic zone
B) littoral zone
C) profundal zone
D) benthic zone
E) pelagic zone
Q4) What exactly is a biofilm? Where are biofilms found?
Page 11
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Chapter 10: The Nature of Disease: a Pathogens Perspective
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Q1) Why are symptoms in a host, such as diarrhea in the case of intestinal disease, or sneezing and coughing in the case of respiratory disease, beneficial from the perspective of some pathogens that cause these diseases?
Q2) In a latent viral infection:
A) there is rapid viral replication in an infected cell.
B) there is slow viral replication in an infected cell.
C) there is no viral replication in an infected cell.
D) numerous inclusion bodies are visible in the cytoplasm of an infected cell.
E) we expect oncogenes to be activated, leading to tumor formation.
Q3) The time period between infection and the onset of symptoms is called:
A) an inapparent infection.
B) the period of disease.
C) the incubation period.
D) the recovery period.
E) the threshold period.
Q4) Streptokinase, coagulase, and hemolysins are all examples of:
A) exotoxins.
B) endotoxins.
C) tissue degrading enzymes.
D) viral cytopathic effects.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Host Defense
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Q1) Toll-like receptors:
A) permit certain innate immune system cells to recognize certain molecules that are unique to microorganisms.
B) are found on the surface of cytotoxic T cells, and are used to recognize infected cells.
C) present foreign antigens on the surface of macrophages and dendritic cells.
D) are found on the surface of helper T cells, where they recognize antigens presented by antigen presenting cells.
E) are used by macrophages and dendritic cells to signal helper T cells that an infection is under way.
Q2) Describe how cells of the innate immune system activate the adaptive immune system under certain circumstances.
Q3) Which of the following is a good example of how innate and adaptive immunity depend on each other?
A) the release of perforin by cytotoxic T cells
B) presentation of the antigen by virally infected cells
C) phagocytosis of pathogens by neutrophils
D) the activation of humoral immunity by helper T cells
E) the ability of antibodies to function as opsonins
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Chapter 12: Control of Microbial Growth
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Q1) What is a nosocomial infection?
A) an infection contracted at one's place of work, or at school
B) an infection contracted from an animal
C) an infection contracted from improperly prepared food
D) an infection contracted during a stay in the hospital
E) an infection that a health care worker contracts from a patient
Q2) Which of the following statements is true?
A) Selective toxicity is harder to achieve when developing drugs against eukaryotic pathogens than it is against bacteria.
B) Compared to antibiotics, antifungal drugs usually have limited side effects.
C) To date, drug resistance has not been a problem with antimalarial drugs.
D) Drugs against eukaryotic pathogens generally act by interfering with ribosomes.
E) An advantage of most drugs against eukaryotic pathogens is that they tend to be extremely narrow spectrum.
Q3) In what situations would UV radiation be an appropriate method for microbial control?
Q4) What are some of the problems associated with the development of antiviral drugs?
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Chapter 13: Epidemiology:
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Q1) In the 1999 West Nile virus outbreak in New York City, which of the following pieces of evidence suggested that the pathogen under investigation was not St. Louis encephalitis (SLE)?
A) The time characteristic was not suggestive of SLE.
B) There was no mosquito involvement in this disease, as there would have been for SLE.
C) The viral particles were too small to be SLE.
D) Control measures initiated to control a SLE outbreak were not effective.
E) The case-control study indicated that this was not SLE.
Q2) Describe the design of a case-control study and how it is used to identify the cause of an epidemic.
Q3) A particular type of virus occasionally undergoes antigenic shift. In which of the following situations is antigenic shift most likely?
A) when RNA polymerase makes a mistake, introducing an incorrect nucleotide
B) when the proofreading ability of RNA polymerase does not function properly
C) when a particular host cell is infected by a single strain of the virus
D) when a particular host cell is infected by two strains of the virus at the same time
E) when the proportion of immune individuals in the population is low
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Page 15
Chapter 14: The Future Is Here: Microorganisms and Biotechnology
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Q1) One of the concerns about genetically modified plants is how they might affect wild plants. In what way? Why is this worrisome?
Q2) Genome analysis of bacteria has revealed:
A) that intracellular pathogens have the largest genomes of all bacteria.
B) nonfastidious bacteria have smaller genomes than fastidious bacteria.
C) that the genomes of different bacteria are remarkably similar.
D) bacteria can, at least on occasion, transfer virulence genes to each other.
Q3) Which of the following is an important obstacle to the routine use of gene therapy?
A) It has proven difficult to produce recombinant viruses carrying normal copies of a particular human gene.
B) It has proven difficult to get human host cells to express foreign genes in adequate amounts.
C) It has proven difficult to identify the human genes involved in genetic disorders.
D) None of the above is currently an obstacle. Gene therapy is now routine.
E) All of the above are important obstacles.
Q4) What is the polymerase chain reaction? Briefly state how it works.
Q5) What exactly is a DNA library? What is a genomic library?
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Chapter 15: Guess Whos Coming to Dinner: Microorganisms and
Food
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Q1) If you make homemade wine, which of the following accurately describes the relationship between sweetness and alcohol content?
A) The sweeter the wine, the higher the alcohol content.
B) The sweeter the wine, the lower the alcohol content.
C) The dryer the wine, the lower the alcohol content.
D) There is no specific relationship between sweetness and alcohol content.
Q2) In what way is the production of vinegar different from the production of the fermented food products discussed in this chapter?
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) Microbial fermentation only occurs under certain environmental conditions. Why, in terms of metabolism, do these organisms ferment under such conditions?
Q5) Provide a biochemical explanation for why bread rises during its production.
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Chapter 16: Better Living With Microorganisms: Industrial and Applied Microbiology
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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) Microorganisms to be used commercially usually are developed in a series of defined steps. Which of the following has those steps in the correct order?
A) laboratory flask » pilot plant fermentor » laboratory fermentor » industrial fermentor
B) laboratory fermentor » laboratory flask » pilot plant fermentor » industrial fermentor
C) industrial fermentor » pilot plant fermentor » laboratory fermentor » labortory flask
