Microbiology: study guide and practice
Also known as: biol 2420, biol 2421, micr 201, micro 201, bio 205, micro for nursing, microbiology for nursing, general microbiology, intro to microbiology, introductory microbiology, microbiology for health sciences, microbiology
What you will be able to do
- Describe the structure of bacterial, archaeal and eukaryotic microbial cells and how they are classified
- Explain bacterial growth and calculate generation times, population sizes and colony counts
- Distinguish sterilisation, disinfection and antisepsis and explain how common control methods work
- Summarise how microbes make energy: fermentation, aerobic and anaerobic respiration, and photosynthesis
- Explain DNA replication, transcription, translation and the three routes of horizontal gene transfer
- Describe virus structure and the lytic and lysogenic replication cycles
- Outline innate and adaptive immune defences and how vaccination builds memory
- Use the vocabulary of virulence, transmission and epidemiology, and explain antimicrobial action and resistance as concepts
Topics
- Microbial cell structure and classificationHow bacteria, archaea and eukaryotic microbes are built, how they are grouped into three domains, and why the Gram stain works.
- Microbial growth and controlThe bacterial growth curve, doubling calculations, counting colonies after dilution, and how heat and chemicals control microbes.
- Microbial metabolismHow microbes capture energy with glycolysis, fermentation and respiration, and how they are classed by energy and carbon source.
- Microbial geneticsDNA replication, transcription and translation in bacteria, and how genes move between cells by transformation, transduction and conjugation.
- VirusesWhat viruses are made of, how they replicate, and the difference between lytic and lysogenic cycles.
- The immune systemInnate and adaptive defences, the cells and antibodies involved, and how immune memory works.
- Pathogenesis and infectionHow microbes cause disease: virulence, toxins, stages of infection, routes of transmission and the language of epidemiology.
- Infection control and antimicrobial conceptsHow infection control breaks the chain of transmission, how antimicrobials target microbes, and how resistance arises, as concepts only.