SBI 3C1 – Microbiology
Understanding Bacteria
Thursday March 7
Answer the questions while watching the video
1. What deadly bacteria was Saddam Husein growing? What disease did the toxins from the
bacteria cause?
Anthrax is an infectious disease due to a type of bacteria called Bacillus anthracis.
2. What is the greatest cause of death in human history?
Infectious diseases. It is also the third highest cause of death in the U.S.
3. What can we do rid ourselves of bacteria and other microorganisms?
- nothing
4. What % of all existing bacteria actually cause disease?
- less then 1%
5. What kind of harsh, extreme environments can bacteria survive in?
- hot springs in pools of acids
- in areas without light or air
- hot oceans vents, at 480 degrees
- versatile and adaptable
6. What are Bacteria?
- prokaryotic, oldest life form on earth, simple, without a defined nucleus
- the smallest of free living organisms
7. What do the bacteria in our guts do?
- turn our foods into sugar and process vitamins
- also fill niches that prevent bad bacteria from getting in
8. what is considered the most toxic substance on earth?
- “Clostridium botulinum” bacteria produce “botulimin toxin” which cause botulism in
humans.
- from 6 million times more toxic then rattlesnake venom
- a 50 mg sample can kill up to 1 million people
9. What are scientists now using this toxin for? How?
- Used to treat over active muscle disorders, Parkinson, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis and
stuttering
- at 1/1000 of a deadly dose, it actually becomes a “healer”, as a muscle relaxant
- plastic surgery, removes appearance of worry and squinting, but very expensive
10. How is bacteria used in sour dough?
- Bacteria in Dough, feeds off of nutrients in dough…and produces compounds which give bread it’s
sour taste
11. How does bacteria turn milk into cheese?
Fermentation:
12 . What is necrotizing faciatis? What is it related to?
“Flesh Eating Disease”
- a bacteria related to the same bacteria that causes strep throat
13. How does “bad” e. Coli get in our hamburgers?
E. Coli live in the guts of cows. When meat is ground down into ground beef for hamburgers, the
ground beef is contaminated
14. What was “Black Death”? How did it spread? How deadly was it?
- bubonic plague, transmitted by fleas, killed a third of population, death rate of 90%
- no medicines to fight it back in 14th centrury
11. What did Alexander Fleming discover? How?
- penicillin
- found that mold grown in his bacterial culture killed the bacteria
12. How do bacteria share information?
- they exchange DNA (genetic information) through a process called “conjugation”
12. What does anti biotic resistance mean?
That certain bacteria have developed a way to avoid the killing action of antibiotics
15. Why did the CDC do their study at day care centers?
- They are seen as the breeding grounds of new resistant organisms,
- high percentage of kids on antibiotics, so a bacteria that is resistant can spread around them
16. What causes antibiotics to become resistant?
- when the medicine doesn’t kill all of the bacteria, and the infection/illness returns, it returns even
stronger, because those are the cells that survived the initial attack of medicine
17. What are we doing to create “superbugs”?
- prescribing antibiotics for preventative purposes
- prescribing them for viral infections, (they don’t kill viruses)
- giving them to animals, and spraying crops with them
- we are “selecting” for antibiotic resistant bacteria
18. what is Vancomycin ?
- antibiotic of “last resort”, potent, expensive and toxic
- it is now being treat illnesses caused by pneumococcus that used to be treated by a spoonful of
medicine.
19. What major problem could arise with overuse of vancomycin?
- vancomycin is the only thing that can treat the # 1 leading cause of infection in hospital, which is
resistant to many other antibiotics
- if bacterias become resistant to it, then we are in serious trouble
20. how does global travel exacerbate the problem?
- resistance bacteria can be spread and shared
- the strains of bacteria that are infectious, but not deadly, can get this resistance and then become
untreatable
23. Explain how the bacteria cleaned up the river.
- Pseudomonas bacteria breaks cyanide molecule into 2 parts and used it as food source
19. What causes ulcers?
- helicobacter pylori bacteria, thrives in the stomach
20 What other chronic illnesses are may also be linked to be caused by bacteris?
- asthma
- periodontal disease
- hardening of the arteries
- chromes disease
- colitis
- rheumatoid arthritis
- even cancers
20. Why do researchers study bacteria DNA?
- to learn the functions of the genes: when you understand which genes code for growth or disease,
they can be manipulated for many purposes
- understanding the genes allows scientists to develop antibiotics, vaccines and industrial
applications
21. Describe how the bacteria survive at Yellowstone.
- produce enzymes which breaks down wood fibres which they feed on
22. What have they found in rocks from Mars?
- researchers found fossil structures that look suspiciously like small bacteria on a meteorite like
- this means that life might once have existed on Mars
23. How has the wide-spread use of antibiotics contributed to new health problems?
It has caused the development of anti-biotic resistant bacteria, which can cause diseases that
cannot be treated by antibiotics
24. How are bacteria economically important to humans?
- useful compounds (enzymes and toxics) that bacteria produce can be mass produced by taking the
genes responsible for the enzymes and cloning them into another bacteria that grows rapidly
- ex: bacteria in hot springs in Yellowstone produce enzymes which can be used to bleach paper in a
more environmentally friendly way
- ex: the botulinum toxin produced by Clostridium Botulinum can be used to treat muscle disorders
and for plastic surgery like BOTOX treatments
- Pseudomonas help break down toxic industrial waste like cyanide in a more environmentally
friendly way