GEOL 295 – Geomicrobiology
Final Exam Study Guide 2006
The following are key topics to concentrate on for your studies:
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Carbon fixation energetics – chemoautotrophy and phototrophy
Energetics and pathways of phototrophy – how is light energy used to drive reactions
Carbon fixation pathways – general process of turning CO2 into an organic useful for
cellelular biomass
Rubisco – role as the primary enzyme in CO2 fixation, carboxylase vs oxygenase
activity
Carbon cycle and microbial role in it – global picture and general chemical cycling
Heterotrophic carbon oxidation – oxygenic and anaerobic and fermentative,
understand concept of carbon mineralization (links to other element cycles of course)
Carbon assimilation and metabolisms – effects on overall degredation of different
organics, especially recalcitrant organics
Oxygen cycling and intermediate oxygen species
Cyanobacteria – metabolism, role in O and N cycling, evolution and
atmospheric/ocean chemistry
Oxygen metabolism – aerobic and anaerobic, general understanding of different
electron transport chains
Gradients – from a profile – understanding of what controls gradients (reaction rates,
diffusion, microbial activity) and how gradients change
Nitrogen cycle – assemble key elements of the N cycle – N-fixation, ammonification,
Nitrification/denitrification, nitrate reduction, anammox
Nitrogen fixation – general enzyme activity, O2 inhibition and microbial adaptations
to this
Iron oxidation kinetics as a function of pH and O2 concentration and controls on
neutrophlic iron oxidizing microbes
Iron reducing microbes – respiration of a solid – siderophores, electron shuttles, direct
contact – Geobacter and Shewy
Manganese oxidation and reduction kinetics – Mn(III), organic interactions, and
uncertainty on direct metabolism
Sulfur cycling – complicated chemistry and microbial diversity
Sulfate reducing bacteria – chemistry, diversity, evolution, and metabolism
Sulfur oxidation – nonphototrophic – S8 intracellular, complete/incomplete oxidation
Phototrophic sulfur oxidation – 5 classes of phototrophic anoxygenic sulfur oxidizers
Phosphorus cycling and microbial role – metabolism and nutrient limitations