Term
| Spores are found almost exclusively in? |
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Definition
| Gram - bacteria. Often in pathogenic bacteria. |
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Term
| Spores are viable for hundreds of years or much longer due to what? |
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Definition
| They are very resistant to heat, irradiation, chemical disinfectants, and desiccation. |
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Term
| What is the difference between terminal, and central endospores? |
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Definition
| Terminal endospores are seen at the poles of cells, whereas central endospores are more or less in the middle. |
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Term
| What is Bacillus sphaericus? |
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Definition
| Spore found, and revived from stomach contents of bee trapped for 25 million years in amber. |
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Term
| What is the structure, and function of an endospore? |
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Definition
| Aid in survival when nutrients or moisture scarce. Have a complex structure of many layers. |
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Term
| 15% of the cell dry weight is? |
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Definition
| Dipicolinic acid complexed with calcium which stabilizes the spore nucleic acids. |
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Term
| What are inclusion bodies? |
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Definition
| Granules of organic or inorganic material that are stockpiled by the cell for future use. |
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Term
| What often encloses an inclusion body? |
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Definition
| A single-layered membrane that varies in composition (some made of proteins; others contain lipids) |
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Term
| Name the four organic inclusion bodies. |
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Definition
| Glycogen, polyhydroxybutyrate, cyanophycin granules, and carboxysomes. |
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Term
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Definition
| A polymer of glucose units. |
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Term
| What is polyhydroxybutyrate? |
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Definition
| Lipid-like polymer, surrounded by proteins. Most common bacterial carbon reserve material. |
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Term
| What are cyanophycin granules? |
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Definition
| Large polypeptides containing about equal quantities of arginine and aspartic acid. |
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Term
| What are in carboxysomes? |
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Definition
| They contain the enzyme ribulose-1,5,-bisphosphate carboxylase (Rubisco), an enzyme used for CO2 fixation. |
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Term
| Name the three inorganic inclusion bodies. |
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Definition
| Polyphosphate granules, sulfur granules, and magnetosomes. |
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Term
| What are polyphosphate granules? What are they used for? What are some other names for them? |
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Definition
| Linear polymers of phosphates that can be used to make ATP. Also called also called volutin granules, or metachromatic granules. |
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Term
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Definition
| Intracellular chains of magnetite (Fe3O4). 40-100nm, membrane enclosed. |
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Term
| What does a magnetosome do? |
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Definition
| Acts as magnet, orientates cell in magnetic field so the bacteria can swim down into the nutrient rich sediment and away from oxygen. |
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Term
| In what would you find gas vesicles? |
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Definition
| Many cyanobacteria, and other aquatic forms. |
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Term
| What are gas vesicles, and what do they do? |
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Definition
| They are aggregates of large numbers of small hollow cylinders that act as a floating device that allows cells to reach optimum depth for light, oxygen and nutrients. |
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Term
| What are gas vesicle walls made out of? |
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Definition
| Protein. Vesicle walls don’t contain lipid. |
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Term
| Describe the permeability of gas vesicle walls. |
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Definition
Impermeable to water, but permeable to
atmospheric gases. |
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Term
| What does an internal membrane system do? How common are they? |
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Definition
| They are involved in chemiosmotic generation of ATP (e.g., photosynthesizing bacteria using light energy). Few specialized groups of bacteria have extensive internal membrane systems. |
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