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Chp. 23 & 24
Vocab for 23 & 24 Biology
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Halophile | An organism that can grow in, or favors environments that have very high salt concentrations |
Bacillus | A rod-shaped bacterium |
Coccus | A sphere-shaped bacterium |
Spirillum | A spiral-shaped bacterium |
Streptococcus | A coccus that grows with others in chains |
Virulent | Describes a microorganism that causes disease and that is highly infectious; strictly, refers only to viruses that reproduce by the lytic cycle |
Oncogene | A gene that produces cancer, or uncontrolled cell proliferation |
Viroid | An infectious agent that is made up of a short, circular, single strand of RNA that does not have a capsid; the smallest known particle that is able to replicate |
Prion | An infectious particle that consists only of a protein and that does not contain DNA or RNA |
Virus | A nonliving, infectious particle composed of a nucleic acid and a protein coat; it can invade and destroy a cell |
Envelope | A membranelike layer that covers the capsids of some viruses |
Retrovirus | A virus that contains single-stranded RNA and produces a reverse transcriptase, which converts RNA to DNA |
Bacteriophage | A virus that infects bacteria |
Lytic cycle | A method of viral replication that results in the destruction of a host cell and the release of many new virus particles |
Virulent lysis | The event of a phage enzyme called a lysozyme digesting the cell wall, and up to to 200 new phage particles bursting from the bacterial cell |
Lysogenic cycle | A method of viral replication in which a viral genome is replicated as a provirus without destroying the host cell |
Temperate virus | A virus whose replication includes the lysogenic cycle |
Prophage | The viral genome (DNA) of a bacteriophage that has entered a bacterial cell, has become attached to the bacterial chromosome, and is replicated with the host bacterium's DNA |
Inactivated virus | A commercially-prepared vaccine against various viral infections |
Attenuated virus | A vaccine created by reducing the virulence of a pathogen, but still keeping it viable |
Vector | In biology, any agent, such as a plasmid or a virus, that can incorporate foreign DNA and transfer that DNA from one organism to another; an intermediate host that transfers a pathogen or a parasite to another organism |
Antibiotic | A substance that inhibits the growth of or kills microorganisms |
Conjugation | In algae and fungi, an exchange of genetic material that occurs between two temporarily joined cells; in prokaryotes, the process by which two organisms bind together and one cell transfers DNA to the other cell through a structure called a sec pilus |
Obligate anaerobe | An organism that needs the absence of oxygen in order to live |
Facultative anaerobe | An organism that can live with or without oxygen |
Exotoxin | A potent, extracellular toxin secreted by some gram positive bacteria |
Endotoxin | A toxin that occurs in the outer membrane of Gram negative bacteria and that is released when the bacterial cell breaks apart |
Antibiotic resistance | The ability of a population of bacteria to survive the lethal effects of an antibiotic |
Pathology | The scientific study of disease |