Term | Definition |
Heterotrophs | Organisms that can't make their own food |
Autotrophs | Organisms that make their own food |
Pathogenic | Disease-causing |
Plasmids | Small pieces of DNA containing only a few genes |
Spores | Thick-walled structures which allow bacteria to survive unfavourable conditions |
Binary fission | Form of asexual reproduction in a bacterial cell |
Photosynthetic bacteria | Bacteria that make their food using sunlight |
Chemosynthetic bacteria | Bacteria that make their own food using energy from a chemical reaction |
Saprophyte | Organisms which get their food from dead organisms |
Symbiotic organisms | Organisms of one species living in a close relationship with a second species where at least one organism benefits |
Parasitism | Two organisms of different species living together, where one benefits and causes harm to the other |
Antibiotics | Chemicals produced by microorganisms that are toxic to bacteria |
Sterile | Free from all microbes |
Asepsis | Excluding microbes from as much of the environment as possibe |
Prokaryotic | Cell with no membrane-bound nucleus or cell organelles |
Eukaryotic | Cell with a true nucleus and membrane-bound cellular organelles |
Continuous flow method | Production in which microbes are maintained in the log phase of growth by the addition of fresh medium |
Batch flow method | Production in which fixed amounts of nutrients are added to a bioreactor which is emptied of its contents at the end of production |
Mycelium | Mass of hyphae |
Chitin | Structural polysaccharide found in fungi cell walls |
Rhizopus | Bread mould |
Gametangium | Structure that produces gametes in Rhizopus |
Budding | Form of asexual reproduction in yeast |
Pseudopodia | False feet found in amoeba used for movement and to engulf prey |
Contractile vacuole | Structure in amoeba used for osmoregulation |