Review Questions - (Bacteria, Viruses, and Protista)

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1. Describe the principal body forms of monerans (inside and

outside).

Cell Sizes and Shapes:

Typically, the length or width of bacteria falls between 1 and 10 micrometers.
Three basic shapes are common:
a. coccus—spherical (streptococci when in chains, staphylococci in
sheets),
b. bacillus (rod)—cylindrical,
c. spiral—helical.

Structural Features
They are prokaryotes—no nucleus or other membrane-bound organelles.
a. Metabolic reactions take place in the cytoplasm or at the plasma
membrane.
b. Proteins are assembled on floating ribosomes.

Nearly all bacteria have a cell wall, usually containing a tough mesh of peptidoglycan,
peptides cross-linked with polysaccharides.
Exterior to the cell wall is the glycocalyx, a jellylike capsule that helps bacterial cells
attach to a substrate or deter the host's infection-fighting cells.

Two kinds of filamentous structures may be attached to the cell wall:

The bacterial flagellum rotates like a propeller to pull the cell along.

Pili help bacteria attach to one another in conjugation, or help them attach to
surfaces.

2. Distinguish chemoautotrophs from photoautotrophs.

Chemoautotrophic bacteria utilize carbon dioxide and produce organic compounds

using the energy in simple inorganic substances such as nitrates and hydrogen sulfide..

A photoautotrophic bacterium uses sunlight as an energy source and CO2 as a carbon

source to make glucose etc.

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 3. Explain how, with no nucleus, or few if any, membrane-bound
organelles, bacteria reproduce themselves and obtain energy to
carry on metabolism.

Bacteria use prokaryotic fission to reproduce (DNA is copied and the cell divides in
two smaller cells)
Bactria obtain energy via photosynthesis, chemsynthesis (auto) and by digesting other
organisms or detritus, theses are chemoheterotrophic.

4. State the ways in which archaebacteria differ from eubacteria.

Archaebacteria are anaerobic and can tolerate high temperatures and high salt
concentrations. Most are heterotrophic aerobes, but some can switch to a special
photosynthesis, using bacteriorhodopsin.
Others use hydrogen sulfide to make ATP

5. Name two different diseases caused by viruses.

HIV, Polio, hepatitis (a, b, and c), measles, rabies, small pox etc)

6. Describe the general structure of viruses and tell how they are
classified into two main groups.
Outer protein coat and a core of nucleic acids makes up the typical virus particle.
They can be sorted several ways: By shape (helical, polyhedral, or complex), type of
nucleic acid (DNA or RNA), reproductive cycle (lytic or lysogenic)

7. Describe and distinguish between the two pathways used by

viruses to replicate themselves.
The steps of viral replication are as follows:

a. Virus recognizes and becomes attached to host cell.

b. DNA, or RNA, alone (or whole virus) enters cytoplasm.

c. Viral genes direct host cell into replicating viral nucleic acids,
synthesizing viral enzymes and capsid proteins.

d. Synthesized components are assembled into new virus particles.

e. Newly formed virus particles are released from the infected cell.

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Replication can proceed by way of two pathways:

a. In the lytic pathway, the virus quickly accomplishes the five steps
listed above and causes the cell to rupture (lysis), spilling its contents and
the viruses.

b. In lysogenic pathways, the viral genes remain inactive inside the host
cell (and its descendants); often the genes become integrated into the host
DNA only to resume their destructive viral activity later in the
multiplication cycle.

8. ____Algal______ protistans generally make their own food by photosynthesis,

but ___protozoan_______ protistans act as decomposers, predators or
parasites in order to obtain the energy that fuels life.

9. State the principal characteristics of the amoebas, radiolarians, and

foraminiferans. Indicate how they generally move from one place to another
and how they obtain food.
Characteristic of this group are the pseudopodia—extensions of the cell body. They use these
pseudopodia for locomotion and food getting (surround their prey)

The amoebas include Amoeba proteus (free-living freshwater), and Entamoeba, the cause of a
severe form of dysentery.

Foraminiferans are shelled forms with thousands of holes through which the threadlike
pseudopods extend; they are marine.

The radiolarians are spherical in shape but have delicate shells of silica. Mostly marine.

The heliozoans (“sun animals”) have needlelike pseudopods that radiate from the spherical
body like sun rays.

10. List the features common to most ciliated protozoans.

Features include numerous cilia that beat in synchrony, a cell “mouth” for food entrance to waiting
digestive vacuoles, and contractile vacuoles to get rid of excess water.

Ciliates have a primitive form of sexual reproduction in which genetic material is exchanged during
conjugation.

11. Two flagellated protozoans that cause human misery are ___ Trichomonas
vaginalis _______ and __ Giardia lamblia ________. (__also_Trypanosoma
________)
.

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 12. Characterize the sporozoan group, identify the group's most
prominent representative, and describe the life cycle of that
organism.

Sporozoan is an informal designation for parasitic protistans that must live part of the
time inside specific cells of host species.

1. All produce a sporozoite stage that is very often transmitted by insects.

2. Many become encysted during some phase of the life cycle.

Malaria, caused by Plasmodium and transmitted by mosquitoes, is a serious worldwide

disease.

13.How do golden algae resemble diatoms?

Chrysophytes (and diatoms which are a subgroup of Chrysophyta) possess

chlorophylls a and b, but other pigments (fucoxanthin) mask it and give shades of
yellow color to the algae. Diatoms are characteristic further by having silica cell
walls.

14.Explain what causes red tides.

Some forms of dinoflagellates have large population explosions where these red-
pigmented cells cause the infamous red tides and also produce a neurotoxin fatal to
humans.

15. State the outstanding characteristics of organisms of the green

algae division.

Green algae: They have the same pigments as land plants (chlorophylls a and b).

They possess cellulose in the cell walls and store carbohydrates as starch and sexually
reproduce.