Bacterial Growth and Metabolism: Prof. Dr. Batool Hassan Al-Ghurabi
Bacterial Growth and Metabolism: Prof. Dr. Batool Hassan Al-Ghurabi
d. Differential media
Differential shows up as visible changes,
variations in colony size or in media color, or in
the formation of gas bubbles or precipitates, e.g.
MacConkey agar
Methods used to measure microbial growth
• Count colonies on plate (counts live cells)
• Microscopic counts
• Flow cytometry
• Turbidity
• Count colonies on plate (counts live cells)
• Microscopic counts
• Flow cytometry
• Turbidity
Requirements for Growth
- Bacteria must obtain or synthesize Amino acids,
Carbohydrates & Lipids => build up the cell.
Requirement of growth included:
1. Nutrients
2. Temperature
3. Oxygen
4. pH (potential of hydrogen)
5. Osmotic pressure
- Growth requirements & metabolic by-products
=> Classify different bacteria.
1. Nutrient
-Carbon sources
-Nitrogen sources
-Inorganic salts and trace elements
-Growth factors
-Water
Nutritional types of bacteria
Neutrophiles:
- Grow at pH 5.4 to 8.5.
- Includes most human pathogens.
Alkaliphiles: “Alkali loving”.
- Grow at alkaline or high pH (7 to 12 or
higher)
- Vibrio cholerae -optimal pH 9.
- Soil bacterium Agrobacterium grows at pH
12.
Most bacteria grow between pH 6.5 and 7.5
Neutrophiles
Alkalophiles
Acidophiles
5. Osmotic Pressure
Microbes require minerals or nutrients for their
growth, which can be obtained from the
surrounding water.
Kreps cycle 2 2
ETC 32 34
Total ATP 36 38
Molecular biology and bacterial genetic
Molecular biology is the study of biology at a
molecular level and understanding the interactions
between DNA, RNA and protein biosynthesis as well
as learning how these interactions are regulated.
The field overlaps with other areas of biology and
chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry.
- The Modern of molecular biology begins in the
1930s and the term was first coined by Warren
Weaver in 1938.
- Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, molecular
biologists have learned to Characterize, isolate, and
manipulate the molecular components of cells and
organisms, which are:
1. DNA, the storage of genetic information
2. RNA
3. Proteins, the major structural and enzymatic type of
molecule in cells.
DNA and RNA
- DNA and RNA are polymers composed of
monomers called nucleotides.
- Each nucleotide has three parts:
a. pentose (5-carbon) sugar.
b. nitrogenous base.
c. phosphate group.
- The pentose sugar in RNA is ribose, and in DNA
it’s deoxyribose.
The only difference is that RNA has a hydroxyl
(OH) group, while DNA has only a hydrogen.
-There are two classes of nitrogenous bases:
a. Purines (double-ring) include adenine (A) and
guanine (G).
b. Pyrimidines (one-ring) include cytosine (C),
thymine (T) in DNA and uracil (U) in RNA.
Adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil
are usually abbreviated using the single letter
codes A, G, C, T and U, respectively.
DNA - Structure
- The structure of DNA was described by Watson and Crick
as long double helix
- Sugar phosphate backbone on the outside and its bases on
inside; the two strand of helix run in opposite direction and
are anti-parallel to each other.
The DNA double helix is stabilized by hydrogen bonds
between the bases
Bacterial genetics
• Bacterial genetics are different from eukaryotic genetics.
One of the major differences between bacterial and
eukaryotic genetics stems from the bacteria's lack of
membrane-bound organelles.
• The genome is all genetic instructions (genes) for
development of cellular structures, metabolic functions, and
their regulation.
• Genes are located within chromosomes (linear or circular) or
plasmids, as specific regions of DNA (or RNA for some
viruses).
Bacterial genetics
• Bacterial genome contains one chromosomal DNA and many
plasmids.
- Like other organisms, bacteria also maintain their
characteristics from generation to generation, yet at the same
time, exhibit variations in particular properties in a small
proportion of their progeny.
Genetic Transfer in Bacteria
• Genetic transfer-results in genetic variation
• Genetic variation-needed for evolution
• Three ways:
• Transformation: genes transferred from one bacterium to
another as “naked” DNA (e.g from lysed cells). New DNA is
incorporated into the chromosome.
• Conjugation: plasmids transferred one bacteria to another
via a pilus.
• Transduction: DNA transferred from one bacteria to
another by a virus.