Microbial Growth (Microbiology)

Recall cards on microbial growth. How microbes grow: binary fission, the FtsZ Z ring and the divisome, generation (doubling) time, exponential growth and the growth curve (lag, log, stationary, and death phases), persister cells, budding and multiple fission, biofilms and extracellular polymeric substances, and quorum sensing. Counting microbes: viable plate counts and colony-forming units, serial dilution, pour and spread plates, membrane filtration, the most probable number method, direct counts with a Petroff-Hausser chamber or Coulter counter, turbidity, and dry weight. Oxygen requirements: obligate aerobes and anaerobes, facultative and aerotolerant anaerobes, microaerophiles and capnophiles, reactive oxygen species, and the detoxifying enzymes superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase. The effects of pH: acidophiles, neutrophiles, and alkaliphiles. Temperature: cardinal temperatures and the psychrophile through hyperthermophile classes, plus Taq polymerase and heat and cold adaptations. Other conditions: osmotic pressure and plasmolysis, halophiles and halotolerance, water activity, and barophiles. And the media used for bacterial growth: chemically defined, complex, selective, differential, and enrichment media.