Category: Microbiology

What is meant by the term “enteric pathogen”?
Why are anaerobic organisms generally not seen in a routine fecal specimen or culture?
What are the indole test, methyl red test, voges-proskauer test, and citrate test (IMViC) reactions? Describe in detail all four reactions (what media is used, important ingredients, what each reaction measures, and what positive and negative results mean).
Create a flowchart for the isolation and identification of specific enteric bacteria from fecal samples.
Why might organisms in the upper respiratory tract change when the normal flora is replaced with transient flora?
What are the types of streptococcal hemolysis? Describe.
How is Streptococcus pneumoniae distinguished from other streptococci that have the same hemolytic properties? What additional tests are needed or performed?

Week 7 – Review Sheet
Exercise 3 – The Enterobacteriaceae (Enteric Bacilli)
1. What does the term IMViC mean?
2. Why is the IMViC useful in identifying Enterobacteriaceae? Are further biochemical tests necessary
for complete identification?
3. What diagnostic test differentiates Proteus and Providencia species from other Enterobacteriaceae?
4. How is E. coli distinguished from P. vulgaris on MacConkey agar? On a TSI slant?
5. Why is it important to differentiate glucose nonfermenters from Enterobacteriaceae?

When microbiologists isolate bacteria, the identity of the bacteria must be determined. Various staining methods and biochemical tests are used to determine the genus and species of the unknown bacteria. Students will report on the identity of a given unknown bacterium and describe the methodology and results of the Gram stain, biochemical tests, selective and/or differential media, and rapid membrane tests. Since this is an online course, these tests have been performed already, and the results will be distributed in a .docx file containing photographs of the slides, membranes, and media. The .docx file is located in Connect and is labeled “Topic 5 Identification of Unknown Data.”  
In the scientific community, it is important to be able to articulate data, key concepts, and conclusions from experiments that are performed. In this assignment, you will communicate the results of the lab in a formal lab report.
Complete the lab report using the “BIO-205L Lab Report Format Guide,” and submit it to the digital classroom.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a rubric. Review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
Benchmark Information 
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies: 
B.S. Environmental Science
1.2: Explain and apply biological concepts of structure and function at cellular, molecular, biochemical, tissue, and organismal levels of organization.

Choose one article from a primary scientific literature source that uses a microbe as a model organism/system and write a comprehensive summary of the study that answers the following questions:
Choose one article from a primary scientific literature source that uses a microbe as a model organism/system.
NOTE: Many free articles may be obtained from http://www.pubmed.govLinks to an external site. or visit the WCU library.
Write a summary of the study that includes:
Why did the scientists perform the study (i.e., description of background)?
What was the hypothesis (or hypotheses) under investigation?
What were the major results and did they support or negate the hypothesis? Which key techniques were used to achieve these results?
Why are the results significant and do they point to further/future studies? In other words, why does this article matter and what should or could be done next?
Why did you choose this particular article to review? Was it interesting, informative, clearly written, or none of the above?
Compose your review in APA format and include:
A title page 
Answers to the questions above in paragraph format (2 or more pages)
A reference page with the reference for your article and any other sources used in your review.

Write an outline or rough draft on “Development and Organization.” Include an introduction, thesis statement, list of major points that support the thesis, list of supporting ideas or arguments for each major point, and conclusion.

I received two unknown bacteria and had to perform many tests to determine which bacteria they were. My unknown #34 was Staphylococcus aureus which was gram-positive cocci and my unknown #1403 was Pseudomonas aeruginosa which was gram-negative bacillus. To start we had to perform a gram stain of both unknown bacteria to see if it was positive or negative, then for my gram-positive which was coccus, I performed a glucose, lactose, and nitrate test which all were positive. The cellular arrangement on my original culture tubes was irregular clusters and the TSA was pale to yellowish. My gram negative was bacillus so I performed a lactose test which came back negative. Then I performed a GLucode, NItrate, gelatin, sucrose, and mannitol plate test. The nitrate came back double positive and gelatin came back positive. Glucose, sucrose, and the mannitol plate were negative. which led me to the bacteria being pseudomonas aeruginosa. I will attach a picture of a lab report and how it should be written for reference. 

Antibiotic resistant discovery using soil sample and lab techniques to identify microorganisms that are in the soil. This experiment produce more knowledge about antibiotics resistance. Soil was collecting and was tested to determine the identity or a high close contact to the microbes that live there. This essay is a summary of the experiments that were performed to determine the identification.
used : agar plates. chose 2 eskape pathogens which were Escherichia coil and Myrobacterium.
used: the website blast to identify the sequence of DNA found in sample of soil.
Experiment 1: Devise a method to transfer microbes from a soil sample to a medium in the lab..
Experiment 2: Find a local soil environment you wish to sample..
Experiment 3: Find a method to isolate single colonies of bacteria from your soil sample.
Experiment 4: Choose your own media and culture conditions.
Experiment 5: Isolate unique colonies to test for antibiotic production.
Experiment 6: Understand the significance of the ESKAPE pathogens and using safe relatives in the lab.
Experiment 7: Design a method to screen for antibiotic producers.
Experiment 8: Initial identification of antibiotic-producing isolate.
Experiment 9: Testing isolate’s organic extract for antibiotic activity
Experiment 10: Testing isolate’s resistance to common antibiotics
Experiment 11: Biochemical characterization of isolates
Experiment 12: Assess activity against eukaryotes, potential use as biological control, and ecological relationships with other organisms..
outline :
This research has been conducted for the Brackenridge Park. Antibiotics have begun to become ineffective due to bacterial resistance. In order to combat this antibiotic resistance, soil cultures were taken from Brackenridge Park sources to begin screening for bacterial isolates that could be antibiotic producing. The location of choice was San Antonio’s Brackenridge Park. Due to the surrounding of the park there will be an abundance of diversity of microbes in the studied soil sample which will lead to the production of antibiotics in the soil.This experiment was performed to determine if any isolates produce antibiotics near the San Antonio Breckenridge park. Currently, there is a limited amount of antibiotics and the number of new antibiotics discovered is decreasing. If antibiotic-producing microorganisms are discovered, this can assist the issue by providing a new antibiotic to be tested.

MAKE SURE YOU READ EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU REQUEST TO BE HIRED. FAILURE to do so will effect the payment. Because everything must be done correctly! BIO253L Lab Report Guidelines
Submission Procedure and Due Date: Upload the file to the Canvas submission link by the due date in the syllabus.
Plagiarism: This lab report must represent the student’s own original ideas and wording and cannot be taken either partially or entirely from another published or unpublished work: students must complete the report independently and in their own words.
Unknown identification (80 points): The proper identification of the unknown accounts for 80 out of 200 points. Partial credits are awarded for getting down to only two possibilities, or for getting the accurate family or genus. Your score will be revised upward or downward based on whether you did all the critical tests, interpreted the results correctly, and explained convincingly how you arrived at your conclusion.
Formatting and Presentation (12 points):
The lab report should be computer processed (use Microsoft Word), spell-checked, and paginated (include page numbers, starting with page after the cover page). Do not allow spell-checker to alter scientific words. Use commonly used fonts (Times New Roman, Helvetica, Arial, Calibri, etc), size 12.
​
Cover sheet: On the front page, include your name, section of the lab (BIO253L-L1 or BIO253L-L2), name of the exercise, your unknown ID number, due date and name of professor.
Your lab report will be divided into five sections, each with their own major heading: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, References. Introduction (14 pts)
Introduce relevant theory and present the aim of the research (lab exercise). Start with a short general introduction to microbiology, ubiquity of bacteria, and pathogens. Indicate the medical or scientific importance of identifying microorganisms, and end with the goal of the exercise.
Material and Methods (18 pts)
Briefly describe what you did. Use the passive voice, not the active voice (Instead of writing “I did this or that,” you would write, “This or that was done.”).
Include enough details so that an experienced scientist could replicate your experiment. Mention all the tests you used. If you followed the protocols described in the lab handouts or lab manual to the letter, just reference them. If your exact conditions were different from the handout or lab manual (temperature, time, amount of reagent, etc.) or the test procedure was not described, make sure to describe them.
If you want, you can add some figures that demonstrate the difference between positive and negative results in differential tests – but you must cite and reference their sources. Instead of describing aseptic techniques in detail, just write that “aseptic techniques were followed as described in… “ (cite both the lab manual and lab handouts and include them in your references at the end).
​Figures: All figures in the lab report need to be numbered and need to include a descriptive title. (For more information on how to prepare a lab report, refer to McMillan’s Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences.)
Results (26 pts)
This is where you present the results obtained, often in the form of graphs and tables.
​A few sentences or paragraphs should guide reader through your tables and figures.
For this lab report, present the results of all tests in one table. Label it Table 1, followed by a table title. Table titles should be in bold and found at the top of tables. Make sure to include headers for each column or row, as necessary. If your table spans more than one page, put Table 1 (continued) as the title at the top of the next page and put the headers for each column at the top again. The table should include the results you observed for each test, and how you interpreted the results (e.g. +, -, Gram-positive, facultative aerobe, etc.). Include the pictures of every result in one of the table columns. If you can’t find a picture for one of the results or the picture is of low quality, describe the result obtained (you will still lose points). Describe ambiguous results obtained for some tests.
Make sure to describe the colony morphology for your bacterium in the results section and show a picture of the streak for single or of a few colonies.
Discussion (22 pts)
Usually, this section is where you draw conclusions and parallels, engage in speculation, discuss possible sources of errors or mistakes, and propose future experiments you could perform to refine your hypothesis.
For this lab report, explain your deductive logic approach (how you determined the identity of the unknown). Indicate how you chose which section of Bergey’s manual to use, how you figured out the family, genera, and finally the species of your bacteria as you accumulated more test results. Clear writing and logic will be critical for this section. A flowchart figure of the logical process can be useful sometimes. Make sure to cite the section of Bergey’s manual you used and reference it in at the end.
Present and discuss any problems, difficulties, or issues with the tests or with the determination of the unknown that arose during the course of your lab project.
Add a paragraph that includes additional information about the microorganism species you have identified (make sure to include the references you used).
In your last paragraph, compare your approach with more modern techniques for identifying microorganisms. What are the advantages of the newer methods.
References (10 pts)
Cite in your text and reference at the end of your lab report all literature or manuals used for your research project. For this lab report, put in the full reference the professor’s hand-out, for the chapter of Bergey’s Manual used, and for the outside source used in your discussion. Use the APA format (you can find help in the Biological Sciences” by Victoria McMillan (4th ed.) or at websites online).
Grammar and Writing Quality (18 pts)
Overall writing quality and spelling will also be assessed.
Writing species names: Make sure to use the proper nomenclature and always italicize the species, genus and family names: for instance, Escherichia coli. Always use the full species name first, then you can abbreviate the species name: for example Escherichia coli at first, E. coli later.
Grading Rubric (200 pts Total)
Grade for Unknown ID (80 pts)​
​Correct Gram ID & shape​/25
​Correct Family​/25
​Correct Genera​/20
​Correct species​/10
​Did the student present convincing and clear evidence?​​
​TOTAL​/80
Presentation (12 pts)
​Typed, Font 12, paginated, general look​​​/4
​Cover page and required cover page elements​/4
​MS-WORD file​​​​​/4
​TOTAL​/12
Introduction (14 pts)
​Introduce topic of Microbiology, bacteria ubiquity, pathogens​/6
​Objective (Aim) of Lab exercise​/3
​Medical or scientific importance of identifying microorganisms​/2
​Overall intro quality​/3
​TOTAL​/14
Material and Method (18 pts)
​Purpose of each test​/6
​Citation or Method description for each test (if not standard)​/3
​Incubation temperature & time (and details of reagent addition)​/3
​Gram stain method included​/2
​General assessment of methods section quality​/4
​TOTAL​​/18
Results (26 pts)
​Picture and description of colony morphology​/2
​Missing test results (-1 per omission)​/3
​Results table, title & number, format​/3
​Pictures of results for each test​​/8
​Accurate interpretation for each test​​/4
​One or more paragraphs in Results section that refer to Table​/2
​General assessment of Table and Results Section quality​/4
​TOTAL​​​/26
Discussion (22 pts)
​Logic-choosing section of Bergey’s manual​​​/2
​Logic-determining the bacteria family or genus ​​/2
​Logic-determining the bacteria species​/4
​Quality/clarity of interpretation logic and/or flow chart​/4
​Difficulties/challenges/mistakes​​/2
​Additional information about the specie you identified​/2
​Modern methods for identifying bacteria and their advantages​/2
​Professor’s assessment of discussion section overall quality​/4
​TOTAL​​/22
References & Citations (10 pts)
​Citation & Refs to Bergey’s Manual, lab hand-outs, & outside source​/6
​Professor’s assessment of APA style formatting​/4
​TOTAL​​/10
Overall grammar and writing (18 pts)
​Passive voice​/2
​TA assessment​/4
​Scientific name format and spelling​/4
​Professor’s assessment​/8
​TOTAL​/18
Total:​ /200.0
honestly I know it’s a lot but thank you! for the images you could crop them to the point they only sees the colors. And use the lab report pdf as an example of what the final results should look like. please please make sure you follow the instructions and everything that’s in the pdfs. please! this is worth 200 points please don’t miss it up. one more thing please go behind the page number requirement if you need to please because 20 probably won’t be enough.

Research the microbiology behind the development of autoimmune diseases, including the role of the microbiome, host genetics, and environmental factors. Choose a specific autoimmune disease (Lupus) and investigate its pathology and treatment further.  Discuss potential prevention and treatment strategies for the chosen autoimmune disease. 
Some resources I found: 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6300652/

Causes of Lupus