Biology: The Dynamic Science

Peter J. Russell, Paul E. Hertz, Beverly McMillan

Chapter 26

Prokaryotes: Bacteria and Archaea - all with Video Answers

Educators

Chapter Questions

Problem 1

A urologist identifies cells in a man's urethra as bacterial. Which of the following descriptions applies to the cells?
a. They have sex pili, which give them motility.
b. They have flagella, which allow them to remain in one position in the urethral tube.
c. They are covered by a capsule, which enables them to multiply quickly.
d. They are covered by pili, which keep them attached to the urethral walls.
e. They contain a peptidoglycan cell wall, which gives them buoyancy to float in the fluids of the urethra.

Joanna Quigley

Joanna Quigley

Numerade Educator

Problem 2

A bacterium that uses nitrites as its only energy source was found in a deep salt mine. It is a:
a. chemoautotroph.
b. parasite.
c. photoautotroph.
d. heterotroph.
e. photoheterotroph.

Joanna Quigley

Numerade Educator

Problem 3

The ___ are all oxygen-producing photoautotrophs.
a. spirochetes
b. chlamydias
c. cyanobacteria
d. Gram-positive bacteria
e. proteobacteria

Bryan Valdivia

Numerade Educator

Problem 4

At the health center, a fecal sample was taken from a feverish student. Organisms with corkscrewlike flagella and no endomembranes but with cell walls that lack peptidoglycan were isolated as the cause for the illness. These organisms probably belong to the group:
a. chlamydias.
b. spirochetes.
c. Euryarchaeota.
d. Cyanobacteria.
e. Archaea

Joanna Quigley

Numerade Educator

Problem 5

Which of the following is not a property of an endospore?
a. resistant to boiling - must be autoclaved to be killed
b. metabolically inactive
c. can potentially survive millions of years
d. provides a method to preserve bacterial DNA under harsh conditions
e. is the portion of the bacterial cell that undergoes conjugation

Joanna Quigley

Numerade Educator

Problem 6

Bacterial cells are generally thought to act independently. An exception to this is bacterial cells involved in:
a. biofilms.
b. photosynthesis.
c. peptidoglycan layering.
d. toxin release.
e. facultative anaerobic metabolism.

Joanna Quigley

Numerade Educator

Problem 7

Penicillin, an antibiotic, inhibits the formation of cross-links between sugar groups in peptidoglycan. Bacteria treated with penicillin should be:
a. aerobic.
b. anaerobic.
c. Gram-negative.
d. Gram-positive.
e. flagellated.

Bryan Valdivia

Numerade Educator

Problem 8

The best choice when using/prescribing antibiotics is to:
a. increase the dosage when the original amount does not work.
b. determine the kind of bacterium causing the problem.
c. stop taking the antibiotic when you feel better but the prescription has not run out.
d. ask the doctor to prescribe a drug as a precaution for an infection you do not have.
e. choose soaps that are labeled "antibacterial."

Bryan Valdivia

Numerade Educator

Problem 9

Archaeans have:
a. proteins of energy metabolism like bacteria, cell division proteins like bacteria, and mitochondria like eukaryotes.
b. multiple types of RNA polymerases like eukaryotes, chromosomes like bacteria, and formylmethionine as the first amino acid placed in proteins.
c. operons like bacteria, multiple types of RNA polymerases like eukaryotes, and cell division proteins like bacteria.
d. no sensitivity to streptomycin, histones like eukaryotes, and no operons.
e. histones like eukaryotes, a single type of RNA polymerase like bacteria, and operons like bacteria.

Joanna Quigley

Numerade Educator

Problem 10

Methanogens, obligate anaerobes that generate methane, are:
a. members of the Proteobacteria.
b. members of the Cyanobacteria.
c. members of the Spirochetes.
d. members of the Euryarchaeota.
e. members of the Korarchaeota.

Bryan Valdivia

Numerade Educator

Problem 11

The digestive tract of newborn chicks is free of bacteria until, for example, they eat food that has been exposed to the feces of adult chickens. The ingested bacteria establishes a population in the digestive tract that is beneficial for the digestion of food. However, if Salmonella are present in the adult feces, this bacterium, which can be pathogenic for humans who ingest it, may become established in the digestive tracts of the chicks. To eliminate the possibility that Salmonella might become established, should farmers feed newborn chicks a mixture of harmless known bacteria from a lab culture, or a mixture of unknown fecal bacteria from healthy adult chickens? Design an experiment to answer this question.

Joanna Quigley

Numerade Educator

Problem 12

Investigators in Australia found that mats of pond scum formed by the bacterium Botyrococcus braunii decayed into a substance resembling crude oil when the ponds dried up. Formulate a hypothesis explaining how this process may have contributed to Earth’s oil deposits.

Joanna Quigley

Numerade Educator

Problem 13

You receive a sample of an unidentified prokaryote. Design an experiment to see if it is a bacterium or an archaean.

Joanna Quigley

Numerade Educator

Problem 14

Does our understanding of horizontal gene transfer affect our application of the biological species concept to bacteria?

Joanna Quigley

Numerade Educator