MCC4: MICROBIOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGY

W-TH 5:30-7:30

Assignment #1

Name: Lovely Melody S. Aquino, BSN-2B Deadline: October 20, 2022, 5:00 PM

Read and understand the following questions before answering. Do not forget your citations in
APA format.

1. Differentiate Acellular agents and cellular microorganism. (10 points)

ANSWER: In general, microbes are classified into two types: cellular organisms and
acellular agents. The cellular camp includes bacteria, archaea, fungi, and protists.
Cellular microbes can also be unicellular, with one cell constituting the entire organism,
or multicellular, with hundreds of thousands or even billions of cells constituting the entire
organism. In the acellular camp, on the other hand, we have viruses and other
contagious substances such as prions and viroids. Now, cellular organisms are
distinguished from acellular organisms primarily by the presence of cells in cellular
organisms as opposed to acellular organisms. In contrast to cellular organisms, which
have parts such as a cell membrane and cytoplasm with encapsulated organelles and
tiny particles that serve various functions, acellular agents are those that are not made
up of distinct cells, cannot split into cells, or simply cannot divide into new cells (cell
division). Furthermore, acellular agents are sometimes referred to as infectious particles,
whereas cellular microorganisms are further classified as prokaryotic or eukaryotic.
Meanwhile, although viruses and prions are examples of acellular organisms, natural
laws do not consider them to be living organisms. Thus, unlike cellular organisms,
acellular organisms lack the three primary functions of living things which are
self-regulation, self-reproduction, and self-renewal.

2. In Louis Pasteur’s development of vaccine, cite one ethical dilemma that he had
encountered. (5 points)

ANSWER: In Louis Pasteur’s development of vaccines, one ethical dilemma that he had
encountered happened in July 1885, while working on a vaccine to prevent rabies in
dogs. According to sources, a rabid dog bit a 9-year-old boy named Joseph Meister 14
times on the legs and hands. At the time, it was assumed that anyone who was bitten by
a rabid animal would die. Meister's mother begged Pasteur to use his vaccine to save
her son. Pasteur was a chemist, not a physician, and thus was not authorized to treat
humans. Furthermore, his experimental vaccine had never been administered to a
human being. Nonetheless, two days after the boy was bitten, Pasteur injected Meister
with the vaccine in an attempt to save the boy's life. Fortunately, the boy survived, and
Pasteur realized he had developed a rabies vaccine that could be given to someone who
had been infected with the rabies virus. Overall, the ethical dilemma here is whether to
administer the experimental vaccine or not, since it has not yet been proven, and that
Pasteur wasn’t a physician, so it is out of his field and it could be considered wrong and
dangerous because of the risks, but because the mother begged so and gave
permission to save his son despite the risks, Louis Pasteur faced an ethical decision in
this case and tried his luck to save the boy, which thankfully caused the boy to survive,
 proving that his experiment was successful and could be a ray of hope at that time for
those who have been victims of rabies infestation.

3. State and briefly explain each of the Koch’s postulates. (10 points)

ANSWER: Koch's postulates are four criteria for establishing a link between a causative
microbe and a disease. Koch used the postulates to determine the cause of anthrax and
tuberculosis, but they have since been applied to other diseases. According to the first
postulate, the bacteria must be present in every case of the disease. This means
that, in order to establish a causal relationship between a causative microbe and a
disease, the microorganism must be found in abundance in all diseased organisms but
not in healthy organisms. On the other hand, According to the second postulate, the
bacteria must be isolated from the diseased host and grown in pure culture.
Pathogens must be absent in healthy organisms prepared and maintained in a pure
culture capable of reproducing the original infection, even after several generations in
culture retrievable from an inoculated animal and cultured again. Moreover, the third
postulate states that when a pure culture of the bacteria is inoculated into a healthy
susceptible host, the specific disease must be reproduced, implying that the
cultured microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy organism.
As a result, symptoms of the original disease must develop when a healthy susceptible
host is inoculated with the pathogen from pure culture. Furthermore, Koch’s fourth
postulate calls for that the same bacteria must be isolated from the experimentally
infected host. In other words, the microorganism need to be recoverable from the
experimentally inflamed host, and the microorganism need to be remoted from the
inoculated, diseased experimental host and recognized as identical to the unique
particular causative agent.

4. Cite one limitation of Koch’s postulates and explain. (5 points)

ANSWER: A limitation of Koch's postulates is that specific bacteria (such as those

responsible for leprosy) cannot be "grown in pure culture" in the laboratory. As a
result, only organisms that can be isolated and cultured can be fully applied to Koch's
postulates. For instance, the bacteria that causes leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae, is
extremely picky about its growth requirements and has yet to be successfully cultured on
artificial media. As a result, only infected humans, armadillos, and genetically engineered
mice can be studied. In addition, contrary to Koch's claims, some prokaryotes cannot
grow in a laboratory environment. In fact, more than 99 percent of bacteria and archaea
cannot be cultured. The vast majority of this is due to a lack of information about what to
feed these organisms and how to grow them; they may have specific growth
requirements that scientists are unaware of, such as specific micronutrients, pH,
temperature, pressure, co-factors, or co-metabolites. Besides which, some bacteria
cannot alse be grown outside of a host cell because they are obligate intracellular
parasites. Furthermore, some bacteria may be overlooked during standard
microbiological cultivation due to their low abundance and slow growth. Therefore,
others are picky or selective, with stringent growth requirements that must be met, and
thus, one of Koch’s postulates’ limitations indicates that a specific bacteria (such as
those responsible for leprosy) cannot be "grown in pure culture" in the laboratory.
5. Differentiate the structures of a eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell. (10 points)

ANSWER: All life on earth consists of eukaryotic or prokaryotic cells. Accordingly, the
main difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells greatly lies in their structures,
which determines which group an organism belongs to. The most fundamental difference
is that eukaryotes have "true" nuclei that contain their DNA, while prokaryotes' genetic
material is non-membrane bound. Mitochondria and chloroplasts in eukaryotes perform
distinct metabolic processes and are believed to have evolved from endosymbiotic
bacteria, while similar processes occurring across the cell membrane in prokaryotes and
endosymbionts are extremely rare. In addition, prokaryotic cell walls are generally made
of a different molecule (peptidoglycan) than eukaryotic cell walls (many eukaryotes do
not have a cell wall at all). Prokaryotic cells are typically much smaller in size than
eukaryotic cells. Prokaryotes are also distinguished from eukaryotes by the presence of
only a single loop of stable chromosomal DNA stored in an area known as the nucleoid,
whereas eukaryotic DNA is found on tightly bound and organized chromosomes.
Although some eukaryotes have satellite DNA structures known as plasmids, they are
generally considered a prokaryote feature, and many important genes in prokaryotes are
stored on plasmids. Meanwhile, when compared to Eukaryotes, Prokaryotes have a
higher surface area to volume ratio, which results in a higher metabolic rate, a faster
growth rate, and a shorter generation time. Furthermore, prokaryotes differ from
eukaryotes in the structure, packing, density, and chromosomal arrangement of their
genes. Prokaryotes have much smaller genomes than eukaryotes, owing to the lack of
introns and large non-coding regions between genes.

6. As a nursing student, can the study of microbiology help you in your career path?
(10 points).

ANSWER: According to Florence Nightingale, “Nursing is an act of utilizing the

environment of a patient to assist him in his recovery.” Thus, a nurse should have keen
eyes on the factors in the environment which could alter or help the client recover. In this
case, I believe that this is where Microbiology enters, indicating that its study is so vital in
the nursing profession. With this to say, as a nursing student, I agree that the study of
microbiology can help me in my career path. This is because although nurses are
responsible for caring for their patients, this cannot be done without putting health and
safety first. Microbiology concepts are used by nurses to keep environments free of
contamination and infection. Also, microbiology is used extensively by nurses on the job.
Meaning, as early as now, a student nurse should endeavor into studying microbiology
to have a vast knowledge and experience regarding what must not be done and what
must be done to establish holistic care to patients. In application for instance, when
nurses administer smears for gram positive and negative testing, they use microbiology
to check for bacterial contamination. Nurses must also use microbiology when disposing
of biomedical waste of any kind and they must determine the best way to handle the
waste so that it does not cause infection. Moreover, one great fact about Microbiology is
that its concepts assist nurses in seeing beyond what their eyes can see. Apart from
that, nurses are now responsible for implementing appropriate measures to reduce
hospital infections, particularly with multidrug resistant bacteria, so nursing students
should learn about microbiology to better understand bacterial dissemination and
infectious disease control. Overall, microbiology assists nursing students in developing a
solid foundation in the importance of health and safety in the nursing profession. This
 prerequisite course can help nursing students gain a solid understanding of what their
day-to-day lives will be like once they become nurses. As a result, in my opinion, if we
chose to learn every day, nurses will never look at organisms the same way again with
the help of the Microbiology course.

Citations/References

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l.

Acellular organisms. (2022). BYJUS. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from

https://byjus.com/biology/acellular-meaning/.

General characteristics of Acellular microorganisms. (n.d.). IGNTU Amarkantak. Retrieved

October 20, 2022, from
https://www.igntu.ac.in/eContent/IGNTU-eContent-314673366058-M.Sc-EnvironmentalS
cience-2-ManojkumarRai-Environmentalmicrobiologyandbiotechnology-1-2.pdf.

Gleichmann, N. (2021). Prokaryotes vs Eukaryotes: What Are the Key Differences?. Technology
Networks. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from
https://www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science/articles/prokaryotes-vs-eukaryotes-wh
at-are-the-key-differences-336095. Retrieved on

Eukaryotic Cell vs Prokaryotic Cell. (n.d.). Diffen. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from
https://www.diffen.com/difference/Eukaryotic_Cell_vs_Prokaryotic_Cell.

Pedersen, T., & Dutfield, S. (2022). What is the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic
cells? livescience.com. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from
https://www.livescience.com/65922-prokaryotic-vs-eukaryotic-cells.html.

Libretexts. (2021). 10.1D: Koch’s Postulates. Biology LibreTexts. Retrieved October 20, 2022,
from
https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Microbiology/Book:_Microbiology_(Boundless)/10:_
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Racaniello, V. (2010). Koch’s postulates in the 21st century. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from
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Long, T. (2007). July 6, 1885: Rabies Vaccine Saves Boy -- and Pasteur. WIRED. Retrieved
October 20, 2022, from https://www.wired.com/2007/07/dayintech-0706/.

Koch’s postulates (MPKB). (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2022, from

https://mpkb.org/home/pathogenesis/kochs_postulates.

Ng, D. (2020). Culturing the Unculturable: Working with Difficult Bacteria. Bitesize Bio. Retrieved
October 20, 2022, from
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Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Culturing Prokaryotes | Biology for Majors II. Retrieved October 20,
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Microbiology in Nursing School | What is Microbiology | How to Pass Microbiology. (2016).

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