Lecture 8 of Microbiology — Diagnosing Infections. Thirty questions, every one cited to the slide it came from. One split organizes the whole lecture. Every identification method is phenotypic (what you can observe), genotypic (the genetic makeup) or immunological (antibody against antigen) — and most questions here can be answered by asking which of the three a technique belongs to. Phenotypic methods need the organism grown first, which is why they are slower; genotypic ones usually need no culture at all, which is what makes them valuable for slow growers like Mycobacterium and awkward ones like Legionella; immunological methods may or may not need culture. Two things are easy to get backwards. Larger zones of inhibition mean a MORE effective drug. And in complement fixation, lysed red cells are a NEGATIVE result — fixed complement cannot lyse them, so no hemolysis means the serum is positive. The blots are worth learning as a set: Southern for DNA (the original, Edwin Southern, ~1975), Northern for RNA and gene expression (~1977), Western for proteins (~1981), Eastern for post-translational products (~1982). Covers specimen collection and handling; microscopic and macroscopic morphology; the biochemical tests and the differential media that report them; Kirby-Bauer and minimum inhibitory concentration; nucleic acid analysis through RFLP, the polymerase chain reaction and ribosomal gene sequencing; serology, agglutination and precipitation; the blots; complement fixation; fluorescent antibody; the immunoassays; and in vivo testing.
Answers reveal only after you choose. Your score and a breakdown by objective appear at the end, with a review of everything you missed.