Why is it important to identify bacteria from an infection?
Accurate and definitive microorganism identification, including bacterial identification and pathogen detection, is essential for correct disease diagnosis, treatment of infection and trace-back of disease outbreaks associated with microbial infections.
Why is it important to identify bacteria in food?
The most commonly used forms of bacteriological analysis in food microbiology are detection and enumeration. The presence of specific bacteria and their concentration must be determined, to assess and control safety hazards, the potential for spoilage or to ensure correct product characteristics.
What is the importance of biochemical testing in identifying bacteria?
Biochemical tests are among the most important methods of microbial identification as they reduce time and cost ensuring the accuracy in identification of unknown samples, even in blood test labs.
Why might it important for a physician to know the exact identity of the bacteria involved in an infection?
When a microorganism is identified, doctors can then do tests to determine which drugs are most effective against it (susceptibility tests. Doctors suspect an infection based on the person’s symptoms, physical examination results,… read more ), and effective treatment can be started sooner.
Why is the identification of bacterial unknowns important?
WHY IS THE IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIAL UNKNOWNS IMPORTANT? Microbiologists must identify bacterial isolates for several practical reasons: • Medical diagnostics — identifying a pathogen isolated from a patient. Food industry — identifying a microbial contaminant responsible for food spoilage.
What is bacterial identification?
Bacteria are identified routinely by morphological and biochemical tests, supplemented as needed by specialized tests such as serotyping and antibiotic inhibition patterns. Newer molecular techniques permit species to be identified by their genetic sequences, sometimes directly from the clinical specimen.
Why is it useful to be able to use a variety of tests to identify bacteria and examine features of their metabolism?
Accurate identification of bacterial isolates is essential in a clinical microbiology laboratory because the results often inform decisions about treatment that directly affect patient outcomes. Some of the most important metabolic pathways that bacteria use to survive will be discussed in Microbial Metabolism.
Why do we need to identify organisms?
It is necessary to classify organisms because: It enables us to understand how complex organisms evolve from simpler organisms. To understand and study the features, similarities and differences between different living organisms, they are grouped under different categories.
Why is it important to note all the cultural characteristics in the identification of bacteria?
When grown on a variety of media, microorganisms will exhibit the difference in the microscopic appearance of their broth. These differences are called cultural characteristics and are used as a basis for separating microorganism into taxonomic groups.
Why are bacteria considered to be living organisms?
Bacteria are still considered living organisms, however. Bacteria are often composed of a cell wall, a cell membrane, and cytoplasm. Some bacteria have outer membranes, and most have the following structures: A chromosome, plasmid, a capsule and slime layer, an endospore a pilus, and flagellum.
What methods are used to identify bacteria?
The standard method used to classify and subsequently to identify bacteria is using the 16S ribosomal DNA sequence. The 16S sequence is useful for classification because it is a highly conserved part of the genome that cannot be horizontally transferred.
What is the purpose of identifying unknown bacteria?
Unknown identification is used for practical purposes, such as diagnosing diseases or determining treatment of an infection. Microbiologists identify unknown bacteria to determine new and emerging infectious diseases and current diseases to determine if any kind of treatment or antibiotics can be used.
Why is it important to identify microorganisms?
Microorganisms are both beneficial and harmful. These microorganisms are important to humans because they play a role in the ecology of life, by decomposing wastes, both natural and man-made, such as creating nitrogen fertilizer at the root zones of certain crops.