Full Test Bank | Chapter 42 – Biotechnology And Industrial

Prescott's Microbiology, 11e (Willey)

Chapter 42 Biotechnology and Industrial Microbiology

1) Penicillin is produced by some ________.

A) bacteria

B) fungi

C) actinomycetes

D) protozoan

2) Production of semisynthetic penicillins involves chemical modification of a penicillin product after it has been released from penicillin-producing cells.

3) Most antibiotics are produced by ________.

A) unicellular bacteria

B) Streptomyces

C) yeasts

D) protozoa

4) Phenylacetic acid is added to the penicillin fermentation to allow incorporation of which side chain group?

A) Acetyl

B) Benzyl

C) Methyl

D) Propyl

5) The ________ lactose is often used as a substrate for penicillin production.

A) monosaccharide

B) disaccharide

C) trisaccharide

D) more complex molecule

6) Corynebacterium glutamicum is used for the large scale industrial production of ________.

A) vitamin B1

B) antibiotics

C) amino acids

D) polysaccharides

7) Corynebacterium glutamicum is used to produce glutamic acid, and this is most successful when the cell permeability is ________.

A) increased

B) decreased

C) not changed

D) isotonic

8) An amino acid that is used as a supplement for breads is ________.

A) leucine

B) aspartate

C) proline

D) lysine

9) The major organism used in the microbial production of citric acid is ________.

A) Penicillium notatum

B) Rhizopus nigrificans

C) Aspergillus niger

D) Lactobacillus delbrueckii

10) Although a small fraction of the citric acid used in the food and beverage industry is produced by microbial fermentation, most industrially used citric acid is derived directly from citrus fruit.

11) Most biopolymers industrially produced by means of microorganisms are ________.

A) cell wall constituents

B) nucleic acids

C) histones

D) polysaccharides

12) Microbially produced glycolipid surfactants are used for ________.

A) emulsification and increasing detergency, which aids in biodegradability

B) solubilization of hydrophobic compounds, which enhances cleanup and recovery of oil from spills

C) prevention or reduction of microbial growth on surfaces, decreasing transmission of disease

D) both emulsification and increasing detergency and solubilization of hydrophobic compounds

E) both emulsification and increasing detergency and prevention or reduction of microbial growth on surfaces

13) Which of the following is a reason why bioconversions are replacing chemical synthesis of certain compounds?

A) Bioconversions facilitate the scaling up of reactions.

B) Enzymes catalysts are not destroyed in the bioconversion process.

C) Bioconversions yield specific and biologically active stereoisomers.

D) Enzyme catalyzed reactions in the bioconversion process proceed much more rapidly.

14) Use of microbial enzymes for bioconversion reactions is preferred because alternative chemical synthesis requires harsh manufacturing conditions. 

15) In many ways, ________ as a biofuel compares very favorably to ethanol and other fuels.

16) The most commonly used substrate for the production of ethanol for use in fuel comes from which plant source? 

A) Algae

B) Crop residue

C) Corn

D) Rice

17) Which of the following is a disadvantage of using corn to manufacture ethanol as a fuel additive? 

A) Use of corn as a fuel source drives up the cost of grain worldwide. 

B) Ethanol absorbs water and would thus corrode fuel pipelines used in transport. 

C) Ethanol contains far less energy than other fuels. 

D) All of the choices are correct. 

18) Which fuel contains more potential energy per unit weight than gasoline? 

A) Ethanol derived from corn

B) Ethanol derived from algae

C) Hydrogen 

D) None of these contain more energy per weight unit than gasoline. 

19) To industrial microbiologists, fermentation means the mass culture of microorganisms.

20) Which is the key component in the process of successfully going from small-scale fermentation to large-scale industrial fermentation? 

A) The scale-up process

B) Developing a suitable culture media

C) Success in producing one liter of product

D) Finding the right organism to repeatedly produce one liter of product

21) Stirred fermenters can range in size from 3 liters to over ________  liters or larger, depending on production requirements.

22) Frequently a critical component in the medium, often the carbon source, is added ________ so that the microorganisms will not have excess substrate available at any given time.

A) sporadically

B) continuously

C) gradually

D) None of these choices are correct.

23) Primary metabolites ________.

A) include compounds such as antibiotics and mycotoxins

B) include bacteriocins and other similar cytotoxic compounds

C) are compounds related to the synthesis of microbial cells in the primary growth phase

D) are compounds that accumulate during the period after primary growth phase and have no direct relationship to the synthesis of cell materials

24) Molecules produced by a cell that are not directly related to the synthesis of cell materials and that are usually produced after the growth phase has ended are called ________ ________.

25) To ensure maximum production of desired metabolites, it is always necessary to maintain organisms in active logarithmic growth.

26) The first penicillin-producing fungus that could be grown in stirred fermenters was ________.

A) Penicillium notatum

B) Aspergillus niger

C) Penicillium chrysogenum

D) Pisolithus tinctorius

27) In the process of protoplast fusion, cells are grown in a medium that contains ________.

A) DNA ligases

B) lysozyme for bacteria

C) chitinase for yeast

D) RNAses

E) either lysozyme or chitinase, depending on the type of cells

28) The medium used in protoplast fusion experiments is ________.

A) isotonic

B) hypotonic

C) hypertonic

D) None of these choices are correct.

29) A major advantage of protoplast fusion is the fact that ________.

A) the microbes are rendered harmless by the process

B) protoplasts of different microbial species can be fused

C) the protoplast condition can easily be maintained indefinitely

D) All of these choices are correct.

30) The approach of using mutagenesis and genetic selection to produce microbes with new degradative capabilities or the ability to produce compounds with new and unique properties is called ________ evolution.

31) Which directed evolution technology takes advantage of an error-prone DNA polymerase during the process of copying the genome over and over? 

A) Error-prone PCR

B) DNA shuffling

C) Whole genome shuffling

D) Metabolic pathway engineering

32) Why is there a new reliance on metagenomics to find new organisms that may produce a medically or industrially important product? 

A) So far, only about 10% of useful microbes have been grown in the laboratory. 

B) Soils contain so many potential sources of microbes producing antibiotics it would take more than a century to screen them all. 

C) We do not have the techniques for growing most microbes found in nature. 

D) All of these answer choices argue for the need to use metagenomics to identify new useful microbial products. 

33) A major organism used in the biocontrol of a variety of types of insects is ________.

A) Bacillus subtilis

B) Bacillus thuringiensis

C) Clostridium botulinum

D) Bacillus cereus

34) A plasmid from the plant pathogenic bacterium ________ ________ is chiefly responsible for the successful genetic engineering of plants.

35) The Ti plasmid has been genetically engineered to improve its utility as a cloning vector by all of the following EXCEPT ________.

A) elements found in other vectors, such as selectable markers and multicloning sites have been added

B) genes responsible for resisting infection with B. thuringiensis have been added

C) nonessential regions, including tumor-inducing genes, have been deleted

D) genes required for the actual infection of the plant cell by the plasmid are retained

36) Which of the following is an advantage of using Bt to control insects? 

A) Bt does not accumulate in the soil or in nontarget animals.

B) Bt is easily degraded in the natural environment. 

C) It is a rather new agent, being only a few years old, so insects have not had time to develop resistance. 

D) Two of these are useful traits for the safe use of Bt to control insects. 

37) Which of the following is a disadvantage of using Bt to control insects? 

A) Bt does not accumulate in the soil or in nontarget animals.

B) Bt is easily degraded in the natural environment. 

C) The toxin can only be activated in target insects so it is nontoxic to mammals.

D) Though not well documented it is possible for horizontal gene flow to introduce Bt genes into other plants.

38) Diatom shells are of use to nanotechnologists because they build precise, intricate three-dimensional structures in large quantity. 

39) ________ are formed by certain bacteria that convert iron to magnetite; these structures are of interest to ________ because they are perfectly formed despite the fact that they are only tens of nanometers in diameter.

40) Biosensors involve linking which of the following with electronic circuitry?

A) Microorganisms

B) Gene chips

C) Microbially derived enzymes

D) Both microorganisms and gene chips are used with electronic circuitry.

E) Both microorganisms and microbially derived enzymes are used with electronic circuitry.

F) Both gene chips and microbially derived enzymes are used with electronic circuitry.

41) Biosensors can be used to measure the concentration of substances in many different environments. 

42) In a functional screen of the ________ ________, the genes are cloned into vectors and expressed in microbes such as E. coli or Bacillus subtilis, which are then screened for the acquisition of a new, specific function.

43) Which of the following is not an advantage of synthetic biology?

A) The need for metabolic engineering can be limited or reduced entirely when new genes are synthesized in vitro for a specific host.

B) It is more efficient to assemble large arrays of genes encoding enzymes that perform complex tasks than to try and find such an assembly already existing in nature.

C) Only biologically active stereoisomers are produced.

D) The technology can mix-and-match regulatory mechanisms with the expression of genes normally governed by other means.

44) Through synthetic biology, plants can be engineered to produce excess energy from photosynthesis that can be fed into existing electrical grids.