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rahula523 wrote:Looking back at the rules, what questions will be ask about growth curves and graph interpretation(really sorry about all these questions, tryouts for microbe mission is tomorrow )?

Just know the steps in the growth curve and what happens that makes the graph look that way (e.g. during the lag phase the population is rather stable because the microbes are still getting accustomed to the new environment and organizing enzymes and nutrients in preparration for the log phase).

rahula523 wrote:Looking back at the rules, what questions will be ask about growth curves and graph interpretation(really sorry about all these questions, tryouts for microbe mission is tomorrow )?

Know the different stages of the growth curve- lag, log (exponential), stationary, death. Be able to identify those stages in a growth curve. They may also give you a growth curve and ask what phase the microbe is in.

This describes the phases pretty well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_growth

what kinds of questions do the tests have on roles of microbes?

can you also give me any possible explanations for stationary and death phases in growth curves

rahula523 wrote:what kinds of questions do the tests have on roles of microbes?

Their roles in the environment (e.g. decomposing) and their roles in idustrial procedures (e.g. pickling).

rahula523 wrote:can you also give me any possible explanations for stationary and death phases in growth curves

stationary: all of the nutrients have been depleted so no further population growth can occur.
death: with all of the nutrients depleted and oxygen levels decreasing, the microbes begin to die.

will taxonomy be mentioned in the test?

You might need to know some more famous genuses of microbes depending on who writes your test. You should definitely know the kingdoms and domains though (don't worry if you don't know them; they're pretty easy to learn).
Also, the more likely genuses on the test are probably ones associated with diseases (e.g. Vibrio cholerae is associated with cholera).

Taxonomy is going to hurt. Only recently did I realize that Spirocheates and Spirilum were different taxa.

Hi,
What microscope would you use to view a pollen grain?
Scanning electron?
What's the difference between stereo and compound microscope?

TIA