All articles starting with M

Microarchitecture

Microarchitecture, also called computer organization, is the hardware design of a processor that implements an instruction set, including choices like cache sizes and pipeline length.

Microarray analysis, also called microarray technology, is a laboratory and computational method measuring thousands of nucleic acid sequences via hybridization to immobilized probes, used chiefly for gene expression profiling.

MicroATX

MicroATX, also written mATX or μATX, is a desktop motherboard form factor introduced by Intel in 1996, smaller and cheaper than ATX but compatible with ATX cases.

Microbacterium

Microbacterium, a genus of high G+C Gram-positive actinobacteria (family Microbacteriaceae, type species M. lacticum, Orla-Jensen 1919) with over 110 species from soil, food, clinical, and space station sources.

Microbalance

A microbalance is a laboratory weighing instrument with readability of 1 microgram or finer, two orders of magnitude beyond an analytical balance, used for microgram-scale weighing.

Microbial biotechnology

Microbial biotechnology is the branch of applied microbiology that uses bacteria, fungi, archaea, and microalgae for industrial, environmental, agricultural, and medical purposes, spanning fermentation, metabolic engineering, bioremediation, and microbiome products; the same name denotes a Wiley open-access journal launched in 2008.

Microbial carbon pump

The microbial carbon pump (MCP) is an ocean carbon sequestration mechanism, proposed in 2010, in which marine microorganisms transform labile dissolved organic carbon into recalcitrant forms persisting for millennia.

Microbial Colony Count

Microbial colony count estimates viable microorganisms as colony-forming units by pour plate, spread plate, membrane filtration, spiral plate, or MPN methods, with Poisson-based countable ranges such as 15-300 colonies per plate in FDA BAM and ISO standards.

Microbial Consortia

Microbial consortia are groups of microorganisms sharing metabolic interdependence, also called microbial consortium or SynComs. Members interact through mutualism, commensalism, competition, and other modes, enabling applications in bioremediation, bioenergy, agriculture, and wastewater treatment, with stability and scale-up as key challenges.

Microbial desalination cell

A microbial desalination cell is a bioelectrochemical device in which wastewater bacteria oxidize organic matter, generating current that drives salt ions through membranes, desalinating water without external power. It was first demonstrated in 2009.

Microbial electrolysis cell

A microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) is a bioelectrochemical reactor in which bacteria oxidize organic matter, producing hydrogen from wastewater with much less electricity than conventional water electrolysis.

Microbial electrosynthesis

Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) is a bioelectrochemical method in which microorganisms use electric current from a cathode to convert carbon dioxide into acetate, alcohols, and other chemicals.

Microbial enhanced oil recovery

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is a petroleum engineering method that injects microorganisms and nutrients into oil reservoirs, where their metabolites mobilize residual oil; it is low-cost but rarely applied.

Microbial food web

The microbial food web is the portion of aquatic food webs made up of bacteria, archaea, protists, and viruses that recycle nutrients and dissolved organic matter.

Microbial fuel cell

Microbial fuel cell (MFC): a bioelectrochemical device in which bacteria oxidize organic matter, such as wastewater, at an anode to generate direct electricity at the cathode; used for wastewater treatment, biosensors, and remote power, with power densities of 0.2 to 4.3 W/m2 but limited commercialization.

Microbial Interactions

Microbial interactions are ecological relationships among microorganisms, spanning mutualism, commensalism, predation, amensalism, and competition, studied through co-culture experiments, co-occurrence networks, and dynamic models like generalized Lotka-Volterra.

Microbial loop

Microbial loop: aquatic trophic pathway coined by Azam et al. (1983) in which dissolved organic matter is taken up by bacteria, grazed by flagellates and ciliates, and returned to the classical food chain; includes the viral shunt.

Microbial mat

A microbial mat is a layered sheet of bacteria and archaea growing on sediments in shallow waters, forming fossils called stromatolites almost 3.5 billion years old.

Microbial oxidation of sulfur

Microbial oxidation of sulfur is the set of metabolic processes by which bacteria and archaea obtain energy from oxidizing reduced inorganic sulfur compounds, mainly sulfide and thiosulfate, typically to sulfate.

Microbial pathogenesis

Microbial pathogenesis is the process by which bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites invade host tissues and cause disease, and the research field studying these mechanisms.

Microbial physiology

Microbial physiology: the study of how microorganisms function, covering growth, energy metabolism, biosynthesis, metabolic regulation, and stress responses in bacteria, archaea, yeasts, and fungi; also the name of a Karger journal (ISSN 2673-1665) continuing the Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology since 2020.

Microbial protease (unspecified)

Microbial protease (unspecified): generic term for protein-degrading enzymes from bacteria or fungi such as Bacillus and Aspergillus, spanning serine, cysteine, aspartic, and metalloprotease classes; used in detergents, food processing, and hydrolysates; many are GRAS.

Microbial terpene synthases

Microbial terpene synthases are bacterial and fungal enzymes that turn substrates such as farnesyl diphosphate and geranyl diphosphate into volatile terpenes, giving soil its earthy smell.

Microbialite

A microbialite is an organosedimentary deposit that accretes through interaction between benthic microbial communities and sediments, a term introduced by Burne and Moore in 1987 that includes stromatolites and thrombolites.

Microbially induced calcite precipitation

Microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is a biomineralization method in which urease-producing microbes precipitate calcium carbonate that binds soil grains, seals concrete cracks, and reduces permeability, used in civil engineering for sand strengthening and self-healing concrete.

Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation

Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) is a ground-improvement technique in which urea-hydrolyzing bacteria, chiefly Sporosarcina pasteurii, precipitate calcite between soil grains, binding loose material into a stronger, less permeable solid.

Microbicides for sexually transmitted diseases

Topical microbicides for STDs: vaginal or rectal gels and rings to prevent HIV and other STIs; dapivirine ring cuts HIV risk about 29%, tenofovir gel unconfirmed, nonoxynol-9 harmful.

Microbiological analysis

Microbiological analysis detects, identifies, and quantifies microorganisms in food, water, environmental, and clinical samples using culture, microscopy, immunoassay, PCR, and metagenomic methods, governed by standards such as ISO/TC 34/SC 9 and CDC biosafety guidance.

Microbiological culture

Microbiological culture grows microbes on nutrient media to isolate, identify, and susceptibility-test pathogens. Rooted in Pasteur's 1860 broth and Koch's agar plate technique, it remains the gold standard for viable isolates and phenotypic AST despite molecular rivals.