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#	Question	Answer
1	What are microbes?	Microbes are microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, viruses, viroids, and prions.
2	What beneficial role do LAB play in the stomach?	They help check disease-causing microbes.
3	Why does Roquefort cheese have a special flavour?	Because it is ripened using specific fungi.
4	What are antibiotics?	Chemical substances produced by microbes that kill or retard growth of harmful microbes.
5	Name some diseases effectively controlled using antibiotics.	Plague, whooping cough, diphtheria, and leprosy.
6	Which vitamin content increases during curd formation?	Vitamin B12.
7	What is toddy?	A traditional drink made by fermenting sap from palms.
8	What are fermentors?	Very large vessels used for industrial-scale growth of microbes.
9	Who discovered penicillin?	Alexander Fleming.
10	Which diseases are mentioned as being controlled effectively by antibiotics?	Plague, whooping cough, diphtheria, and leprosy.
11	Which bacterium produces lactic acid?	Lactobacillus.
12	Which bioactive molecule is used as an immunosuppressive agent in organ-transplant patients?	Cyclosporin A.
13	What is municipal waste-water commonly called?	Sewage.
14	What are the two stages of sewage treatment?	Primary treatment and secondary (biological) treatment.
15	What is effluent?	The supernatant liquid remaining after sedimentation.
16	What does the BOD test measure?	The rate of oxygen uptake by microorganisms in water.
17	Which gases are produced during anaerobic digestion of sludge?	Methane, hydrogen sulphide, and carbon dioxide.
18	Why is untreated sewage dangerous?	It pollutes rivers and increases water-borne diseases.
19	What determines the type of gas produced by microbes?	The microbes involved and the organic substrates they utilise.
20	Which gases are produced by methanogens along with methane?	CO2 and H2.
21	What is gobar gas?	Biogas produced from cattle dung.
22	What happens to the spent slurry removed from the biogas plant?	It is used as fertiliser.
23	Which chemicals are commonly used in conventional pest control?	Insecticides, pesticides, and weedicides.
24	What is a major advantage of biocontrol measures?	Reduced dependence on toxic chemicals and pesticides.
25	Which insect helps control aphids naturally?	Ladybird beetle.
26	Which plants are mentioned as vulnerable to Bt-treated caterpillars?	Brassicas and fruit trees.
27	Which fungus is used as a biological control agent against plant pathogens?	Trichoderma.
28	Why are baculoviruses considered excellent biological control agents?	They are species-specific and have narrow-spectrum insecticidal applications.
29	What is organic farming?	Farming that uses biofertilisers instead of chemical fertilisers.
30	Name two free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria.	Azospirillum and Azotobacter.
31	What overall effect does mycorrhiza have on plants?	Increased plant growth and development.
32	Why do farmers use commercial biofertilisers?	To replenish soil nutrients and reduce dependence on chemical fertilisers.
33	What is biocontrol?	The use of microbes to kill harmful pests.
34	Which instrument is used to observe microbes?	Microscope.
35	Name any two fungal sources of antibiotics .	Penicillium notatum and Trichoderma polysporum.
36	Which gas is mainly present in biogas?	Methane.
37	What is the function of Cyclosporin A?	It acts as an immunosuppressive drug.
38	Name a symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacterium used as biofertiliser.	Rhizobium.
39	Which microorganism converts milk into curd?	Lactobacillus.
40	What role do microbes play in human society overall?	They contribute significantly to human welfare through food production, medicine, sewage treatment, biogas production, biocontrol, and biofertilisers.