You have discovered a new microorganism and would like to classify it as a eukaryote or a prokaryote. To investigate this question you prepare a slide with a simple stain and view it with a light microscope with a 40X objective lens and 10X ocular lens. You also prepare a control slide using Saccharomyces cerevisiae (a unicellular eukaryote). You can see the cells on your control slide, but you don't see cells when you look at your unknown microorganism. What can you conclude from this experiment?
A) The experiment failed to visualize the organism because the stain killed it.
B) Your new unknown microorganism is probably a virus.
C) The cells of the new unknown microorganism may be too small to see with the objective and ocular lenses you used.
D) The new unknown microorganism is probably an archaeon.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The fact that cells were not seen with the microscope suggests that they may be too small to be observed using the lenses and staining method used. This does not provide evidence for it being a virus or an archaeon. Additionally, the control slide of Saccharomyces cerevisiae confirms that the staining protocol and microscopic setup was effective in visualizing eukaryotic cells, and therefore increases the likelihood that the unknown microorganism is a prokaryote.

You Have Discovered a New Microorganism and Would Like to Classify