Lab 1 Notes – Diversity of Organisms: Bacteria, Protista and Fungi

Lab 1 Notes

There are 3 bacterial forms

  1. Cocci: Spherical (round)
  2. Bacillus: rod shaped
  3. Spirillus: Spiral

•Bacillus: rod shaped

•is a gram-negative bacteria

•Anthrax is caused by Bacillus anthracis.

•Bacilli are resistant to heat, cold, radiation, desiccation, and disinfectants

There are 3 bacterial forms - Bacillus: rod shaped ENDOSPORES

•Bacillus: rod shaped

•Are extremely resilient due to having endospores

•An endospore is a dormant, tough, and non-reproductive structure produced by certain bacteria

•Endospores enable bacteria to lie dormant for extended periods, even centuries. Revival of spores millions of years old has been claimed.

There are 3 bacterial forms - Cocci: round

•Cocci: Spherical (round)

•Staphylococcusaureus

•causes a variety of infections in the body, including boils, cellulitis, abscesses, wound infections, toxic shock syndrome, pneumonia, and food poisoning.

•Streptococcalbacteria

•cause a variety of infections in the body, including pneumonia, meningitis, ear infections, and strep throat.

There are 3 bacterial forms - Spirillum: (spiral)

•Spirillum: (spiral)

All are aquatic except for one species (S. minus) that causes a type ofrat-bite feverin man.

Spirillumis a gram-negative, motile helical cell with flagella at each end.

There are 3 bacterial forms - Bacillus: rod shaped

•Spirillum: (spiral)

Spirochetes –

Some of these cause

Lyme disease

Syphillis

Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria, is a phylum of bacteria that obtain their energy through photosynthesis.

The name "cyanobacteria" comes from the color of the bacteria (Greek: κυανός (kyanós) = blue).

They are often called blue-green algae, although the name is sometimes considered a misnomer because cyanobacteria are prokaryotes and the term "algae" is often reserved for eukaryotes.

Are considered gram-negative bacteria.

Cyanobacteria

How did cyanobacteria contribute to life on Earth?

Many Proterozoic oil deposits are attributed to the activity of cyanobacteria.

They are also important providers of nitrogen fertilizer in the cultivation of rice and beans.

The other great contribution of the cyanobacteria is that they were the precursors to plants.

They changed the early atmosphere through photosynthesis.

Chloroplasts in plants is a symbiotic cyanobacterium.

Bacterial Diseases - Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which kills about 2 million people a year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Pathogenic bacteria contribute to other globally important diseases, such as pneumonia, which can be caused by bacteria such as Streptococcus and Pseudomonas, and foodborne illnesses, which can be caused by bacteria such as Shigella, Campylobacter, and Salmonella. Pathogenic bacteria also cause infections such as tetanus, typhoid fever, diphtheria, syphilis, and leprosy.

Bacterial Diseases - Tetanus

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

Tetanus is caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetani. It enters the body via an open wound and releases a powerful toxin, tetanospasmin. The incubation period lasts from 2 days to several weeks. This infection causes fever, pain, spasms of the neck and jaws. The treatment includes sedation, administration of muscle relaxing chemicals, antibiotics and antitoxins. The vaccine confers immunity for 5 years; in the case of profound wounds, injections with antitoxins are required.
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Bacterial Diseases - Typhoid fever

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

Typhoid fever is caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica. The sources of infection are represented by contaminated water and food. The incubation lasts 7 to 14 days, then fever, headaches, constipation and diarrhea install. The treatment consists of antibiotics.

To avoid this infection, food must be processed and manipulated in hygienic conditions. The vaccine confers limited immunity. This disease usually accompanies wars. A huge typhus pandemic broke out during the First World War in the Eastern Europe. Since 1914, over 20 million people died of typhus.

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Bacterial Diseases - Cholera

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

Cholera is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Humans take the bacterium from water infested with human feces

Causes chronic diarrhea, dehydration, loss of liquids and salts. These losses must be replaced. The vaccine confers limited protection, that's why hygiene is the main method of controlling cholera.
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Bacterial Diseases - black plague

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

Plague is caused by Yersinia pestis. The black plague broke out in Europe in 1347, when a boat coming from Crimea docked at Mesina, Sicily. Besides its load, the ship transported the pest, which soon spread throughout Italy. It was like the end of the days for Europe. In four years, this bacterium killed 20 to 30 million Europeans, about one third of the continent's population. Even the remote Iceland was struck. In the Extreme East, China dwindled from 123 million inhabitants at the beginning of the 13th century to just 65 million during the 14th century, because of the pest and hunger.
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Bacterial Diseases - black plague

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

Plague is caused by Yersinia pestis. The black plague broke out in Europe in 1347, when a boat coming from Crimea docked at Mesina, Sicily. Besides its load, the ship transported the pest, which soon spread throughout Italy. It was like the end of the days for Europe. In four years, this bacterium killed 20 to 30 million Europeans, about one third of the continent's population. Even the remote Iceland was struck. In the Extreme East, China dwindled from 123 million inhabitants at the beginning of the 13th century to just 65 million during the 14th century, because of the pest and hunger.
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Bacterial Diseases - black plague

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

The pest bacterium is transmitted by fleas and, usually, the infection jumps from rats to humans. The incubation lasts 2 to 10 days. The disease causes fever, swelling of the lymphatic ganglions and skin. Today, antibiotics can treat plague. The vaccine confers limited immunity.

This catastrophe has no match in the human history. 25 to 50 % of the inhabitants of Europe, North Africa and certain Asian areas died back then. Knowing the cause of the pandemic helped: in 1907, an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco produced just several victims, as the authorities started a massive campaign for exterminating the rats, while in 1896 an outbreak in India caused 10 million deaths in 12 years, as the cause was not known.

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Bacterial Diseases - Syphilis

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

Syphilis, caused by the bacterium Treponema pallida, is the most severe sexually transmitted bacterial infection. The first stage has an incubation of 3-12 weeks and it induces ulcered lesions (syphilis chancre) at the entrance of body's aperture organ. After that, it triggers skin eruptions, fever, hair loss, less severe hepatitis and genital condilloma, but if untreated, the lesions extend in several years to the nervous system, leading to death.
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Bacterial Diseases - Syphilis

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

The treatment consists in extremely powerful antibiotics (ceftriaxone, Cefixime, and others) which are also extremely costly. Antibiotics are most effective in the first stages. People must avoid having sex with probable carriers of the infection; it requires immediate treatment, ceasing sexual contacts until the end of the treatment and informing of the recent sexual contacts, for medical control and treatment.

Bacterial Diseases - Syphilis

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

Gonorrhea is triggered by the Neisseria bacteria and it is transmitted sexually. 62 million people, aged mainly 15 to 29, are affected worldwide, especially in urban areas and of low socioeconomic level.

The incubation lasts 3 days, and in men, gonorrhea produces urinary incontinence, urethra pain, reddening, penis burning sensation and testicle inflammation. In women, it induces severe pain that reaches the trumps and uterus. The treatment uses antibiotics and prevention is similar to syphilis.
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Bacterial Diseases - Tuberculosis

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

Tuberculosis is caused by the Koch bacterium (Mycobacterium tuberculosis). It is as old as the humankind is. TBC was found even in mummies coming from the ancient Egypt and Peru. 2 million people die annually of tuberculosis. About 150 million people are estimated to have died of TBC since 1914.
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Bacterial Diseases - Tuberculosis

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

One third of the people carry the Koch bacterium, which spreads through the air and milk from infested cows and affects all the body, especially the lungs. It induces prolonged coughing, fever, shivering, bloody expectoration, weight loss, sweating, tiredness, and glossy eyes.
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Bacterial Diseases - Tuberculosis

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

It infects one third of the world population and each year another new 8 million cases appear. Each second a person dies of tuberculosis. It is more aggressive in women and persons between 15 and 45 years old. Mutant strains are resistant to almost all drugs and kill about 50 % of the patients. It is spread worldwide, but its advance is rampant in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Philippines, India and Pakistan, with over half of the new cases.
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Bacterial Diseases - Legionnaire's disease

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

Legionnaire's disease is caused by Legionella bacteria. The bacteria are taken from air or wet environments. It causes symptoms similar to flue or pneumonia, accompanied by renal failure. The disease requires hospitalization and treatment with antibiotics. As a prevention measure, water and air conditioning installation must be controlled.
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Bacterial Diseases - Pneumonia

Top 10 Bacterial Infections

Pneumonia affects 1% of the planet's population and can be produced by bacteria (like Aeromonashydrophila) or viruses. It produces fever, shiver, sweating, cough with expectoration, muscle, head and thoracic pain, appetite loss, weakness.

This is the main cause of mortality in the world: it kills 3.5 million people each year. It attacks especially

Antibiotics

Theymay either killorinhibit the growthofbacteria.

Fleming was working on a culture ofdisease-causingbacteria when he noticed thesporesof a little greenmold(Penicilliumchrysogenum), in one of hisculture plates. He observed that the presence of the mold killed or prevented the growth of the bacteria.[6]

Antibiotics

Theymay either killorinhibit the growthofbacteria.

Fleming was working on a culture ofdisease-causingbacteria when he noticed thesporesof a little greenmold(Penicilliumchrysogenum), in one of hisculture plates. He observed that the presence of the mold killed or prevented the growth of the bacteria.[6]

Antibiotics

They are produced in nature by soil bacteria and fungi.

This gives the microbe an advantage when competing for food and water and other limited resources in a particular habitat, as the antibiotic kills off their competition.

Title and Content Layout with Chart

Areas of YOUR body that are more susceptible to infection

Ear Infection

Lung Infection

Throat Infection

Yeast Infection

Urinary Tract Infection

H. Pylori – Ulcers

Good bacteria

In the human gastrointestinal tract, good bacteria aid in digestion and produce vitamins.

Good bacteria assists the body’s immunity, making the body less hospitable to bad bacteria and other harmful pathogens.

When considering all the strains of bacteria that exist, relatively few are capable of making people sick.

Good bacteria is used to make some of the foods we enjoy.

Acidophilus milk is made with Lactobacillus acidophilus.

Butter is made from pasteurized cream, to which a lactic acid starter has been added.

Cheese is often made with Streptococcus and Lactobacillus bacteria.

Yogurt usually requires the addition of Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactococcusthermophilus, and/or Streptococcus thermophilus to the milk.

Beers, etc. -- Traditionally, the natural yeasts on grape skins determine the quality of wine produced. These natural yeasts, especially Saccharomyces cerevisiae (beer in Spanish is "cervesa") and Saccharomyces ellipsoideus, ferment the grapes to make wine.

Bacteria have a wide range of envronmental and nutritive requirements.

Most bacteria may be placed into one of three groups based on their response to gaseous oxygen.Aerobicbacteria thrive in the presence of oxygen and require it for their continued growth and existence. Other bacteria areanaerobic, and cannot tolerate gaseous oxygen, such as those bacteria which live in deep underwater sediments, or those which cause bacterial food poisoning. The third group are thefacultative anaerobes, which prefer growing in the presence of oxygen, but can continue to grow without it.

Bacteria may also be classified both by the mode by which they obtain their energy. Classified by the source of their energy, bacteria fall into two categories: heterotrophs and autotrophs.Heterotrophsderive energy from breaking down complex organic compounds that they must take in from the environment -- this includes saprobic bacteria found in decaying material, as well as those that rely onfermentationorrespiration.

The other group, theautotrophs, fix carbon dioxide to make their own food source; this may be fueled by light energy (photoautotrophic), or by oxidation of nitrogen, sulfur, or other elements (chemoautotrophic). While chemoautotrophs are uncommon, photoautotrophs are common and quite diverse. They include the cyanobacteria, green sulfur bacteria, purple sulfur bacteria, and purple nonsulfur bacteria. The sulfur bacteria are particularly interesting, since they use hydrogen sulfide as hydrogen donor, instead of water like most other photosynthetic organisms, including cyanobacteria.

Characterization of bacteria

Gram negative / gram positive

Aerobic / anaerobic

Heterotrophs / autotrophs

Bacteria play important roles in the global ecosystem.

The ecosystem, both on land and in the water, depends heavily upon the activity of bacteria. The cycling of nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur is completed by their ceaseless labor.

Organic carbon, in the form of dead and rotting organisms, would quickly deplete the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if not for the activity of decomposers. This may not sound too bad to you, but realize that without carbon dioxide, there would be no photosynthesis in plants, and no food. When organisms die, the carbon contained in their tissues becomes unavailble for most other living things.Decompositionis the breakdown of these organisms, and the release of nutrients back into the environment, and is one of the most important roles of the bacteria.

Bacteria play important roles in the global ecosystem.

The cycling ofnitrogenis another important activity of bacteria.Plantsrely on nitrogen from the soil for their health and growth, and cannot acquire it from the gaseous nitrogen in the atmosphere. The primary way in which nitrogen becomes available to them is throughnitrogen fixationby bacteria such asRhizobium, and by cyanobacteria such asAnabaena,Nostoc, andSpirulina, shown at right. These bacteria convert gaseous nitrogen into nitrates or nitrites as part of their metabolism, and the resulting products are released into the environment. Some plants, such as liverworts, cycads, and legumes have taken special advantage of this process by modifying their structure to house the basteria in their own tissues. Otherdenitrifyingbacteria metabolize in the reverse direction, turning nitrates into nitrogen gas or nitrous oxide. When colonies of these bacteria occur on croplands, they may deplete the soil nutrients, and make it difficult for crops to grow.

Protists

Major Categories of Protists

Algae are simple plants that can range from the microscopic (microalgae), to large seaweeds (macroalgae), such as giant kelp more than one hundred feet in length.

What are algae??

Algae (singular: alga) are plants or plantlike organisms that contain chlorophyll (pronounced KLOR-uh-fill) and other pigments (coloring matter) that trap light from the Sun. This light energy is then converted into food molecules in a process called photosynthesis. Most algae store energy as some form of carbohydrate (complex sugars).
Most algae store energy as some form of carbohydrate (complex sugars).

Uses of Algae as Energy source, Fertilizer, Food and Pollution control
Humans use algae as food, for production of useful compounds, as biofiltersto remove nutrients and other pollutants from wastewaters, to assay waterquality, as indicators of environmental change, in space technology, and aslaboratory research systems. Algae is commercially cultivated for Pharmaceuticals, Nutraceuticals, Cosmetics andAquaculturepurpose.

Algae – Feul Source

Fuel source

Algae can be used to makeBiodiesel(see algaculture),Bioethanoland biobutanol and by some estimates can produce vastly superior amounts of vegetable oil, compared to terrestrial crops grown for the same purpose.

Algae can be grown to produce hydrogen. In 1939 a German researcher named Hans Gaffron, while working at the University of Chicago, observed that the algae he was studying,Chlamydomonasreinhardtii(a green-algae), would sometimes switch from the production of oxygen to the production of hydrogen.

Algae can be grown to produce biomass, which can be burned to produce heat and electricity.

Algae – Food supplement:

Food supplement:

1. It is a complete protein with essential amino acids (unlike most plant foods) that are involved in major metabolic processes such as energy and enzyme production.

2. It contains high amounts of simple and complex carbohydrates which provide the body with a source of additional fuel. In particular, the sulfated complex carbohydrates are thought to enhance the immune system’s regulatory response.

3. It contains an extensive fatty acid profile, including Omega 3 and Omega 6. These essential fatty acids also play a key role in the production of energy.

4. It has an abundance of vitamins, minerals, and trace elements in naturally-occurring synergistic design.

Algae – Stabilizing agent

Stabilizing agent

Chondruscrispus, (probably confused withMastocarpusstellatus, common name: Irish moss), is also used as "carrageen". It is an excellent stabiliser in milk products - it reacts with the milk protein caesin, other products include: petfoods, toothpaste, ice-creams and lotions etc.,Alginates in creams and lotions are absorbable through the skin.

Algae – Fertilizer