Microorganisms play an important role in our life: helps us to digest our food, decompose wastes and participate in various life cycles. They are diverse and have adapted to inhabit different environments including extreme conditions, such as hot vents under the ocean to ice caps; hence known as extremophiles. There are more microorganisms present in us than there are cells, and the various microorganisms are bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa. Many people associate microorganisms as death and diseases causing agents; also frequently compared to dirt. Although some microorganisms are responsible for causing diseases, most microorganisms’ original hosts are not the human body so are not pathogenic, but commensal. This essay will discuss the numerous beneficial microorganisms that carry out processes in biotechnology, agriculture, industries and environment; necessary to sustain life. First of all, essential uses of microorganisms are seen in the environment, as they play a vital role in many of the nutrient cycles. For instance, carbon fixation from the atmosphere during the carbon cycle by autotrophic bacteria, such as cyanobacteria; synthesizes organic molecules for other organisms and release oxygen for our consumption. In addition, microorganisms are vital participants of the food chain since they act as decomposers; breaking down dead organisms and organic materials and releasing minerals for uptake by living organisms and CO2 back into the atmosphere for photosynthetic organisms. Microorganisms, known as methanogens, influence the carbon cycle by converting CO2 in their cells to methane and releasing it into atmosphere; thus increasing methane concentration whereas methanothrophs consume methane from the atmosphere, lead...
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...ate minerals from ores containing low-levels of minerals (Hofkin, 2010). Microorganisms have been beneficial to humans in the past too - the Weil-Felix test for typhus. A patient infected with Rickettsia prosecute will have antibodies to this bacterial species circulating in their blood which can bind to Proteus OX19, harmless soil bacterium. Physicians used to diagnose typhus by mixing patient's blood serum with Proteus OX19, positive test for typhus is confirmed when Proteus OX19 is clumped together (Hofkin, 2010). Overall, microorganisms are vital for life on Earth and are more than disease causing agents. Few microorganisms are pathogenic, but many more has an important role in various ecological and industrial processes, maintaining human health; and every day new discoveries are made that shows microorganisms are crucial for scientific advances to be made.
In her book, Dorothy Crawford gives biographies of the history of microbes which have brought humans diseases on a large scale. These include epidemics like yellow fever, tuberculosis, smallpox, acute respiratory syndrome, bubonic plague, syphilis HIV, the Black Death, malaria and cholera. It is worth to point out that her work is up to date because most of these microbes are still with us in this era. Crawford uses the historical bibliography of humans experience with microbes to show a fact that microbes shaped our culture through infection, disease, and pandemic. At the same time, the ever changing human culture has also largely influenced the evolutionary nature of microbes.
This paper discusses the development and history of Microbiology and its impact on human health over time. This includes an examination of historical events that led to the development of techniques and procedures used for the handling of microorganisms, and
...standing the nature of relationship between the residing microbes inside human cells and about their function is very important to put an end to this war and to live in peace with the natural organisms that are benefitting human body and their survival has become our primary importance.
Slack, John M. and I. S. Snyder. Bacteria and Human Disease. Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers, Inc., 1978.
Humans need various things in our lives in order for us to continue our growth. When we are infants, we need milk to meet our daily nutritional values. As we get older we need plenty of physical activity. We also need to rest often to allow our bodies a chance to repair themselves. Microbes are no different in that they need many things for them to survive and grow. In the following paragraphs, I’d like to look at five factors that can affect a microbe’s ability to grow.
We live in an environment full of microorganisms. These organisms may be pathogenic causing serious infections to humans and other living organisms, some just commensals while others are helpful in the food industry. The harmful effect of these organisms is a function of the condition that surrounds them at a particular time. For example, a favorable temperature, and the acidity or alkalinity of the medium in which they find themselves are some of the key factors that helps them multiply well enough to cause infection.
Hats off to bacteria! This article summarizes that bacteria are good for our body and help us function a lot better. Bacteria live in our guts, in our mouths, and on our skin. Overuse of antibiotics has disturbed the bacterial ecosystem, possibly so much that it is irreversible. In 1999 Lawrence Brandt a professor of medicine and surgery at the Albert Einstein College of medicine had success when trying to help a patient combat diarrhea induced by clostridium difficile. A patient developed diarrhea after taking a course of antibiotics for sinusitis; nothing could shake her C.difficile infection. Brandt reasoned the initial antibiotic treatment had killed gut bacteria that promote digestive health; not knowing which strain to replace, he transplanted stool form her husband. That night she reported marked improvement- for the first time in six months. This procedure has helped patients, but hopefully in the future doctors will be able to administer the particular strain of bacteria that is needed. 99% of the bacteria we harbor are resistant to culture in the lab. It was this impossible to study bacteria until the last decade or so, when DNA sequencing techniques allowed researchers to obtain gene sequences from as little as one bacterial cell. With this researchers found that bacteria cells in our bodies outnumber our human cells. Bacterial exposure throughout our lifetime is needed for our wellbeing, thinking, and functioning, contributing to conditions such as diabetes, obesity, allergies, asthma, and atherosclerosis, as well as to anxiety and mood and cognition disorders. These conditions have become more prominent because of our obsession with sanitation has eliminated the exposure to bacteria humans used to routinely get throu...
When one thinks of bacteria, what comes to mind? Bacteria are single celled organisms whose main objective in life is to gather nutrient and reproduce asexually. They just grow and divide. Humans have very interesting interactions with bacteria. In our bodies we have one trillion cells that make us who we are. Outside and inside our bodies, we have 10 trillion bacterial cells that help us (dietary functions like making vitamins, creating a barrier against foreign/bad bacteria, helping our immune system, etc.). In terms of DNA, we have 30,000 genes. Bacteria in and on our bodies have about 300,000 genes. So really, we are more bacterial than human, proportionately speaking. Bonnie Bassler and her team worked to figure out just how these small organisms communicate with each other, and what they found is actually quite interesting.
Microbial decomposition releases nutrients into the environment that are needed by other organisms. Microbes are also involved in the cycling of many other important compounds in — and between — ecosystems, including oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. Many microbes use the energy of sunlight to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, which we need to breathe. As they do this, they create new organic material — themselves — which are then eaten by other organisms. In this way, the cycling of nutrients and energy
Around hydrothermal vents the growth rate of microbes is high due to the chemical energy present in the hydrothermal fluids. The energy found in the hydrothermal fluids is used by chemoautotrophic bacteria in the same way that photoautotrophic organisms in the photosynthetic biosphere use energy from the sun. The chemicals that constitute hydrothermal fluids are electron-rich. The electron-rich hydrothermal fluids react by transferring their electrons to oxygen-rich compounds. The oxidation reaction allows energy to be released and available for the microbes to convert into biological energy to fuel biological processes. Many of the chemoautotrophic bacteria present in hydrothermal vent ecosystems have differentiated to be unique in the usage of a specific electron donor. As a result, microbial ecosystems at hydrothermal vents are named according to the electron donor that sustains that ecosystem (Tebo
Bacterial cells, like plant cells, are surrounded by a cell wall. However, bacterial cell walls are made up of polysaccharide chains linked to amino acids, while plant cell walls are made up of cellulose, which contains no amino acids. Many bacteria secrete a slimy capsule around the outside of the cell wall. The capsule provides additional protection for the cell. Many of the bacteria that cause diseases in animals are surrounded by a capsule. The capsule prevents the white blood cells and antibodies from destroying the invading bacterium. Inside the capsule and the cell wall is the cell membrane. In aerobic bacteria, the reactions of cellular respiration take place on fingerlike infoldings of the cell membrane. Ribosomes are scattered throughout the cytoplasm, and the DNA is generally found in the center of the cell. Many bacilli and spirilla have flagella, which are used for locomotion in water. A few types of bacteria that lack flagella move by gliding on a surface. However, the mechanism of this gliding motion is unknown. Most bacteria are aerobic, they require free oxygen to carry on cellular respiration. Some bacteria, called facultatibe anaerobes can live in either the presence or absence of free oxygen. They obtain energy either by aerobic respiration when oxygen is present or by fermentation when oxygen is absent. Still other bacteria cannot live in the presence of oxygen. These are called obligate anaerobes. Such bacteria obtain energy only fermentation. Through fermentation, different groups of bacteria produce a wide variety of organic compounds. Besides ethyl alcohol and lactic acid, bacterial fermentation can produce acetic acid, acetone, butyl alcohol, glycol, butyric acid, propionic acid, and methane, the main component of natural gas. Most bacteria are heterotrophic bacteria are either saprophytes or parasites. Saprophytes feed on the remains of dead plants and animals, and ordinarily do not cause disease. They release digestive enzymes onto the organic matter. The enzymes breakdown the large food molecules into smaller molecules, which are absorbed by the bacterial cells. Parasites live on or in living organisms, and may cause disease. A few types of bacteria are Autotrophic, they can synthesize the organic nutrients they require from inorganic substances. Autotrophic bacteria are either photosynthetic or Chemosynthetic. The photosynthetic bacteria contain chlorophyll that are different from the plant chlorophyll. In bacterial photosynthesis, hydrogen is obtained by the splitting of compounds other than water.
The term “microbiology” refers to the branch of study that deals with microorganisms. Microbiology is extremely important in today’s time for the crucial information that the study provides. Human’s have had a long and cruel history of disease and sickness, for example the bubonic plague, but microbiology gives scientists the ability to observe, study, and prevent sickness like the bubonic plague to ever happen again. At the center of microbiology lies the bacterial cell, one that differs from those of a plant or animal because it lacks a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles which, in turn are traded for pili, flagella, and in some cases a cell capsule. Bacteria that are capable of causing illness or disease are called pathogens, pathogens work by releasing toxins in the body or directly damaging the host’s cells. An article by Lise Wilkinson explains that the earliest categorizations of bacterial cells first occurred in the late eighteen-hundreds to the early nineteen-hundreds by scientists (at the time) O. Muller and C. Ehrenburg (Wilkinson, 2004). The observation and identification of unknown bacteria that emerge is crucial because these new bacteria might be pathogenic and cause illness so it is very important that the bacteria is identified as soon as possible in order to either prevent the upcoming illness or treat it. While the common person is unable to identify if they are carrying bacteria (which is very likely), specialized tests that are ran in a lab can identify different types of bacteria and can even help
Microorganisms are beneficial to our environment. They produce the oxygen that humans breathe. That amounts to around 50% of all oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. Microorganisms are also responsible for breaking down dead organisms, animals, waste, and plant litter. The Earth would be filled with corpses without them (Properties of Microbes).
In this assignment I am going to explain the 5 different social benefits of micro-organisms. The areas I am going to talk about are as follows;
As we know that microorganisms are really help in making yogurt, wine, bread and so on. So, we can said that microorganism is also one of the most important thing that we should know to carry out our life. The function of microorganisms in yogurt, is for taste and texture of final product. From this, we can know a lot of benefit microorganisms our life. It shows that microorganisms is half from our life. Without microorganisms, perhaps humans already do not exist in this world. This is one of the ways to imagine how important microorganisms to human. Microorganisms do not only important in food product but also important in everything that human needs. In fermentation of yogurt, microorganisms acts of souring the yogurt. For yeast, lactic acid is produce by microorganisms for flavour and colour of the meat. In fermentation of wine, the microorganisms also produce lactic acid. Lactic acid n fermentation of wine with change the unstable malic acid in the wine to the stable lactic acid. In health food industry, lactic are used as a supplement to human. It can be in capsule and tablets. Microorganisms is only a tiny living things that live among the human. But, like we can see that the impact of this creature are really big especially in making the human to carry out their life. Every activity that we want to do will be connected with