MONERANS(bacteria)

Notes

Bacteria are ancient

fossil bacteria have been found dating back 3.5 billion years

Bacteria = been around for 76% of earth’s history

People = been around for 0.004% of earth’s history

How long is 1 million years?Ex. You must spend $1,000/day How

long will it take you to spend . . . $1,000? $1,000,000? $1,000,000,000

1 day 2.74 years 2,740 years

Bacteria are Everywhere!!

In water volcanic vents at the bottom of the sea in the air on your skin in the soil (Actinomycetes gives soil it’s

smell)

How many bacteria are there?

There are more bacteria in your mouth than all the people that have ever lived!

Bacteria may outweigh trees in total biomass -- How possible? They are found deep in the soil, on the highest mountains and in the deepest oceans

Characteristics of Bacteria

Shapes- round, rod-shaped, spiral, many others

Colors - red,yellow,blue,tan,orange,violet and others

Appearance - colonies of bacteria will appear as slick, wet looking circles of colored growth

Structure of bacteria

Bacteria have no nucleus The hereditary material, RNA, floats freely

in the cytoplasm Some bacteria have flagella In addition to a cell membrane and a cell

wall bacteria have a capsule that protects them

Basic Bacteria Structure

Flagella Capsule Cell Wall Cell Membrane Hereditary Material Cytoplasm

Life functions of bacteria

Aerobic - use oxygen (most common today) Anaerobic - does not need oxygen Magnetotitic - use the Earth’s magnetic

field to stay buried in the mud heterotrophic - parasites, decomposers autotrophic - photosynthesis,

chemosynthesis

How tough are bacteria?

When conditions for growth deteriorate bacteria can form an endospore. This tough coating can protect them for a long time. Example: Dr. Cano at Cal Poly has removed 20 million year old bacteria from fossilized amber, put it in optimal growth conditions and watched as it came back to life and started growing!

Why are bacteria so important?

They are the world’s ultimate recyclers As decomposers bacteria breakdown dead

organisms returning the molecules from the organisms to the soil

so the cycle oflife can

continue

Bacteria: the + and the -

the positives decomposers added first oxygen to

atmosphere start soil production make vitamins make foods make antibiotics base of food chain

the negatives spoil food(fridge

slows down growth) cause disease tooth decay damage roads

Bacteria LabDifferential staining

Different types of bacteria have cell walls that are structurally different

In this lab, we will see how we can use this fact to help determine different types of unkown bacteria