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General Morphology of Microorganisms

This document provides an overview of the morphology and characteristics of microorganisms including bacteria, archaea, and fungi. It describes the typical shapes of bacteria as bacillus, coccus, or spiral and explains they are enclosed in cell walls containing peptidoglycan. Archaea also have prokaryotic cells but different cell wall compositions. Fungi are eukaryotic and have cell walls containing chitin. They can reproduce sexually or asexually and include mushrooms, molds, and yeasts. The document highlights the importance of understanding microbial morphology.

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Gemay Danglay
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128 views43 pages

General Morphology of Microorganisms

This document provides an overview of the morphology and characteristics of microorganisms including bacteria, archaea, and fungi. It describes the typical shapes of bacteria as bacillus, coccus, or spiral and explains they are enclosed in cell walls containing peptidoglycan. Archaea also have prokaryotic cells but different cell wall compositions. Fungi are eukaryotic and have cell walls containing chitin. They can reproduce sexually or asexually and include mushrooms, molds, and yeasts. The document highlights the importance of understanding microbial morphology.

Uploaded by

Gemay Danglay
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GENERAL MORPHOLOGY OF

MICROORGANISMS
Different types of microbes
have different characteristic
and shapes.
Under suitable conditions,
the shape and size of
microbes are relatively
stable.
-It is important to know the morphological
structure of microbes, as it provides us with a
better understanding of microbial physiology,
pathogenic mechanisms, antigenic features, and
allows us to identify them by species.
-knowledge of microbial morphology can be
helpful in diagnosing disease and in preventing
microbial infections.
Bacteria
-single-celled (unicellular) organisms

-complex and highly variable microbes.

-prokaryotes
-cells appear in one of several shapes
Most common
shape of bacteria

● Bacillus (rodlike)
● Coccus (spherical or
ovoid
● Spiral (corkscrew or
curved)
-Some bacteria are star shaped or square
and rectangular
individual bacteria may
-

form pairs, chains, clusters,


or other groupings; such as
formations are usually
characteristics of a particular
genus or species of bacteria
Bacteria

-enclosed in cell walls that are


largely composed of a
carbohydrates and protein
complex called peptidoglycan.

-reproduce by binary fission


Bacterial smears preparation
Gram staining procedure
-some bacteria can manufacture
their own food by
photosynthesis
Nutritional types of bacteria

-For nutrition, most


bacteria use organic
chemicals, which in
nature can be derived
from either dead living
organisms
-some can derive
nutrition from inorganic
substances
Many bacteria
can swim by
using moving
appendages
called flagella
Archaea
-like bacteria, archaea,
consists of prokaryotic
cells, but If they have cell
walls, the walls lack
peptidoglycan
-often found in
extreme environments
-methanogens-produce
methane as a waste product from
respiration
Methanopyrus kandleri
Extreme halophiles

-halo = salt, philic


=loving
-live in extremely salty
environments such as the
Great Salt Lake and the
Dead Sea
Halobacterium sp.
Extreme thermophiles

-therm = heat
-live in hot
sulfurous water,
such as hot springs
at Yellowstone
National Paek
Pyrococcus furiosus
Fungi
Mycology
-the discipline of biology that describes
and studies a very vast group of
organisms denominated fungi
This group contains around 90,000 species, and
thousands are described every year, being
estimated that there might be more than one
million fungal species in the world, which makes
the fungal kingdom one of the most important in
the tree of life-O. Zaragoza, in
Reference Module in Life Sciences, 2017
Fungi
very variable, because they include both macroscopic
(such as mushrooms, truffles and puffballs) and
microscopic organisms
truffles

● edible subterranean
fungus, prized as a food ● flourish in open woodland on
delicacy from Classical calcareous soil.
times. ● They are saprophytes, usually
● in the genus Tuber, associated with the roots of
order Pezizales (phylum trees, possibly in a mutually
Ascomycota, kingdom beneficial association
Fungi). ● pasta
● native mainly to
temperate regions.
● The different species
range in size from that
of a pea to that of an
orange.
Puffballs
● Any of various fungi in the
phylum Basidiomycota,
found in soil or on decaying
wood in grassy areas and
woods
● are named for the fact that
puffs of spores are released
when the dry and powdery
tissues of the mature spherical
fruiting body (basidiocarp)
are disturbed.
● Many are edible before
maturity.
Basidiomycota
Fungi
-non-motile heterotrophic eukaryotes that
possess a cell wall around the cell, which
differs from the cell wall of plants because it
contains different components (mainly
chitin)
Chitin
-the second most abundant natural polysaccharide, after
cellulose, is a linear polymer composed of repeating
β(1,4)-N-acetylglucosamine units
- was first found as a component of mushrooms, and a potential
commercial source is the mycelia and spores of fungi such as
Chytridiaceae, Blastocladiaceae, and Ascomydes.
- -Mycelia of some species of Penicillium may contain up to
20% chitin. Aspergillus niger, also, represents a sizeable
source of chitin.
Chitin
the most abundant organic constituent in the
skeletal material of arthropods, annelids, and
mollusks, where it provides skeletal support and
body armor.
Most fungi can reproduce
by both sexual and
asexual reproduction.
fungi have a great impact in our daily habits, and
our society and way of living would be very
different in the absence of these organisms

Seatwork
Give a simple explanation on the above statement
-Fungi are widely found in the environment, and
they have multiple beneficial effects and
applications
- But these organisms are also the cause of
devastating plagues and diseases, so their control
is mandatory in agriculture and biomedicine .
Beneficial Fungi
Mycotoxigenic fungi, such as Aspergillus, Fusarium, and
Penicillium, pose serious problems and toxicological risks at
preharvest and postharvest stage as well as in processed food
products.
Biological control using beneficial fungi (filamentous and
yeasts) allows managing contamination by mycotoxins at
both pre- and postharvest levels and can contribute to
decontamination and/or detoxification of these dangerous
compounds from food and feeds.

Mycotoxins
-secondary metabolites produced by micro fungi that
are capable of causing disease and death in humans and
other animals.
-toxic fungal products that are produced when fungi grow in
human and animal foods.
Aflatoxins

-a family of toxins produced by certain fungi that are found on


agricultural crops such as maize (corn), peanuts, cottonseed,
and tree nuts.
-The main fungi that produce aflatoxins are Aspergillus flavus
and Aspergillus parasiticus, which are abundant in warm and
humid regions of the world.
Aspergillus flavus
Aspergillus parasiticus

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