Lesson Overview Viruses
Lesson Overview
20.2 Prokaryotes
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
THINK ABOUT IT
When the microscope was first invented, we
humans had just such a shock. Far from being
alone, we share every corner of our world with
microorganisms. Even a seemingly clean
toothbrush contains a film of bacteria on its bristles!
Lesson Overview Viruses
Classifying Prokaryotes
The smallest & most
abundant microorganisms
on Earth are prokaryotes
unicellular organisms
lack a nucleus.
Prokaryotes have DNA, like
all other cells,
DNA is not found in a
membrane-bound nuclear
envelope
Ex.) E Coli
Lesson Overview Viruses
Classifying Prokaryotes
Prokaryote DNA is located
in the cytoplasm.
A bacterium such as E. coli
has the basic structure
typical of most prokaryotes.
Lesson Overview Viruses
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
Classifying Prokaryotes are needed to see this picture.
Biologists divided prokaryotes into 2 distinct groups:
Bacteria
Archaea
These groups are very different from each other;
biologists now consider these group of prokaryotes as a
separate domain.
Eukaryotes are the third domain. (have a nucleus)
Lesson Overview Viruses
Bacteria
The larger of the two domains of
prokaryotes is the Bacteria.
Bacteria include a wide range of
organisms
* lifestyles = different that
biologists do not agree exactly
how many phyla are needed to
classify this group.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Bacteria
Habitat: Bacteria live
almost everywhere—in QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
fresh water, in salt water, are needed to see this picture.
on land, and on and within
the bodies of humans and
other eukaryotes.
Escherichia coli, a typical
bacterium that lives in QuickTime™ and a
human intestines, is decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
shown.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Bacteria
Bacteria cell wall that
protects the cell from injury
and determines its shape.
The cell walls of bacteria
contain peptidoglycan—a
polymer of sugars and
amino acids that surrounds
the cell membrane.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Bacteria
Some bacteria, such as E.
coli, have a second
membrane outside the
peptidoglycan wall that
makes the cell especially
resistant to damage.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Bacteria
In addition, some
prokaryotes have flagella
that they use for
movement, or pili, which
in E. coli serve mainly to
anchor the bacterium to a
surface or to other
bacteria.
Lesson Overview Viruses
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Archaea
Under a microscope, archaea look very similar to
bacteria.
The walls of archaea lack peptidoglycan
and their membranes contain different lipids.
The DNA sequences of key archaea genes are more
like those of eukaryotes than those of bacteria.
Based on these observations, scientists have
concluded that archaea and eukaryotes are related
more closely to each other than to bacteria.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Archaea
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
Many archaea live in extremely harsh
are needed to see this picture.
environments.
One group of archaea produce methane gas and
live in environments with little or no oxygen,
thick mud
digestive tracts of animals.
Other archaea live in extremely salty environments
Utah’s Great Salt Lake
hot springs QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Size, Shape, and Movement
Size from 1 to 5 micrometers (much smaller than
most eukaryotic cells.)
Shapes QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Rod-shaped-bacilli.
Spherical-cocci.
Spiral and corkscrew-shaped-spirilla.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Size, Shape, and Movement
Prokaryotes can also be classified by whether they
move and how they move.
Some prokaryotes do not move at all.
Others are propelled by flagella.
Some glide slowly along a layer of slimelike material
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Nutrition and Metabolism
Prokaryotes need a supply of chemical energy, which
they store in the form of fuel molecules -sugars.
Energy is released from these fuel molecules during
cellular respiration, fermentation, or both.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Nutrition and Metabolism
Prokaryotes vary in the ways they obtain energy and
the ways they release it.
Looking at the two tables on the following slides,
notice that some species are able to change their
method of energy capture or release depending on
the conditions of their environment.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Nutrition and Metabolism: Energy Capture
Lesson Overview Viruses
Nutrition and Metabolism: Energy Release
Lesson Overview Viruses
Growth, Reproduction, and Recombination
binary fission-when growth of a prokaryote
doubled in size, it replicates its DNA and divides in
half, producing two identical cells.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Growth, Reproduction, and Recombination
Binary fission does not involve the exchange or
recombination of genetic information
asexual reproduction-no genetic exchange
When conditions are favorable, prokaryotes can
grow and divide at astonishing rates—some as
often as once every 20 minutes!
Lesson Overview Viruses
Growth, Reproduction, and Recombination QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
When growth conditions are unfavorable
prokaryotes form an endospore—a thick internal
wall that encloses the DNA and a portion of the
cytoplasm.
Endospores can remain dormant for months or
even years.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Growth, Reproduction, and Recombination
The ability to form endospores makes it possible for
some prokaryotes to survive very harsh conditions.
The bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which causes the
disease anthrax, is one such bacterium.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Mutation
Mutations are changes in DNA that occur in organisms.
Mutations are one of the main ways prokaryotes evolve
Inherited by daughter cells produced by binary fission.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Conjugation
Conjugation is an exchange of genetic information
in bacteria
During conjugation, a hollow bridge forms
between two bacterial cells
genetic material, plasmid, moves from one cell to
the other.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Conjugation
Many plasmids carry genes that enable bacteria to
survive in new environments or to resist antibiotics
that might otherwise prove fatal.
This type of reproduction increases genetic diversity
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Decomposers
Bacteria called actinomycetes are found in soil &
rotting plant material such as fallen logs,
they decompose complex organic molecules into
simpler molecules.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Decomposers
By decomposing dead organisms bacteria help to
maintain equilibrium in the environment.
Bacterial decomposers are also essential to
sewage treatment
produce purified water and chemicals
used as fertilizers.
QuickTime™ and a QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Producers
Cyanobacteria in the genus Anabaena form
filamentous chains in ponds and other aquatic
environments, where they perform photosynthesis.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor QuickTime™ and a
are needed to see this picture. decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Producers
Photosynthetic prokaryotes are among the most
important producers on the planet.
Food chains everywhere are dependent upon
prokaryotes as producers of food and biomass.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Nitrogen Fixers
Organisms need nitrogen to make proteins and other molecules.
Some prokaryotes—can convert N2 into useful forms.
The process of nitrogen fixation converts nitrogen gas into
ammonia (NH3).
Ammonia can then be converted to nitrates that plants use, or
attached to amino acids that all organisms use.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Nitrogen Fixers
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria & archaea provide 90 percent
of the nitrogen
Some plants have symbiotic relationships with
nitrogen-fixing prokaryotes.
The bacterium Rhizobium grows in nodules, or knobs,
on the roots of legume plants such as soybean.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Nitrogen Fixers
The Rhizobium bacteria within these nodules convert
nitrogen in the air into the nitrogen compounds
essential for plant growth.
The Rhizobium bacteria often live symbiotically within
nodules attached to roots of legumes, such as clover,
where they convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form
that is useable by plants.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Human Uses of Prokaryotes
Prokaryotes are used in the production of foods &
commercial products.
Yogurt is produced by the bacterium Lactobacillus.
Some bacteria can digest petroleum and remove
human-made waste products and poisons from water.
QuickTime™ and a QuickTime™ and a
decompressor decompressor
are needed to see this picture. are needed to see this picture.
Lesson Overview Viruses
Human Uses of Prokaryotes
Other bacteria are used to synthesize drugs &
chemicals through the techniques of genetic
engineering.
Bacteria and archaea adapted to extreme
environments may be a rich source of heat-stable
enzymes can be used in
medicine
food production QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
industrial chemistry. are needed to see this picture.
