Microorganisms

Lecture # 7
Advance
Class VIII
BIOLOGY
Microorganism as friend
 Use in agriculture
 Plant need to nitrogen to make important component
like proteins and nucleic acid but cannot take directly
from atmosphere but can take from soil in solution form.
 Microorganisms like bacteria and blue green algae fix
nitrogen from atmosphere to enrich the soil with
nitrogen and increase its fertility. These microbes are
commonly called biological nitrogen fixers.
 Types of nitrogen fixers – free living microbes or
symbiotically associated microbes.
 Soil bacteria such as clostridium, azotobactor & some
BGA like nostoc take oxygen directly from the
atmosphere & convert it into ammonia
Microorganism as friend
 Symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria such as Rhizobium fix
nitrogen into the root system of leguminous plants.
 Nitrogen Fixation :- Conversion of atmospheric nitrogen
gas into salts that are soluble in water and usable by
plant.
 Microorganism as friend
 Nitrogen cycle :- The circulation of nitrogen through the
living and non living components of the biosphere is
called nitogen cycle.
It is process of reducing nitrates Denitrification Atmospheric
nitrogen
present in soil to release nitrogen
back into atmosphere.

Nitrification Nitogen fixation

It is process of conversion of
ammonia into nitrites and then
to nitrates by Nitrosomonas &
Nitrobactor respectively. Ammonification

It is process of decomposing complex,

dead organic matter into ammonia
 Microorganism as friend – Nitrogen cycle
Lightening

(Pseudomonas)
(Bacteria &
Fungi)

---------Nitrification---------
Microorganism as friend-Agriculture
 Compost and vermicompost.
 Cleaning of environment
 Bioremediation is cleaning up the environment using
enzymes or living organisms such as bacteria and fungi.
 The enzymes and organisms breakdown toxic and
hazardous substances present in the environment.
Microorganism as foe
 Causes disease in human beings
 Microbes also damages clothes, leather and spoils food.
 Disease causing microorganisms in Humans
 Microbes that cause disease in living organisms are
called pathogens.
Two types of disease
 Non infectious
 Disease which is not caused by infection/microbes.
 It do not communicate from one person to another.
 Eg. Diabetes, allergies, goitre
 Microorganism as foe
A. In Human Beings
 Infectious disease
 A disease caused by infectious agents/pathogens is called
an infectious disease.
 Infection – the entry and multiplication of a pathogen
 Host – The organisms in which an infectious agent lives and
multiplies.
 Vector or Carriers – The organisms which help the microbes
in transmission of disease.
 Eg. House fly, mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats
 Female anopheles mosquito – plasmodium – cause malaria
Microorganism as foe
 Female aedes mosquito – dengue virus – dengue fever
 Incubation period : Period between entry of germs and
appearance of first symptoms of disease.

Vectors Diseases
Mosquitoes Malaria, dengue,
yellow fever
Housefly Cholera, Typhoid
Sandfly Kala-azar
Tse-tse fly Sleeping sickness
Cockroaches Polio, Typhoid
Rats Plague