Instructors: see

notes section below

this slide.
 Autotroph Heterotroph

Gets carbon from atmosphere Gets carbon from organic materials

More More
plant-like animal-like
(producer) (consumer)
Bacteria on head of pin © 1999 The Centre for
Microscopy and Microanalysis
 !

© ARS
Photo by Tomaž Vavpotič
Photo courtesy of NOAA
 Cyanobacteria

NASA

Plant-like: stationary, uses

sunlight and CO2 for energy
and food (photosynthesis),
photoautotroph
 Bacterial flagella

Dartmouth electron microscope facility

 Paramecium

Wikipedia
 Amoeba

Dr. Ralf Wagner

Animal-like: Pseudopodia for movement and feeding

Copyright Shannan Muskopf

Animal-like:
Moves and searches
for own food
 Euglena

Copyright 1995-2005 Protist Information Server

Plant and Animal-like:

Can use flagella to search for food
or
Can produce food through photosynthesis
(mixotroph)
• All single celled and do not have a nucleus

• Bacteria can be both helpful and harmful

• Bacteria engage in chemical warfare with each other:

(Streptomycin)
Source: NASA
 Stromatolites

© Jake Brumby
Stromatolites
 Cyanobacteria

Dr. Ralf Wagner

 A bloom of cyanobacteria

Baltic Sea east of

Sweden on Aug 2, 1999.

NASA
 CO2
Respiration

Food nutrients

Dead organic
matter

Bio
d egr
ada Waste
t ion
Bioremediation for an oil spill
 CO2
Respiration

Food nutrients

Dead organic
matter

Bio
d egr
ada Waste
t ion
(that give us grief)
Lyme disease, a bacterial disease transmitted by ticks
25% of world population dies
 Cholera
(Vibrio cholerae)
Haemophilus influenzae (Pneumonia)
Anthrax
Notes from 11/28

Microorganisms Anything too small to see without magnification

3 types of microorganisms Bacteria, protists, fungi

2 major ways to get food Autotroph, Heterotroph

Autotroph Gets food (carbon) from the atmosphere (CO2),

more plant-like, known as producer.

Heterotroph Gets food by ingesting other things, more

animal like, known as consumer.

Microorganism size range from very small to large (fly’s head)

Microorganism habitat From bottom of sea to Salt Lake and

everything in-between

Movement Some are stationary, others move by cilia

(small hairs), flagella (longer tail) or
pseudopodia (extensions of outer membrane)
Notes from 11/28

Bacteria Single celled, no nucleus

Good bacteria Cyanobacteria produced our oxygen, other

bacteria break down waste, leaves and oil

Bad bacteria Tuberculosis, cholera, the plague, anthrax

Protists Single or multi-celled with nucleus, often live in

ponds

Good protists Dinoflagellates and diatoms are the base of

food chain

Bad protists …..

• Both single-celled and multi-celled organisms, most have a nucleus

• Some protists produce their own food through photosynthesis,

others consume their food

• A great place to find many protists is in a local pond

• Some protists are helpful to other living things,

while other protists are disease causing.
 A dinoflagellate

Dr. Ralf Wagner.

Bioluminescent dinoflagellates
Diatoms
(that are pesky)
 Red tide
(Dinoflagellates)

P. Alejandro Díaz
Human blood cell infected
with Plasmodium
Giardia lamblia, a diplomonad
• Neither plant nor animal, have characteristics of both

• Consume food by absorbing nutrients from whatever they are growing on

Penicillium mold

Hyphae

Spores
Fungal production of an antibiotic
Budding yeast
 CO2
Respiration
Food nutrients

Dead organic
matter

Bio
deg
rad Waste
atio
n
 CO2
Respiration
Food nutrients

Dead organic
matter

Bio
deg
rad Waste
atio
n

ARS
(fungi without the fun)
The common mold Rhizopus decomposing oranges

ARS
 Athletes foot

ARS
 Microorganism treasure hunt:

What questions do you have about

microorganisms living around school?
 1.

2.
3.
ARS
ARS