Chapter 27

Prokaryotes

PowerPoint Lectures for

Biology, Seventh Edition
Neil Campbell and Jane Reece

Lectures by Chris Romero

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 Overview: They’re (Almost) Everywhere!

• Most prokaryotes are microscopic, but what they

lack in size they make up for in numbers
• There are more in a handful of fertile soil than the
number of people who ever lived
• Prokaryotes thrive almost everywhere, including
places too acidic, too salty, too cold, or too hot for
most other organisms
• They have an astonishing genetic diversity

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 Concept 27.1: Structural, functional, and genetic
adaptations contribute to prokaryotic success
• Most prokaryotes are unicellular, although some
species form colonies
• Prokaryotic cells have a variety of shapes

• The three most common of which are spheres

(cocci), rods (bacilli), and spirals

Video: Tubeworms

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LE 27-2

1 µm 2 µm 5 µm
Spherical Rod-shaped Spiral
(cocci) (bacilli)
 Cell-Surface Structures

• An important feature of nearly all prokaryotic cells

is their cell wall, which maintains cell shape,
provides physical protection, and prevents the cell
from bursting in a hypotonic environment
• Using the Gram stain, scientists classify many
bacterial species into groups based on cell wall
composition, Gram-positive and Gram-negative

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LE 27-3

Lipopolysaccharide
Outer
Cell Pepridoglycan Cell membrane
wall layer wall Pepridoglycan
layer
Plasma membrane Plasma membrane

Protein Protein

Gram- Gram-
positive negative
bacteria bacteria
20 µm

Gram-positive Gram-negative
 • The cell wall of many prokaryotes is covered by a
capsule, a sticky layer of polysaccharide or protein

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LE 27-4

200 nm

Capsule
 • Some prokaryotes have fimbriae and pili, which
allow them to stick to their substrate or other
individuals in a colony

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LE 27-5

Fimbriae

200 nm
 Motility

• Most motile bacteria propel themselves by flagella

that are structurally and functionally different from
eukaryotic flagella
• In a heterogeneous environment, many bacteria
exhibit taxis, the ability to move toward or away
from certain stimuli

Video: Prokaryotic Flagella (Salmonella typhimurium)

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LE 27-6

Flagellum

Filament

50 nm

Cell wall Hook

Basal apparatus

Plasma
membrane
 Internal and Genomic Organization

• Prokaryotic cells usually lack complex

compartmentalization
• Some prokaryotes do have specialized
membranes that perform metabolic functions

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LE 27-7

0.2 µm 1 µm

Respiratory
membrane

Thylakoid
membranes

Aerobic prokaryote Photosynthetic prokaryote

 • The typical prokaryotic genome is a ring of DNA
that is not surrounded by a membrane and that is
located in a nucleoid region

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LE 27-8

Chromosome

1 µm
 • Some species of bacteria also have smaller rings
of DNA called plasmids

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 Reproduction and Adaptation

• Prokaryotes reproduce quickly by binary fission

and can divide every 1–3 hours
• Many prokaryotes form endospores, which can
remain viable in harsh conditions for centuries

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LE 27-9

Endospore

0.3 µm
 • Rapid reproduction and horizontal gene transfer
facilitate the evolution of prokaryotes in changing
environments

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 Concept 27.2: A great diversity of nutritional and
metabolic adaptations have evolved in prokaryotes
• All four models of nutrition are found among
prokaryotes:
– Photoautotrophy

– Chemoautotrophy

– Photoheterotrophy

– Chemoheterotrophy

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 Metabolic Relationships to Oxygen

• Prokaryotic metabolism varies with respect to

oxygen:
– Obligate aerobes require oxygen

– Facultative anaerobes can survive with or

without oxygen
– Obligate anaerobes are poisoned by oxygen

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 Nitrogen Metabolism

• Prokaryotes can metabolize nitrogen in a variety of

ways
• In nitrogen fixation, some prokaryotes convert
atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia

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 Metabolic Cooperation

• Cooperation between prokaryotes allows them to

use environmental resources they could not use
as individual cells
• In the cyanobacterium Anabaena, photosynthetic
cells and nitrogen-fixing cells exchange metabolic
products

Video: Cyanobacteria (Oscillatoria)

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LE 27-10

Photosynthetic
cells

Heterocyte

20 µm
 • In some prokaryotic species, metabolic
cooperation occurs in surface-coating colonies
called biofilms

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 Concept 27.3: Molecular systematics is
illuminating prokaryotic phylogeny
• Until the late 20th century, systematists based
prokaryotic taxonomy on phenotypic criteria
• Applying molecular systematics to the
investigation of prokaryotic phylogeny has
produced dramatic results

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 Lessons from Molecular Systematics

• Molecular systematics is leading to a phylogenetic

classification of prokaryotes
• It allows systematists to identify major new clades

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 • A tentative phylogeny of some of the major taxa of
prokaryotes based on molecular systematics

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 Alpha
LE 27-12

Beta

Gamma

Delta
Proteobacteria

Epsilon

Chlamydias
Domain Bacteria

Spirochetes

Cyanobacteria

Gram-positive
bacteria

Universal ancestor Korarchaeotes

Euryarchaeotes
Domain
Archaea

Crenarcaeotes

Nanoarchaeotes

Eukaryotes
Domain
Eukarya
 Bacteria

• Diverse nutritional types are scattered among the

major groups of bacteria
• The two largest groups are the proteobacteria and
the Gram-positive bacteria

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LE 27-13
PROTEOBACTERIA CHLAMYDIAS
Subgroup: Alpha Proteobacteria

2.5 µm
2.5 µm
Chlamydia (arrows)
Rhizobium (arrows)
SPIROCHETES
Subgroup: Beta Proteobacteria

5 µm
1 µm
Leptospira
Nitrosomonas
GRAM-POSITIVE BACTERIA
Subgroup: Gamma Proteobacteria

1 µm
5 µm
0.5 µm

Streptomyces Mycoplasmas covering

Chromatium a human fibroblast cell

CYANOBACTERIA
Subgroup: Delta Proteobacteria

50 µm
10 µm

5 µm

Chrondromyces Bdellovibrio Oscillatoria

crocatus bacteriophorus

Subgroup: Epsilon Proteobacteria

2 µm

Heliocobacter pylori
 Archaea

• Archaea share certain traits with bacteria and

other traits with eukaryotes

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 • Some archaea live in extreme environments

• Extreme thermophiles thrive in very hot

environments
• Extreme halophiles live in high saline
environments

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 • Methanogens live in swamps and marshes and
produce methane as a waste product

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 Concept 27.4: Prokaryotes play crucial roles in the
biosphere
• Prokaryotes are so important to the biosphere that
if they were to disappear, the prospects for any
other life surviving would be dim

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 Chemical Recycling

• Prokaryotes play a major role in the continual

recycling of chemical elements between the living
and nonliving components of ecosystems
• Chemoheterotrophic prokaryotes function as
decomposers, breaking down corpses, dead
vegetation, and waste products
• Nitrogen-fixing prokaryotes add usable nitrogen to
the environment

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 Symbiotic Relationships

• Many prokaryotes live with other organisms in

symbiotic relationships
• In mutualism, both symbiotic organisms benefit

• In commensalism, one organism benefits while

neither harming nor helping the other in any
significant way
• In parasitism, one organism, called a parasite,
benefits at the expense of the host

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 Concept 27.5: Prokaryotes have both harmful and
beneficial impacts on humans
• Some prokaryotes are human pathogens, but
others have positive interactions with humans

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 Pathogenic Prokaryotes

• Prokaryotes cause about half of all human

diseases
• Lyme disease is an example

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 • Pathogenic prokaryotes typically cause disease by
releasing exotoxins or endotoxins
• Exotoxins cause disease even if the prokaryotes
that produce them are not present
• Endotoxins are released only when bacteria die
and their cell walls break down
• Many pathogenic bacteria are potential weapons
of bioterrorism

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 Prokaryotes in Research and Technology

• Experiments using prokaryotes have led to

important advances in DNA technology
• Prokaryotes are the principal agents in
bioremediation, the use of organisms to remove
pollutants from the environment

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 • Some other uses of prokaryotes:

– Recovery of metals from ores

– Synthesis of vitamins

– Production of antibiotics, hormones, and other

products

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