FFT1083 MICROBIOLOGY

LECTURE 4
AINIHAYATI ABDUL RAHIM PhD
ainihayati@umk.edu.my
Room2.15
Microbial Phylogeny
 Phylogeny of domain Bacteria (cont.)
 Phylum Spirochaetes
 The spirochaetes
 Characterized by flexible, helical cells with a modified
outer membrane (the outer sheath) and modified flagella
(axial filaments) located within the outer sheath
 Important pathogenic genera include Treponema, Borrelia,
and Leptospira
 Phylum Bacteroidetes
 Includes genera Bacteroides, Flavobacterium, Flexibacter,
and Cytophyga; Flexibacter and Cytophyga are motile by
means of “gliding motility”
Microbial Phylogeny
 Phylogeny of domain Eucarya
◦ The domain Eucarya is divided into four kingdoms
by most biologists:
 Kingdom Protista, including the protozoa and algae
 Kingdom Fungi, the fungi (molds, yeast, and fleshy
fungi)
 Kingdom Animalia, the multicellular animals
 Kingdom Plantae, the multicellular plants
 Taxonomy of Fungi
 90,000 fungal species have been described,
possible 1.5 million
 six major fungal groups
◦ Chytridiomycota
◦ Zygomycota
◦ Glomeromycota
◦ Ascomycota
◦ Basidiomycota
◦ Microsporidia

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 Taxonomy of Fungi
 Basidiomycota and Ascomycota are dikarya
◦ two parental nuclei are initially paired
◦ nuclei fuse, undergo meiosis, produce haploid progeny
 Zygomycota and Chytridiomycota are paraphyletic
◦ taxonomic group includes some descendents of a single
common ancestor

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 Fungal Structure
• Cell walls composed of chitin polysaccharide
• Single-celled microscopic fungi = yeasts
 Body/vegetative structure of a fungus = thallus
(pl. thalli)
◦ multicellular fungi are called molds
◦ thallus consists of long, branched hyphae filaments
tangled into a mycelium mass

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 Fungal Reproduction

 Asexual reproduction
◦ Parent cell undergoes mitosis to form daughter cells
◦ Mitosis in vegetative cells may be concurrent with
budding to produce a daughter cell
◦ May proceed through a spore form

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 Fungal Reproduction
 Sexual reproduction
◦ Involves fusion of compatible nuclei
 Homothallic: Sexually-compatible gametes are formed on
the same mycelium (self-fertilizing)
 Heterothallic: Require outcrossing between different, yet
compatible mycelia
 A dikaryotic stage can exist temporarily prior to fusion of two
haploid nuclei

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 Chytridiomycota
 Simplest fungi, also called chytrids
◦ free living, saprophytic
◦ parasitic forms infect aquatic plants and
animals, insects
◦ found in the anoxic rumen of herbivores
◦ may be responsible for large-scale mortality of
amphibians

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Chytridiomycota

 Produce a zoospore with single, posterior,

whiplash flagellum
◦ most primitive form of spore dispersal
◦ flagella lost in higher forms
 Asexual and sexual reproduction
 Many members degrade cellulose and keratin

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 Zygomycota
 Zygomycetes
 Most are saprophytes
◦ a few are plant and animal parasites
 Form coenocytic hyphae containing
numerous haploid nuclei
 Some of industrial importance
◦ foods, antibiotics and other drugs, meat
tenderizer, and food coloring

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 Genus Rhizopus
 R. stolonifer
◦ grows on surface
of moist
carbohydrate rich
foods such as
bread
◦ hyphae quickly
cover surface as
rhizoids, absorb
nutrients
◦ stolon hyphae
become form new
rhizoids

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Importance of Genus Rhizopus
 Rhizopus-Burkholderia symbiosis
◦ seedling blight in rice bacterium Burkholderia
growing within Rhizopus produces toxin
 Used to produce tempeh from soybeans
 Used with soybeans to make sufu curd
 Commercially
◦ used to produce anesthetics, birth control,
alcohols, meat tenderizers, yellow coloring in
margarine

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Ascomycota
 Unicellular yeast – e.g: Saccharomyces
cerevisiae
 Filamentous Fungi – e.g: Aspergillus
niger
 Ascomycota
Yeast Life Cycle
 Alternates between haploid and diploid
◦ in nutrient rich, mitosis and budding occurs at
non-scarred regions
 stops after entire mother cell is scarred
◦ nutrient poor, meiosis and haploid ascus
containing ascospores formed
 haploid cells of opposite mating types fuse
 tightly regulated by pheromones

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 Ascomycota
Filamentous Form Life Cycle
 Asexual reproduction -
conidia
 Sexual reproduction
◦ ascus formation with
ascospores
◦ opposite mating types form
zygote
◦ ascospores forcefully released
from ascocarp, germinate
 Sclerotia masses of hyphae
survive the winter then
germinate

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 Genus Aspergillus
 A. fumigatus
◦ ubiquitous environmental
◦ allergies and significant pathogen
 A. oryzae
◦ production of fermented foods
◦ important in biotechnology
 Aspergillus
◦ 37 Mb genome, model system

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 Basidiomycota
 Basidiomycetes (club fungi)
◦ examples include rusts, shelf fungi, puffballs,
toadstools, mushrooms
◦ sexual reproduction form basidium
 basidiospores are released at maturity

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 Human Impact Basidiomycota
 Decomposers
 Edible and non-edible mushrooms
◦ toxins are poisons and hallucinogenic
 Pathogens of humans, other animals, and plants
◦ e.g., Cryptococcus neoformans – cryptococcosis
 systemic infection, primarily of lungs and central nervous
system

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 The Protists
 Eukaryotes with the taxonomic classification
in flux
 Kingdom Protists is artificial grouping of over
65,000 different single-celled life forms
 A polyphyletic collection of organisms
 Most are unicellular
 Lack the level of tissue organization present
in higher eukaryotes

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 Distribution of Protists
 Grow in a wide variety of moist habitats
 Most are free living
 Chemoorganotrophic forms play role in
recycling nitrogen and phosphorus
 Terrestrial and planktonic forms
 Parasitic forms cause disease in humans
and domesticated animals

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 Nutrition in Protists
 Protozoa are chemoheterotrophic protists
◦ saprophytes – nutrients obtained from dead
organic matter through enzymatic degradation
◦ osmotrophy – absorb soluble products
◦ holozoic nutrition – solid nutrients acquired by
phagocytosis
 Photoautotrophic protists
◦ strict aerobes, use photosystems I and II for
oxygenic photosynthesis
 Mixotrophic protists
◦ use organic and inorganic carbon compounds
simultaneously

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 Protists Taxonomy
 Difficult to define due to vast differences
in protists
 Very much in flux and an area of active

research
 New classification scheme is based on that

of the International Society of

Protistologists
◦ doesn’t utilize hierarchical ranks (class and
order)

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Protist’s Supergroups
 Supergroup Excavata
 Supergroup Amoebazoa
 Supergroup Rhizaria
Protist Reproductive Cells and
Structures
 Protists have asexual
and sexual
reproduction
◦ Asexual stage usually
binary fission
◦ Sexual stages use fusion
of gametes in syngamy
process
 This can occur within a
single individual
(autogamy) or between
individuals (conjugation)

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 Pathogenic Euglenozoa (Super Group Excavata

 Trypanosomes
◦ parasites of plants and animals
◦ leishmaniasis
 caused by members of genus Leishmania
 includes systemic and skin/membrane
damage
◦ Trypanosoma cruzi
 causes Chagas’ disease
 transmitted by “kissing bugs”
 causes damage to nervous system
◦ T. gambiense and T. rhodesiense
 cause African sleeping sickness

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 Virus Taxonomy
and Phylogeny
 Lack of information on origin and
evolutionary history makes viral
classification difficult
 A uniform classification system developed

in 1971 by the International Committee for

Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV)
◦ most current report ~2,000 viruses, 6
orders, 87 families, 19 subfamilies, and
349 genera

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 Virus Classification
 Classification based on numerous
characteristics
◦ nucleic acid type
◦ presence or absence of envelope
◦ capsid symmetry
◦ dimensions of virion and capsid

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