MICROBIO: 1

• Glenn Grecia Jr., MD lived in the 16th century AD and introduced the notion of communicable disease due to a miasma, or "bad air".
• Robert Hooke, a 17th century scientist, discovered that life's smallest structural units were "little boxes" or "cells", marking the beginning of the Cell Theory: All living things are composed of cells.
• Helminths are parasitic worms that are multicellular organisms belonging to the Animal Kingdom.
• Fungi are a type of organism known as molds or mushrooms.
• Helminths have characteristic life cycles, starting with an egg and ending with an adult.
• Helminths cause disease in hosts, especially humans.
• Antoine van Leeuwenhoek, a 19th century scientist, discovered yeasts and their role in fermentation, the first link between the activity of a microorganism and physical and chemical changes in organic materials.
• Not all microbes are "germs", and microorganisms (microbes) are minute living things that individually are usually too small to be seen with the unaided eye, including bacteria, fungi (yeasts, molds), protozoa, microscopic algae, and viruses.
• Majority of microbes help maintain the balance of chemicals in the environment, form the base of the food chain in various areas of the environment, and help in recycling chemical elements between soil, water, air & living beings.
• Microbes are used in the synthesis of chemical products, food industry, and in bleaches, fabrics & colorings.
• Healthy humans are colonized with over 100 trillion bacteria, as well as other organisms, in the gastrointestinal tract, female genital tract, oral cavity & nasopharynx.
• Commensal organisms provide humans with benefits such as immunity or metabolism.
• Majority of infections are caused by organisms that are part of the normal flora, such as Staphylococcus aureus from the nasopharynx.
• Scientific nomenclature assigns each organism two names both underlined or italicized: Genus - first name, with first letter capitalized, species - second name, no capitalization.
• Scientific names can describe an organism, honor a researcher, or identify the habitat.
• Bacteria are single-celled prokaryotic organisms enclosed in a cell wall made of peptidoglycan, reproduce through binary fission & use organic chemicals for nutrition.
• Archaea are prokaryotic organisms similar to bacteria but lack peptidoglycan, and are often found in extreme environments (heat, salt, methane).
• Fungi are eukaryotic organisms with a cell wall made of chitin, including both unicellular (e.g yeast, molds) & multicellular forms (e.g mushrooms).
• Protozoa are unicellular eukaryotic microbes with features for locomotion such as pseudopods in amoebae, and live either freely or act as parasites.
• Multicellular animal parasites are eukaryotic organisms not strictly microbes but undergo a microscopic form in some stages of their life cycle, such as helmints/worms.
• Viruses are acellular microbes composed of a core of DNA or RNA with a protein coat, and are obligate intracellular parasites, only dividing when inside a live organism.
• The Eukaryotes contain a true nucleus, enclosed with a nuclear envelope, and include Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals.
• Algae are photosynthetic eukaryotes with a cell wall composed of cellulose, can be unicellular or multicellular, are abundant in freshwater, saltwater and soil, and play an important role in the balance of nature & food chain.
• Viruses are acellular microbes composed of a core of DNA or RNA with a protein coat, are obligate intracellular parasites, only divide when inside a live organism, and have different forms/morphology.
• All organisms are grouped in three domains: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya/Eukaryotes, which includes Protista (e.g. slime molds, protozoa, algae), Fungi (e.g. unicellular yeasts, molds, mushrooms), Plants (e.g. mosses, ferns, conifers, flowering plants), and Animals (e.g. sponges, worms, insects, vertebrates).
• Archaea are single-celled organisms, prokaryotes similar to bacteria, if contain
• Protists/Protozoans are unicellular eukaryotic microbes that move by pseudopods, flagella, or cilia, have a variety of shapes and live either freely or act as parasites, and reproduce sexually or asexually.
• Archaea are single-celled organisms, prokaryotes similar to bacteria, if contain a cell wall, lacks peptidoglycan, often found in extreme environments, and include Mesophiles/Methanogens, Halophiles, and Thermophiles.
• Bacteria are single-celled organisms, prokaryotes (no true nucleus), enclosed in a cell wall made of peptidoglycan, reproduce thru binary fission, use organic chemicals for nutrition, or may produce own nutrition (e.g. photosynthesis), and have different forms/morphology.
• Algae are photosynthetic eukaryotes with a cell wall made of cellulose, including unicellular to multicellular forms, and generate oxygen and CO2.