Plants vs bacteria

• Bacteria reproduced by simply splitting in half in a process called binary fission.
• The ideal conditions for a bacteria are usually plenty of food, oxygen and water, and a warm temperature
• To investigate bacteria, we need to culture them. This involves growing large numbers of microorganisms so they can be measured in some way
• Bacteria often grow on agar plates - the agar jelly contains all the nutrients the bacteria need to grow well
• Precautions need to be taken un culturing bacteria because:

  • there is a risk of harmless microorganisms having a mutant strain making it pathogenic
  • there is a risk of contamination by pathogenic microorganisms form the environment
  • the entry of a microorganism from the air or your skin will contaminate the culture
• It is important to use aseptic techniques when culturing bacteria and to keep everything sterile and uncontaminated by other organisms,
• All equipment must be sterile when culturing bacteria:

  • the instrument used must be sterilised using s Bunsen burner flame
  • a bunsen burner could be left on a yellow flame to create convection currents to carry airborne bacteria away from the plates
  • all cultured must be disposed off safely by sealing them or sterilising them
• There are no ethics, issues associated with cultivating bacteria, however there is a danger of accidentally infecting people, animals or plants in the local environment
• Plants can provide an ideal place for microorganisms to grow, so plants have evolved chemical défenses to kill any microbes which will invade and cause disease. For example plants and fungi have shown antimicrobial properties. This means they contain chemicals that kill bacteria and fungi. These antimicrobial properties may ci-hauts chemicals that could cause pain relief of even destroy cancer cells
• One major a davantage of extracting and purifying the beneficial drugs is that it is possible to give known, repeatable doses of the active ingredient, and an exact dose can be achieved.
• Plant-sourced drugs can mean people are ill less often and are less severely ill and are living longer. They are also more accessible to parts of the world as they can find them and it helps a country develop. However this could mean the rich flora of the rainforests may be destroyed before other solutions may be found.