Eukaryotic Cells

Hello there!,

          This week we have finished another whole topic on eukaryotic cells. This week,the  classes were absolutely fun and exciting. We did a lot of games on eukaryotic cells.Each group were assigned several subtopics and we were entrusted to produce an interesting game for the whole class to participate in and enjoy learning the topic. Alhamdullilah, all games were a success and everyone enjoyed it together.

          The first game were handled by the first group which did a quiz on Kahoot and the quizzes covered the subtopic on flagella and others .My teammates and I did a game on subtopics: lysosomes,peroxisomes and ribosomes. We did a flip card game which one representative of each group will try to answer the given questions and if it is correct, the person will get a chance to flip and match 2 cards. Well, in my opinion, it was a hard-to-score game.Then, we played a crossword puzzle with punishment for those who answered wrongly. I hate the punishment. We also played a bingo game on mitosis and meiosis. It was very confusing. Other than that, we also played a game called Racing with the Organelles and the last game we played was musical chair.

          From all the games that we had played, I learned a lot about eukaryotic cells.Algae , protozoa , fungi, plants and animals are  eukaryote.

The eukaryote have membrane bounded organelles and membrane bounded nucleus unlike prokaryote.During the lesson ,I can refresh my memories on the function of each organelles as learned in high school, such as:

Mitochondria:To synthesis ATP for energy

Chloroplast:For photosynthesis

Golgi Apparatus:To sort, pack and modify molecules like protein.

Ribosomes:For protein synthesis

Lysosomes:To digest pathogens, dead and damaged organelles.

Peroxisomes:Sites for oxidation of amino acid, fatty acid and alcohol

Endoplasmic Reticulum:For protein and lipid synthesis

Nucleus: Contain hereditary information such as DNA and RNA

Cytoplasm:Contain  microfilaments, intermediate filaments and microtubules.

Provide support and shape 

Other that that , there is also cilia for movement , glycocalyx, plasma membrane and some have cell wall. We also learned about mitosis and meiosis in eukaryote.The process involved are shown as below: 

      Basically, the lessons that we learned this week is to jog our memory on what we have learned before. It was super interesting because of how the games are presented.It was fun.I hope everyday, everyone can enjoy the lesson like this.

Prokaryote

Assalamualaikum, Hi!

              Not long ago, in Microbiology classes, we have finished yet another topic which is the Prokaryotic Cells. The classes were interesting where we did a lot of activities such as combine-mind-mapping and we also did a self-evaluation on our own understanding on prokaryotic cells in Quizlet. To be frank, I think Quizlet is kind of weird.It is either that or it's me that don't know how to use it properly yet. Anyway, I have learned a lot for a week about prokaryotes.

            Prokaryotes are organisms that have no nucleus like bacteria and archaea. I have learned how to compare a prokaryotic cell and eukaryotic cell as shown below:

      There are several structures that are present in the prokaryote, for example the flagella that functions for movement.It consist  of  filament,hook and basal body. The prokaryote can be differentiated by the position of flagella such as  monotrichous, peritrichous ,amphitrichous and lophotrichous.This give the prokaryote movement like swim, run, tumble, swarm , corkscrew and gliding.There are also fimbriae and pilli for attachment.
     

                  There's also nucleiod which is a localised genetic material, axial filaments and  glycocalyx for protection against dehydration, source of nutrient, and attachment to surface.Prokaryotes also have many types of inclusion such as metachromatic granules, polysaccharide granules, lipid inclusion , sulfur granules, carboxysomes, gas vacuoles and magnetosomes. Each inclusion functions differently. For example, gas vacuole is for buoyancy while lipid inclusion is for lipid storage.The plasma membrane of prokaryote are much similar to eukaryote which are made up of  phospholipid bilayer, proteins and  carbohydrates like glycolipid and glycoprotein .

                         Other than that, I have learned that bacteria can be classified based on their  Gram Staining which is Gram Positive and Gram Negative.The cell wall of these bacteria are structured differently as shown bellow:

I really enjoyed the classes this week and can't wait for next week. 

Adios~

Microsopy

  Hi,

            This week in Microbiology classes we learned about the topic, Microscopy. This topic was easy to understand but it is kind of boring because most of us have learned about microscope in our early education. However, the topic that was taught throughout the week was even more detailed and more in depth than what was taught during our high school years and matriculation studies. 

             To make the lesson more enjoyable, Dr. Wan decided to make a group of students present the topic in an interesting way. Hence, they came up with a story that was successfully delivered in a fun way but to me it was kinda illogical.However, that made us all paid attention and showed interest in the learning process.

            From that, I have gained a lot of knowledge about the topic, Microscopy and now I can differentiate the type of microscope used to observe the specimens.There are many types of microscope such as optical, electron, scanning probe and scanning acoustic microscope.

            Bright field microscope is a type of optical microscope which view  specimen against brighter background.Its function is contradicting with the dark field microscope. Another type of optical microscope is the phase-contrast microscope, which usually used for motile specimen or to detect the bacteria components.The fluorescence  microscope is an optical microscope but the specimen is tagged or naturally fluorescing against dark background.The fluorescence stain are called fluorochromes.

           The transmission electron microscope is a type of an electron microscope which can be used for analysing internal structures while the scanning electron microscope can only view the surface structures. Other than that, I know that scanning probe microscope needs a probe while scanning acoustic microscope uses sound to study the specimen.

           Not only did we learned about Microscopy, we also did an online mid map on the topic Prokaryotes which are very hard to do unless we have a strong wifi connection. It would drive me crazy doing it for hours and suddenly all my points disappeared. However, it was  a good learning experience and now I know how to make a mind map online. Yippie!!!

Introduction to Microbiology

Assalamualaikum and Hello there,

      Now finally the start of my 2nd semester in UPM. This semester, I am taking Microbiology classes and it has been two weeks since I attended the classes.During these two weeks, my lecturer,Dr Wan Zuhainis has taught me a lot about this course.

       What I have learned these past two weeks are the type of microbes that lives in  these entire world.Microbes are microorganisms that are small to be seen with naked eyes and can only be seen by the aid of microscopes. It exist as fungi, bacteria, virus , protozoa ,algae and even archae bacteria.
The characteristics of these creatures that differentiate themselves with each other.

      Prokaryotes is a domain that consists organisms without a membrane bound nucleus and covers both bacteria and archaeia For example,bacteria are prokaryote that vary in shape and sizes, exists as Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteria and they are enclosed in cell wall made of peptidoglycan. Such bacteria that existed in this world are E.coli  ,Staphylococcus Aureus,Bacillus anthracis ,Thiomargarita namibiensis( biggest bacterium in the world),Mycoplasma pneumoniae (smallest bacterium)and etc.
     
          Archae are also prokaryote but instead the cell wall made of peptidoglycan like bacteria, the cell wall of an Archean  is made of pseudopeptidoglycan or pseudomurein.For example, Halobacterium salinarum ,Methanofollis aquaemaris and etc.They are able to live in an environment that is not suitable for any other living organism. They are found in extreme conditions of acidic, alkaline, salt marshes, and hot sulfur springs. Therefore, they are also called extremophiles, as lover of extreme conditions.


 Fungi have the characteristics of an eukaryote and its cell wall are made up of chitin.The example of fungi are molds and mushrooms. Penicillium is a fungus that produce antibiotic to kill bacteria called penicillin.Stachybotrys chartarum is also a fungus known as black mold.

       Protozoa and algae are also eukaryotes.However, protozoa are parasites which moves by pseudopods.The nutrition of all protozoa is holozoic; that is, they require organic materials, which may be particulate or in solution. Algae contain chlorophyll and exist as a photosynthetic eukaryotes.The cell wall of an alga is made up of cellulose like plants.Examples of algae are Chlamydomonas nivalis (watermelon snow) and Porphyra tenera (seaweed).









         Then, we learned about the history of Microbiology, which started with a scientist named Antonie van Leeuwenhoek who used his meticulously made microscopes to discover one-celled organisms, which were then called "animalcules".He proposed Spontaneous Generation which states that life arise spontaneously from non-living matter.Robert Hooke who then discovered these  microorganisms and called it cells which marked the beginning of cell theory.Then, a scientist named Rudolf Virchow suggested the concept of Biogenesis which states that living cells can arise only from preexisting living cells.Finally, the spontaneous generation theory was disproved by Pasteur Experiment.

           I have learned a lot of things in these past two weeks. The class was exciting because we did not learn according to the slides and there were game-like quizzes, discussion and etc.I have also searched for information and watched a video on this topic to gain more knowledge. I hope the next topic would be interesting and easier to understand.

Adios~