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~
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