WHAT ARE BACTERIA?
Bacteria are microscopic, single-celled organisms that thrive in diverse environments. These organisms can live in soil, the ocean and inside the human gut.
Bacteria (singular: bacterium) are classified as prokaryotes, which are single-celled organisms with a simple internal structure that only contains DNA. Ribosomes are the spherical units in the bacterial cell where proteins are assembled from individual amino acids using the information encoded in ribosomal RNA.
Bacterial cells are generally surrounded by two protective coverings: an outer cell wall and an inner cell membrane. Certain bacteria, like the mycoplasmas, do not have a cell wall at all.
TYPES OF BACTERIA
There are 3 basic bacterial shapes:
- Round bacteria called cocci (singular: coccus), cylindrical, capsule-shaped ones known as bacilli (singular: bacillus)
- Spiral bacteria, aptly called spirilla (singular: spirillum).
The shapes and configurations of bacteria are often reflected in their names. For example, the milk-curdling Lactobacillus acidophilus are bacilli, and pneumonia-causing S. pneumoniae are a chain of cocci. Some bacteria take other shapes, such as stalked, square or star.
There are 2 basic types of bacteria in terms of how they respond to oxygen
Anaerobes
- Any organisms that does not require oxygen for growth and will dies in an oxygenated environment
- Gram-negative bacilli
- Haemophilus Influenza
- Eischeria Coli
- Klebsiella
- Eikenella Corrodens
- Gram-positive cocci
- Streptococcus Veridians
- Hemolytic
- Staphylococcus
Aerobes
- Any organisms that survives and grows in an oxygenated environment
- Gram-negative bacilli
- Porphyromonas
- Prevotella
- Fusobacterium
- Bacteroids Fragilis
- Gram-positive cocci
- Streptococcus
- Peptostreptococcus
References:
- Bacteria. (n.d.). KidsHealth. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from
kidshealth.org/kid/word/b/word_bacteria.html - Bacteria. (n.d.). Microbe World. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from
microbeworld.org/types-of-microbes/bacteria - Bacteria: Life history and ecology. (n.d.). University of California Berkeley. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from
ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/bacterialh.html - Bacterial Infections. (n.d.). MedlinePlus. Retrieved November 15, 2013, from
nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/bacterialinfections.html - Introduction to the Bacteria. (n.d.). University of California Berkeley. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from
ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/bacteria.html - What are bacteria?. (n.d.). The Children’s University of Manchester. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from
childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/microorganisms/whatarebacteria/