VIRUSES, BACTERIA, PROTIST AND FUNGI

1) Microorganisms ( Microbes )
+ Microscopic organisms

Ex: Bacteria, Archea and Protists

2) Structure of viruses
+ Round, rectangular, string-like, or robot-like shapes

+ Measured in nanometers (nm)

+ Sometimes named after the disease they cause

Ex: Coronavirus

3) What is a virus?
+ Genetic material with a protein coating.

+ Genetic material is for making copies of itself, but it cannot do this alone.

+ Viruses require a host.

+ Host – an organism that provides a source of energy or an environment to live in.

4) How virus spread?

 1. The virus enters the cells to inject the genetic material into the host cell.
2. Virus‘s genetic material take over and force the cell to make more copies.
3. The host cell bursts open, releasing many new viruses and repeat the process.
4. Viral Diseases
+ When many copies of a virus are attacking your cells at once you can get sick.

Examples: Common cold, Coronavirus

+ Vaccines – weakened or dead viruses that are injected into our body that help us “learn” how to attack
it.

5. Virus is an organism?
Viruses are NOT considered “alive”… Why?

+ No cells

+ Cannot reproduce on their own

+ No growth

+ No metabolism

+ No response to surroundings

6. What is a bacteria?
+ Single-celled organisms

+ No nucleus

+ Make up the majority of life!

+ 3 basic shapes: ball, rod, or spiral

7. How do bacteria eat ?

+ Some are autotrophs

+ Some are heterotrophs

+ Some bacteria is good and lives in your digestive system…

+ Some bacteria is bad and makes you sick (Escherichia coli)

8. Infectious Bacteria
+ Some bacteria can make you sick if it enters your body

+ Examples: E. coli and Salmonella

+ These give off toxins

+ Antibiotics can help treat bacterial infections

9. Bacterial Reproduction
+ Bacteria reproduce rapidly

+ Asexual reproduction = binary fission

+ Bacteria can share genetic material by conjugation

+ Can lead to antibiotic resistance

10.Roles of bacteria
+ Oxygen Production

+ Food Production

+ Health and Medicine

+ Environmental Cleanup

+ Environmental Recycling

11.Protist
+ Eukaryotic (but can seem like bacteria)

+ Most are unicellular

+ Autotroph or heterotroph

+ Mostly harmless, but some can be parasites organisms that benefit from a host
 12.Fungi
+ Eukaryotic heterotrophs

+ Decomposers or parasites

+ Fungi have thread-like tubes called hyphae that allow them to spread over large areas

+ Hyphae also release chemicals to help them break down material and absorb the food!

13.Fungal Reproduction
+ Fungi send up fruiting bodies to produce spores – asexual reproduction

+ Fungi can also reproduce sexually when the hyphae from different colonies grow close together and
share DNA