Microorganisms

A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic size, which may exist

in its single-celled form or as a colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen
microbial life was suspected from ancient times, such as in Jain scriptures from
sixth century BC India. The scientific study of microorganisms began with their
observation under the microscope in the 1670s by Anton van Leeuwenhoek. In
the 1850s, Louis Pasteur found that microorganisms caused food spoilage,
debunking the theory of spontaneous generation. In the 1880s, Robert
Koch discovered that microorganisms caused
diseases tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, and anthrax.
1.1 Bacteria
Almost all bacteria are so tiny they can only be seen through a microscope.
Bacteria are made up of one cell, so they are a kind of unicellular organism. They
are among the simplest single-celled organisms on Earth, and were one of the
earliest forms of life. They include a number of extremophiles which live in
extreme habitats.
There are probably more individual bacteria than any other sort of organism on
the planet. Most bacteria live in the ground or in water, but many live inside or on
the skin of other organisms, including humans. There are about 1:1 bacterial cell
as human cell in each of our bodies. Some bacteria can cause diseases, but others
help us in everyday activities like digesting food (gut flora). Some even work for us
in factories, producing cheese and yogurt.
A bacterium reproduces (creates more bacteria) by dividing in half and creating
two "daughter" cells. Each daughter is identical in shape to the parent, but is
smaller. Bacteria do not have sexes, but they do transmit DNA by several kinds
of horizontal gene transfer. This is how they share resistance to antibiotics from
one strain to another. The complete DNA sequence is known for many bacterial
strains.
Each bacterium has only one chromosome. Bacteria vary widely in size and shape,
but in general they are at least ten times larger than viruses. A typical bacterium
is about one micrometer in diameter, so a thousand bacteria lined up would be
one millimeter long. There are about five nonillion bacteria on Earth.
Bacteria are identified and grouped by their shapes. Bacilli are rod-shaped, cocci
are ball-shaped, spirilla are spiral-shaped, and vibrio are shaped like a comma or a
boomerang.