Chapter: Essentials of Anatomy and

Physiology: An Introduction to Microbiology

and Human Disease

Classification of Microorganisms

Bacteria are very simple, single-celled organisms that are found virtually everywhere. The
natural habitats of bacteria include freshwater, saltwater, soil, and other living organisms.

CLASSIFICATION OF MICROORGANISMS

Bacteria are very simple, single-celled organisms that are found virtually
everywhere. The natural habitats of bacteria include freshwater, saltwater, soil, and
other living organisms. Most bacteria are not harmful to us, and within their normal
environments, they have the vital role of decomposing dead organic mate-rial and
recycling their nutrients. However, a number of bacteria cause human diseases,
including strep throat, pneumonia, and meningitis.

Viruses are not cells; they are even smaller and simpler in structure than the
bacteria. All viruses are parasites because they can reproduce only within the living
cells of a host. Therefore, all viruses cause dis-ease. Common human viral diseases
are influenza, the common cold, and chickenpox.

Protozoa are single-celled animals such as amoe-bas. Most protozoa are free living
in freshwater or saltwater, where they consume bacteria, fungi, and one another.
Human protozoan parasites include those that cause malaria, amebic dysentery, and
giardiasis, another intestinal infection.

Fungi may be unicellular or multicellular. Molds and mushrooms are familiar

fungi. They decompose organic matter in the soil and freshwater and help recycle
nutrients. Fungal diseases of people include yeast infections, ringworm, and more
serious diseases such as a type of meningitis.

Worms are multicellular animals. Most are free liv-ing and non-pathogenic; within
the soil they consume dead organic matter or smaller living things. Worm
infestations of people include trichinosis, hookworm disease, and tapeworms.

Arthropods (the name means “jointed legs”) are multicellular animals such as
lobsters, shrimp, the insects, ticks, and mites. Some insects (such as mos-quitoes
and fleas) are vectors of disease; that is, they spread pathogens from host to host
when they bite toobtain blood. Ticks are also vectors of certain diseases, and some
mites may cause infestations of the skin.
BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE

We refer to bacteria and all other living things using two names (binomial
nomenclature), the genus and the species. The genus name is placed first, is always
capitalized, and is the larger category. The species name is second, is not
capitalized, and is the smaller category. Let us use as examples Staphylococcus
aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. These two bacteria are in the same
genus,Staphylococcus, which tells us that they are related or similar to one another.
Yet they are different enough to be given their own species names: aureus or
epidermidis. It may be helpful here to think of our own names. Each of us has a
family name, which indicates that we are related to other members of our families,
and each of us has a first name indi-cating that we are individuals in this related
group. If we wrote our own names using the method of bino-mial nomenclature,
we would write Smith Mary and Smith John.

In scientific articles and books, for the sake of con-venience, the genus name is
often abbreviated with its first letter. We might read ofS. aureus as a cause of a
food poisoning outbreak or see E. coli (E. For Escherichia) on a lab report as the
cause of a patient’s urinary tract infection. Therefore, it is important to learn both
genus and species names of important pathogens.