CHAPTER 5: EUKARYOTIC MICROBES

 Eukaryotic microbes include some species of algae and fungi, and all protozoa, lichens, and slime
moulds.

PART 1: ALGAE
Characteristics and Classification

 Algae and protozoa are referred to as protists because they are in the Kingdom Protista
 The study of algae are photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms that, together with protozoa, are
classified in the second kingdom (Protista) of the Five Kingdom System of Classification.
Diatoms

 Diatoms are tiny, usually unicellular algae that live in both freshwater and seawater.
 They are important members of the phytoplankton.
 It is used as a filtration aid and a mild abrasive in products, such as metal polishes and toothpaste.
Dinoflagellate

 Microscopic, unicellular, flagellated, often photosynthetic algae.

 Responsible for what are known as "red tides"
Algae

 Algae are an important source of food, iodine and other minerals, fertilizers.
 The agar used as a solidifying agent in laboratory culture media is a complex polysaccharide
derived from a red marine alga.
Medical Significance

 Algae are only very rarely cause of human infections. Protothecosis is an example of a human algal
infection.
 Algae in several other genera secrete substances phycotoxins that are poisonous to humans, fish,
and other animals.

PART 2: PROTOZOA
Characteristics

 Classified in the second kingdom

 (Protista) of the Five Kingdom System of Classification
 Some ingest whole algae, yeasts, bacteria, and smaller protozoans as their source of nutrients,
whereas others live on dead and decaying microorganisms.
 Do not have cell walls
 A typical protozoan life cycle consists of two stages: a motile trophozoite stage and a nonmotile cyst
stage.
 Malaria, giardiasis, African sleeping sickness, and amebic dysentery are examples of human
diseases caused by parasitic protozoa.

Classification and Medical Significance

 Protozoa are sometimes classified taxonomically by their mode of locomotion.

 Some move by pseudopodia, flagella, cilia and some are nonmotile.
Ameba (pl. amebae)
  An ameba first extends a pseudopodium in the direction it intends to move and then the rest of the
cell slowly flows into it; this process is called ameboid movement.

Ciliates

 Move about by means of large numbers of hairlike cilia on their surfaces.

 Cilia exhibit an oarlike motion.
 Ciliates are most complex of all protozoa
 A Pathogenic ciliate, Balantitidium coli, causes dysentery in underdeveloped countries. It is usually
transmitted to humans from drinking water that has been contaminated by swine feces.
 Ciliates such as Paramecium can often be observed in pond water

Flagellated protozoa (flagellates)

 A basal body (also called a kinetosome or .kinetoplast) anchors each flagellum within the
cytoplasm.
Ex. Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi, Trichomonas vaginalis, Giardia lamblia

Nonmotile protozoa

 Protozoa lacking pseudopodia

 Classified together in a category called sporozoa
Ex. Babesia spp., Cyclospora cayetenensis, Toxoplasma gondii

PART 3: FUNGI
Characteristics

 The study of fungi is called mycology.

 Fungi also live on many unlikely materials, causing deterioration of leather and plastics and spoilage
of jams, pickles, and many other foods.
 As saprophytes, their main source of food is dead and decaying organic matter.
 "garbage disposers" of nature-the "vultures" of the microbial world.
 They are not photosynthetic; they have no chlorophyll or other photosynthetic pigments.
 Unicellular (e.g., yeasts .and microsporidia), others grow as filaments called hyphae (sing., hypha),
which intertwine to form a mass called a mycelium
 Some fungi have septate hyphae (meaning that the cytoplasm within the hypha is divided into cells
by cross-walls or septa), whereas others have aseptate hyphae (meaning that the cytoplasm within
the hypha is not divided into cells; no septa)
Reproduction

 There are two general categories of fungal spores: sexual spores and asexual spores.
Sexual spores
 Are produced by the fusion of two gametes
 Have a variety of names (e.g., ascospores, basidiospores, and zygospores), depending on the
exact manner in which they are formed.
Asexual spores
 Asexual fungal spores are known as conidia or spores depending upon how they are formed
 Fungal are very resistant structures that are carried great distances by wind. They are resistant
to heat, cold, acids, bases, and other chemicals.
Classification

 Classification of fungi into these phyla is based primarily on their mode of sexual reproduction. The
two phyla known as "lower fungi" are the Zygomycotina and the Chytridiomycotina.
Zygomycotina (Zygomycota)
 Include the common bread moulds and other fungi that cause food spoilage.
Chytridiomycotina (Chytridiomycotina)
 Which are not considered to be true fungi by some taxonomists, live in water ("water moulds")
and soil.

Two phyla known as "higher fungi" are the Ascomycotina and the Basidiomycotina
Acomycotina (Ascomycota)
 Candida species, moulds like Aspergillus and Penicillium, and some fungi that cause plant
diseases (e.g., Dutch elm disease)
Basidiomycotina
 Yeasts like Cryptococcus some fungi that cause skin infections and plant diseases, and the
large "fleshy fungi" that live in the woods (e.g., mushrooms, toadstools, bracket fungi, and
puffballs).
Yeasts

 Yeasts are microscopic, single-celled organisms that usually produce budding

 Yeasts are found in soil and water and on the skins of many fruits and vegetables.
Ex. C. albicans and C. neoformans

Moulds

 Although this category of fungi is frequently spelled "molds," mycologists prefer to use "moulds."
 Moulds are the fungi often seen in water and soil and on food
 Reproduction is by spore formation, either sexually or asemally, on the aerial hyphae; for this
reason, aerial hyphae are sometimes referred to as reproductive hyphae.
 The flavor of cheeses, such as blue cheese, Roquefort, camembert, and Iimburger, is the result of
moulds that grow in them.

Dimorphic Fungi

 A few fungi, including some human pathogens, can live either as yeasts or as moulds, depending
on growth conditions
 This phenomenon is called dimorphism, and the organisms are referred to as dimorphic fungi
Ex. Histoplasma capsulatum, Sporothrix schenckii, Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioidies
posadasii, and Blastomyces dermatitidis

Microsporidia

 A new inclusion in the Kingdom Eumycota are a diverse group of organisms called the microsporidia
 Are obligate intracellular parasitic fungi
Fleshy Fungi

 The large fungi that are encountered in forests, such as mushrooms, toadstools, puffballs, and
bracket fungi, are fleshy fungi.
Medical Significance

 Many diseases of crop plants, grains, com, and potatoes are caused by moulds.
 These fungi destroy crops, but some produce toxins (mycotoxins) that cause disease in humans
and animals
Fungal Infections of Humans

 Fungal infections are known as mycoses (sing., mycosis), and are categorized as superficial,
cutaneous, subcutaneous, or systemic mycoses
Superficial and Cutaneous Mycoses
 Are fungal infections of the outermost areas of the human body, such as hair, fingernails,
toenails, and the dead, outermost layers of the skin (the epidermis)
Ex. Tinea pedis, tinea unguium, tinea capitis, tinea barbae, tinea corporis and tinea cruris, C.
albicans

Subcutaneous and Systemic Mycoses

 Subcutaneous mycoses are fungal infections of the dermis and underlying tissues.
 These conditions can Subcutaneous and be quite grotesque in appearance.

Laboratory Diagnosis of Fungal Infections

 When isolated from clinical specimens, yeasts are often identified to the species level by inoculating
them into a series in the mycology lab of biochemical tests

PART 4: LICHENS

 They appear as colored, often circular patches on tree trunks and rocks
 Lichen represents a combination of two or three organisms; an alga (or a cyanobacterium), a
fungus, and a yeast.

PART 5: SLIME MOULDS

 Transferred out of the Kingdom Fungi and placed in the Kingdom Protozoa
 Found in soil and in rotting logs
 Slime moulds have very complex life cycles initially starting as an ameba, but progressing into a
multicellular organism. They are not known to cause human disease.