Professional Documents
Culture Documents
of Metabolic Diversity
I. The world of prokaryotes
A. They’re everywhere!
Peptidoglycan
Plasma membrane
Gram Negative
Lipopolysaccharide layer
Outer membrane
Peptidoglycan
Plasma membrane
4. Most prokaryotes secrete sticky substances that form a
protective layer and enable them to adhere to substrates.
1. Photoautotrophs
Anabaena Microcystis
2. Chemoautotrophs
- Energy from oxidation of inorganic substances (e.g. NH4,
and S)
- CO2 is the carbon source
4. Chemoheterotrophs
- Organic compounds are energy source and source
of carbon (this includes humans)
1. Obligate aerobes
- Use O2 for respiration; cannot grow without it. (Humans
are obligate aerobes)
2. Facultative aerobes
- Use O2 when available; ferment when O2 isn’t available.
3. Obligate anaerobes
- Poisoned by O2; use fermentation or live by anaerobic
respiration. In anaerobic respiration, inorganic molecules
like SO4, NO3, and Fe3+ are used instead of oxygen.
C. Photosynthesis evolved early in prokaryotic life
2. Examples of extremophiles
a. Methanogens produce methane
- Energy is from hydrogen gas
- Strictly anaerobic
- Inhabit swamps and animal intestines
b. Extreme halophiles
- Live in salty environments (Great Salt Lake)
c. Extreme thermophiles
- 60- 80 °C optimum temperatures (hot springs)
- 105 °C for deep-sea hydrothermal vents
Rhizobium:
N2-Fixing, Lives in Plant Roots of Legumes
Chromatium:
Example of a chemoautotroph; Note the sulfur granules
Bdellovibrio: Bacterial predator
Myxobacterium:
Produces cell aggregates and fruiting bodies
Heliobacter: Causes stomach ulcers
The remaining four clades and examples for each are:
2. Chlamydias
- Parasitic; survive only within cells of
animals
- Some cause STDs e.g. chlamydia
3. Spirochetes
- Helical heterotrophs
- Some cause STDs e.g. syphilis
4. Gram-Positive Bacteria
- Broad, diverse group
- Antibiotic producing bacteria are in this group
- Example shown is Streptomyces (streptomycin)
- And (next slide)
Mycoplasma shown covering a human cell; some species
of mycoplasmas cause walking pneumonia
5. Cyanobacteria
- Oxygenic photosynthesis, and chloroplasts
evolved from them.
V. Ecological impacts of prokaryotes
Without prokaryotes
ecosystems would
collapse!
53.10
54.1 An overview of
ecosystem dynamics
Methanogens in Peat
54.18 The nitrogen
cycle
2. Commensalism – one organism benefits and the other is
not harmed.
Examples:
Sewage treatment
Bioremediation
Chemical & Medical production
Research (genetic engineering, etc.)
Figure 27.19 (p. 542) – Bioremediation for an oil spill.