-
Essay / How Microorganisms Live in Our Body
Microorganisms make up a large portion of the planet's living matter and play a major role in maintaining the Earth's ecosystem. Microorganisms are tiny organisms invisible to the naked eye. They are microscopic and are commonly known to produce disease in animals and humans. A microorganism is a microscopic living organism, which can be unicellular or multicellular and the study of the microorganism is known as microbiology. (Campbell et al., nd)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Microorganisms have a great impact on human life and are used for various purposes and participate in various cycles. Bacteria are essential to the nitrogen cycle. The nitrogen cycle has four main parts, and bacteria play a role in each of them. Nitrogen gas is converted to nitrate compounds by nitrogen-fixing bacteria present in the soil or in root nodules. Lightning also converts nitrogen gas into nitrate compounds. The Haber process converts nitrogen gas into ammonia used in fertilizers. Ammonia is converted to nitrates by nitrifying bacteria in the soil. Plants absorb nitrates from the soil and use them to build up proteins. The plant can be eaten by an animal and its biomass used to produce animal protein. The urea and discharged materials are broken down by decomposers. As a result, nitrogen is returned to the soil in the form of ammonia. Decomposers also break down the bodies of dead organisms, returning nitrogen to the soil in the form of ammonia. Under certain conditions, denitrifying bacteria present in the soil break down nitrates and return nitrogen to the air. This is usually in waterlogged soil. Improving drainage reduces this effect, making the soil more fertile. (Mary Jones, 2008) The production of many foods is possible using microorganisms. For example, foods like bread, beer, and cheese are produced using yeast. Likewise, bacteria are involved in the production of butter, yogurt, many kinds of chocolate, coffee, and other everyday foods. It is very difficult to decode the human genome if any disorders occur in it, because humans are eukaryotic organisms. This means that their body is made up of different types of cells and they are all differentiated into different tissues and organs. Microorganisms have made it possible to make such drugs which, when they enter the body, target the faulty genes and make healthy changes and become functional again. There is a common example of human insulin. Insulin is an antibiotic prescribed to diabetic patients. It is now possible to synthesize insulin in microorganisms such as bacteria and yeast. These microorganisms insert themselves into the body as vectors and cure defective genes. (Campbell et al., nd)Our bodies contain ten times more microorganisms than our cells. These microorganisms are useful to the body and perform various useful functions, for example E. coli (species of bacteria) resides in the intestine and releases components that help in the digestion of food. One of the purposes of bacteria in the body is to fight harmful bacteria that can cause disease. For example, there is also bacteria in the gut that helps synthesize vitamins like biotin, vitamin K, and folic acid. Biotechnology is one of the fields that has used the mostmicroorganisms. Using the techniques of biotechnology, scientists have successfully developed human growth, growth hormones and other useful components of the body. Biotechnology processes use microorganisms to deliver drugs in the form of vectors and plasmids. Microorganisms have brought many benefits to agriculture as they are responsible for increasing soil fertility. Thanks to this, plant production increases and the economy becomes strong. (Pete Kennedy, 2009).Bacteria present in the environment are responsible for recycling waste and producing energy sources like carbon and nitrogen. Plants use carbon dioxide during the process of photosynthesis. More carbon dioxide consumption will lead to increased food production. Some bacteria also help clean the environment by digesting pollutants and thereby releasing eco-friendly nutrients. (Mary Jones, 2008) Microorganisms are widespread in nature and beneficial to life, but some can cause serious harm. They can be divided into six main types: bacteria, archaea, fungi, protozoa, algae and viruses. Bacteria are single-celled organisms. The cells are described as prokaryotic because they lack a nucleus. They exist in four main shapes: bacillus (rod shape), shell (spherical shape), spirilla (spiral shape), and vibrio (curved shape). Most bacteria have a cell wall made of peptidoglycan; they divide by binary fission; and they may possess flagella for motility. The difference in their cell wall structure is a major characteristic used in the classification of these organisms. Depending on their cell wall structure, bacteria can be classified as Gram-positive or Gram-negative when using Gram staining. Bacteria can be divided based on their response to oxygen gas into the following groups: aerobic (living in the presence of oxygen), anaerobes (living without oxygen), and facultative anaerobes (can live in both environments). (Campbell et al., nd) Archaea or archaebacteria differ from true bacteria in the structure of their cell wall and lack peptidoglycans. These are prokaryotic cells hungry for extreme environmental conditions. Based on their habitat, all Archaeans can be divided into the following groups: Methanogens (methane-producing organisms), Halophiles (Archaeans that live in salty environments), Thermophiles (Archaeans that live in extremely hot temperatures and phychrophiles (cold temperature archaeans) Archaeans use different energy sources like hydrogen gas, carbon dioxide and sulfur. Some of them use sunlight to produce energy, but not in the same way as plants. They absorb sunlight using their membrane pigment, bacteriorhodopsin. formation of the energy molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (Pete Kennedy, 2009). exhibit filiform (filamentous) growth and multicellular structures, yeasts which are generally non-filamentous and may be unicellular and fungi which possess a fruiting body for spore production. Molds have been used to make pharmaceuticals, including penicillin, which is one of the most commonly prescribed antibiotics, and cyclosporine, used to prevent organ rejection after transplant. Fungi are eukaryotic cells (with a true.)