BIOL241 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Protozoa, Archaea, Central Dogma Of Molecular Biology
19 Jan 2016
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Document Summary
Traditionally, prokaryotic = before a nucleus and eukaryotic= possessing a true nucleus (but some scientists dislike these terms) Microorganisms are everywhere: produce greenhouse gases, in rice patty fields, forests, hotsprings, etc, stromatolites are layers of microorganisms in biofilms that evolved when the earth had no oxygen. They are photosynthesizers, so they produce oxygen they grew in biofilms to protect them from their oxygen they give us oxygen: our microbes correlate to our health and almost all are beneficial. More microbial cells on earth (1031) than there are starts in universe . Sextillion cells in the universe, nonillion bacterial cells on earth. Microbial cells are far more abundant and interesting than starts. While one of the most important drivers for the development of the science of microbiology was the recognition that many diseases are caused by microorganisms, in reality, only a very small fraction of microorganisms cause disease.
