Microorganisms Around Us

What is microorganisms?

Microorganisms are very tiny one - celled organisms , viruses , fungi and bacteria and are found everywhee in the world.They are found in all living things such as plants and animals.There are more microorganisms on and inside our body than there are cells that make up our body.Microorganisms can live in air , on land and in fresh or salt water environments.Some of them pathogens can be harmful and causes disease but there are some microorganisms that are needed for living things to survive.  

How are microorganisms are identified?

Microorganisms are put into groups but a lot of microorganisms can belong to mare than one group.One of the way they are grouped is by determining the temperature.

What do microorganisms do?

Microorganisms are responsible for building soil fretile.They stick to roots of plants and decompose dead organic matter into food.Some of them make people , animals and plants sick but others make people well and kill the bacteria on plants.By using this microorganisms we can make medicines. 

PROTOZOA

 SUPER-POWERED PROTISTS

 

Protozoa are also known as protists.These are the bad boys of the microbe  world (bad meaning "advanced").Protists are eukaryotes with special structures that may be the base organisms of multicellular organisms.


SLIME MOLDS

Slime molds are not molds like a fungus.They sometimes act like a fungus but they aren't.They are actually independant organisms.There are two kinds of slime molds, cellular and acellular.They specialize for a short time and some do the eating , some work on reproduction and some build special structures. Acellular slime molds might also called plasmodial slime molds.This are actually one cell.they can be huge , a couple of feet across but still only one cell.They are able to grow so large.The plasmodial slime molds ooze across the ground of forests dogesting everything they can.


AMOEBAS


ther are small-single celled organisms that ooze from place to place.They reach out with one part of the cell , a structure called a pseudopod.They don't really have  a shape because they are constantly on the move , hunting down food and eating by a process called phagocytosis.They wrap themselves around the food and absorb it into their body for digestion.

  image of amoeba

PARAMECIUM

 

Paramecium is larger than amoeba.It can be found in ponds with scum on them.It has more of a shape than amoeba looking like the bottom of a shoe.It is covered with tiny hairs that help it move.these hairs called cilia.Paramecium eats tiny algae , plants and more.The cilia propels the food into a tiny mouth opening of the paramecium.The food is then shoved down a little tube called a gullet that leads to the protoplasm or stuffing of the cell.It has two other vacuoles at either end of its body to get rid of excess water and wastes.Paramecium has two nuclei which operates as the director of the cells activities ( big one ) and smaller one used for reproduction.Occasionally two paramecium exchange material and form a new paramecium and this is called conjugation.

  
The paramecium cannot see , taste , touch or hear.However it evidently has some sense of movement because it responds when it bumps into something.It also can sense certain chemicals.