The Lord Of The Microbes For All Biogeochemical Cycles

Analysts have been concentrating among the dynamic parts of supportive microorganisms inside the human body, and they found out that: “In fact, most of the cells in the human body are not human at all. Bacteria cells in the human body outnumber human cells 10 to one.” (Jennifer Ackerman, 2012, p. 38) Ackerman also expresses that

The article “Some of My Best Friends are Germs,” by Michael Pollen was a very interesting and informative read. Pollen explains that our bodies house 100s of trillions of microbes. More than 99 percent of our genetic information is microbial. The large number of bacteria that inhabits us weighs many pounds, forming a massive, unexplored world that scientists are just starting to document. These bacteria affect our health as much as if not more than the genes we receive from our parents.

Microorganisms are both beneficial and harmful. These microorganisms are important to humans because they play a role in the ecology of life, by decomposing wastes, both natural and man-made, such as creating nitrogen fertilizer at the root zones of certain crops. Other several pathogens that can cause serious harm, even immediate death due to the diseases or disease causing products they produce. Overall, microorganisms play an important role in life.

Microbes are bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. The earth was formed 4.6 million years ago. And a few million years later, by 3.5 billion years ago, earth was already inhabited by a diversity of organisms. The earliest organism is Prokaryotes and within the next billion years, two distinct groups of prokaryotes called bacteria and archaea diverged. Eukaryotes cell evolved from a prokaryotes community, a host cell containing even smaller prokaryotes .The microbial world accounted for all known life forms for nearly 50 to 90% of Earth's history. We are still researching microbial organisms today in marine environment, extreme environments. A microbial observatory is an NSF-funded project dedicated to the discovery and characterization of novel microorganisms and microbial communities of diverse

Before, biologists assumed all microbes are bad for the human body (automatically thought of pathogens), caused many diseases and harm our body fundamental systems. In addition, the biologists think that our body is already built which had all the functions required to maintain our health. However, the attitude has changed over the last decade. The biologists characterized the most prevalent species of microbes in the body, and found out that these collective microbes do not threaten us, and they also are important part of human bodies.

Our world has changed dramatically since the day Antoine van Leeuwenhoek discovered microorganisms in 1676 using a simple microscope. In early days, scientists first thought life arose from inanimate materials. This theory, known as abiogenesis or spontaneous generation, was disproved later on by scientists including Lazarro Spallanzani and Louis Pasteur. The experiments conducted by these scientists showed that living things could only arise from preexisting life, or biogenesis. All life begins with a living cell, composing of five required components. These components are DNA, RNA, cell membrane, ribosome, and cytoplasm. As more investigations on bacteria were conducted, scientists were able to acquire a deeper knowledge of the microbiology and pathology of animals, plants, and humans.

The human microbiome has received more attention in the last few years as scientists have begun to link health and mental wellbeing with these internal synergists. Murray and Manary (2015) define a microbiome as an “ecological community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms living inside the body…100 trillion organisms, including anaerobic bacteria, archaea, yeast and parasites.” Humans are born and immediately exposed to these microbes, creating their own microbiome within hours. The natural birth baby inherits microbes of the mother and caesarian section babies receive microbiota of those who handle them first (Ley, 2006). Genes, and the environment from which they are born into, shape their future microbiome (Ley, Peterson,

Since our early childhood we have always kept that inner voice in the back of our minds telling us not to touch certain things or to follow certain rules so we don’t become infected with germs or become ill. Our mothers and fathers kept a watchful eye on us as children and especially as toddlers because of our very curious minds and our driven power to explore. We continue to set the same rules for our younger siblings and will probably act the same as our parents did when we were young to our offspring. Well one individual named Jack Gilbert a father of two that studies microbial ecosystems at the University of Chicago decided to put these assumptions to the test.

This research paper is a primary research paper because the paper indicates that a study was done by several biologist and scientist on the microbial community in the Rhizosphere. Therefore, all the research, answers, and conclusion they all concluded based on their study was explained throughout this paper based on all the information they gathered. Also, the authors explain the process and methods they used to carry out and conduct this research on the microbial communities. I came down to this conclusion by understanding what they wrote is backed up by evidence by explaining the procedure they carried out to study these microbial communities.

This assignment reviews two papers. The first one is a fun review paper titled “Life in a World without Microbes” by Gilbert and Neufeld (2014). The first 5 questions comes from this paper. The second paper is a more scientific review titled “Microbes Drive Evolution of Animals and Plants: the Hologenome Concept” by Ronsenberg and Zilber-Rosenberg. Remember to answer the question clearly and in your own words. Make sure you answer all parts of the question. Do not use direct quotes from the paper as I want you to interpret and put all information into your own words. Do not share answers with classmates. Your answers should be typed.

During the year, microbes appeared sometime in March while humans have been here for 30 mins or fewer (11*). Ed Yong uses this fact as a springboard to explore and explain the complex relationships that exist between microbes and animals. After confirming that microbes have been here way longer than anyone of us, he gets into the thick of it by discussing the sheer ubiquity of microbes, which exist in every conceivable place. From everything you touch to the piping hot underwater vents where nothing else lives. It is as if everything has an extra invisible microbial layer.

Many books that can be read will captivate you, can give you another world to live in, can sweep you off of your feet and never set you back down again. Rarely can a book alter your view so entirely about the world you live in, just by giving you more information about what exactly your world is made up of. The book Good Germs, Bad Germs did this for me. Each chapter strategically broke down the history of microbes and bacteria and how they have been perceived (or not perceived) throughout history. Each expanding step lists the theories that were building blocks for the future of the study of microbes. From Nurse Nightingale, Colonel George Waring, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek and Bonnie Bassler there were medical advances that helped the field of medicine greatly. Even groups who did not believe in the germs made large steps to clean up the population. Each person mentioned in the book had some sort of contribution to the start of fighting against bacteria and viruses, with Nurse Nightingale disinfecting the work area, Waring started cleaning up the streets and created the way to keep sewage separate from the drinking water and Leeuwenhoek who identified bacteria in the first place.

My name is strep. Streptococcus Mutans to be exact. I live in a diverse community but my family make up about twenty percent of the world we live in. Our home is called mouth. We have lived here for as long as I can remember. From what I have been told we lived here before there were even homes for us. As a baby our host was kissed by a caregiver who transferred my family to our host. I wasn’t around yet but I hear we had to live down in the grooves of the tongue at that time. Then when teeth began erupting we were able to upgrade into better homes but some of my family still lives down in those valleys. We’re a bacterium that is normal to have so our host has never really tried to kick us out but we’re not the cleanest of microbes and have been known to cause some tooth decay here and there. I am writing this journal to keep record of the things that have been happening to us lately.

Though the subject was initially limited to study of microbes and their characteristics or properties, latter it was explored to see all possible applications and benefits to man.

Life on this planet began with microorganisms. Through millions of years microorganisms have found ways to successfully adapt and survive. These adaptations have created a wide biodiversity, allowing them to basically populate in all places. Why are these microbes so important? Because they shape the history of our world. Some microbes can be deathly to humans while some others are favorable, for example, bacteria that lives in the gut of both humans and animals and helps during the process of digestion (Alfred Brown & Heidi Smith, 2006). Understanding these interactions help scientists to find ways to protect humans from potential deathly pathogens. In order to observe microbes, microscope proficiency and microorganisms’ identification are crucial skills in a microbiology lab. During this laboratory session, samples of environmental and human organisms were inoculated into two different rich media and incubated to their according temperature. After this, appropriate use and calibration of the microscope was performed. Lastly, morphology and size of different species of bacteria, algae, fungi and protozoan were recorded.