Diversity, Benefits and Detriments of Microbes

 For the first reply:

1. You will respond to another classmate with a substantive comment in minimum 100, maximum 150 words about how their organism is detrimental/harmful to another area of microbiology, after you have read their main discussion.
2. Again, you should provide student original writing, paraphrasing from credible sources, cite your source for this post in text in parentheses, and provide full end ref information in APA 7th Edition format.

Thiomargarita namibiensis

  **When we think of bacteria our brows will rise and masks are quickly wrapped around our ears. There is some bacterium that is formed that will help balance out nature. There is a bacterium that was discovered on the bottom of the ocean floor, off the coast of South Africa. This bacterium is called Thiomargarita namibiensis.  Thiomargarita namibiensis is also called the “sulfur pearl of Namibia” because of the string of cells. Thiomargarita namibiensis was discovered on the ocean floor in 1999 off the coast of Namibia. Thiomargarita namibiensis is one of the largest bacteria in the world; the volume is 3 million times that of normal bacteria. T. Namibiensis measure in at 0.5 (mm). For example, Staphylococcus is about 0.1(mm) five times smaller in circumference (Cowan & Smith, 2020). Thiomargarita Namibiensis’s large size comes from the cytoplasm of cells, inside the cell membrane the bacteria can spread the nitrate combined with the outside sulfide. Each cell can grow up to 1 millimeter in diameter. Thiomargarita gets its large size from the rich sulfa and nitrate ocean water.

        What role does Thiomargarita namibiensis play? How does Thiomargarita namibiensis work? Thiomargarita namibiensis provides an ecological balance to the ocean by acting as a detoxifier. Thiomagarita namibiensis stores sulfur and nitrate within the bacterium. The bacterium then uses the stored nitrate to oxidize and remove the poisonous gas from the water. Thiomargarita namibiensis provides a habitable living for fish and other marine organisms.  As the phytoplankton settles on the ocean floor the anaerobic bacteria will oxidize the organic material. Once oxidation occurs, it releases a large amount of sulfide. Thiomargarita namibiensis will begin to oxidize through several morphological adaptations.

       Without the help of Thiomargarita namibiensis, the ocean will develop a high level of sulfur and poisonous gas. Once the level of sulfur and the poisonous gas level becomes too high it will become inhabitable for fish and other organisms disrupting the ecology of the ocean.

References:

Cowan, M. K., & Smith, H. (2020). Microbiology: A Systems Approach. McGraw-Hill Education.

Thiomargarita – microbewiki. (n.d.).

https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Thiomargarita

 For the second reply:

1. You will respond to a second classmate with a substantive comment of minimum 100, maximum 150 words about either positive or negative aspects of their organism, after you have read their main discussion.
2. Again, you should provide student original writing, paraphrasing from credible sources, cite your source for this post in text, in parentheses, and provide full end ref information in APA 7th Edition format.

**  

 Bacillus Thuringiensis 

For the week one discussion post, I selected to write about bacillus thuringiensis (BS). I found this topic very interesting due to the benefits BT has on the success of the agriculture industry. But what is BT? BT is a ubiquitous spore-forming soil bacterium that thrives under the soil surface around the world. BT is found typically towards the surface of the soil, within the first few inches (L. Lagadic, T 2014). When BT is exposed to sunlight it is broken down much faster than under the surface. BT is lethal to insects such as caterpillars, and any other leaf-eating insects which are destructive to crops.  When an insect, starts to eat the crops they ingest BT. Once the insect ingests BT these proteins develop into a crystal-like protein (cry toxin) (L. Lagadic, T 2014). When these cry toxins enter the digestive tract of the insects, these cry toxins bed themselves into the insect’s gut wall causing pores in the epithelium. The insects that ingest BT cause the insects to stop feeding. Due to the lethal effect on insects, molecular biology made it possible to engineer plants with BT such as cotton corn, and potatoes. Due to BT farmers can produce more consumable goods with less waste, resulting in more rapid production of crops. while keeping harmful insect populations down. The other positive thing BT does not affect the target species meaning BT does not have the same effect on humans or larger animals like dogs and cats, as it does on insects. When humans or larger animals ingest crops that contain BT it does not change forms into cry toxins (L. Lagadic, T 2014). From my research, I have not found any negatives BT has on consumers which is not its target.

References:

Bacillus thuringiensis. Bacillus Thuringiensis – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2023, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/bacillus-thuringiensis