Characteristics of Microbes

Characteristics of Microbes

Introduction

The key characteristics of bacteria, virus and fungi, are critical in understanding to develop an effective method for confronting a bioterrorist attack on community.

Discussion

Classification and measurement

Around 1.7 million identified living organisms were previously classified according to morphology, nutrition, etc, but with the advent of protein sequencing and DNA, the organisms were classified into three classes. On a broader spectrum, bacteria fungi and virus are three biggest domains in microbes under the five kingdom system. The measurement of microbial growth is done by physical, chemical, turbidity test, microscopic count in the form of graphs (http://textbookofbacteriology.net).

General Characteristics of Bacterium

The simple morphological, structural, and functional characteristics of bacteria are that they are typically unicellular, delineated by cell wall composed of Murein peptidoglycan and liposaccharides. They are devoid of nucleolus, nucleus and nuclear membrane, as the genetic material is accumulated in a nucleoid. All the membrane bound organelles such as endoplasmic reticulum, golgi bodies, mitochondria are absent. DNA is circular, and ribosomes are scattered in the cytoplasm. The bacteria exhibit spiral (spirillum), round (coccus), or rod (bacillus) shape. The aerobic forms of bacteria function metabolism in the presence of oxygen and anaerobic in the absence of oxygen. Bacteria are characterized into gram positive and gram negative bacteria on the basis of their wall structure (Hollingsworth, 2004).

Key characteristic and Bioterrorism

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported numerous threats in US in, Oct 2001 and anthrax spores in letters were sent to several people. A gram positive and rod-shaped bacterium, Bacillus anthracis causing anthrax, is a bioterrorist threat. The characteristic of spore formation aids it in becoming a viable weapon of bioterrorism. Bacillus anthracis exist in the form of dormant endospores in conditions of deprivation of nutrients, and germinates on finding nutrients and release toxins. It is very difficult to destroy the spores as they have thick cell wall (gram positive), and they can survive extreme chemical and physical inhospitable environments. The endospore is composed of three layers; cortex of peptidoglycan, coat of proteins and semi-permeable exosporium. This characteristic is chosen because these spores spread the disease (in the form of powder in some cases), and it's structure analysis will assist in formulating a preventing strategy in the spread of bioterrorist weapon of anthrax. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should consider producing chemicals like penicillin as these spores are very resistant (Johnson, ...