Micro 223-FG Group 5

10-29-10 Maya Popbozhikova

Pamela Taylor
Latifa Bouhbel
Kenneth Ting
Jodi Henson
Hong Ngo

Laboratory Experiment # 5

Survey of Microorganisms

1. Introduction:

Microbes are everywhere in the biosphere, and their presence affects the environment
that they are growing in. In order to make it easier to study all the various organisms that have
been identified and many more organisms that have not been identified, biologists have grouped
the living world into five kingdoms. These five kingdoms are separated by characteristics such
as cellular qualities and type of nutrition. In this laboratory we will be studying three kingdoms
that are very diverse yet have two major characteristics in common — the organisms in these
kingdoms are usually microscopic. There are some filamentous or colonial groups in these
kingdoms, and even some are multicellular. The Kingdom Monera contains prokaryotic life
forms, such as the true bacteria and the blue-green bacteria or Cyanobacteria. Prokaryotic cells
lack a nuclear envelope - that is, the genetic material is not doubly membrane-bound but loose in
the cytoplasm. The Kingdom Protista is a diverse kingdom that contains the single-
celled eukaryotic organisms, such as protozoa and some algae. Eukaryotic cells have a nuclear
envelope that separates the genetic material from the rest of the cytoplasm. Organisms found in
the Fungi Kingdom are heterotrophic. Fungi obtain food by decomposing anything that is
organic in nature. Fungi live everywhere. They grow best in warm, moist places. They are not
green and do not possess chlorophyll. Fungi can grow on vegetables, bread, meat, fur, wood,
leather, or anything that is in a warm and moist area.

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 2. Aim of the Experiment:

The aim of the experiment is to help students develop a better understanding of

characteristics of organisms belonging to Monera, Protista, Plantae, and Fungi, to compare
bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa and explore the lower kingdoms. Many of the smaller
representatives of these groups are called "microbes."

3. Materials:

 Bottles of pond-water samples;

 Microscope slides and cover glasses;
 Rubber-bulbed pipettes;
 Microscope.
4. Procedure:

 Clean a slide and cover class with soap and water;

 Using pipette, insert it into the bottom of the sample bottle to get a maximum number of
microorganisms;
 Explore the sample under microscope.
5. Results :

1. Anabaena

 Kingdom Bacteria, Phylum Cyanobacteria, Order Nostocales, Genus Anabaena

 Genus of filamentous cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae
 They are one of four genera of cyanobacteria that produce neurotoxins, which are harmful to
local wildlife, as well as farm animals and pets.

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 2. Oscillatoria

 Domain Bacteria, Phylum Cyanobacteria, Order Oscillatoriales, Genus Oscillatoria;

 Genus of filamentous cyanobacteria which is named for the oscillation in its movement;
 It is commonly found in watering-troughs waters, and is mainly blue-green or brown-
green; Oscillatoria is an organism that reproduces by fragmentation;

 Oscillatoria uses photosynthesis to survive and reproduce.

3. Chlorella

 Domain Eukaryota, Kingdom Plantae, Division Chlorophyta, Class Trebouxiophyceae,

Order Chlorellales, Family Chlorellaceae, Genus Chlorella;

 Genus of single-celled green algae, belonging to the phylum Chlorophyta;

 It is spherical in shape and is without flagella. Chlorella contains the green photosynthetic
pigments chlorophyll a and b in its chloroplast. Through photosynthesis it multiplies rapidly
requiring only carbon dioxide, water, sunlight, and a small amount of minerals to reproduce

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 4. Chlosterium

 Domain Eukaryota, Kingdom Plantae , Phylum Charophyta , Class Zygnemophyceae , Order

Desmidiales, Family Closteriaceae, Genus Closterium
 Genus of algae, elongated, cylindrical;
 Reproduction: Asexual: budding from a partitioned parent cell. Sexual: Conjugation to form a
hypnozygote.

5. Synedra

 The genus Synedra has long, needle-like cells that exist singly or in radiate
colonies;
 In the colonies the cells are clustered together at one point by a mucilage cushion
that is secreted from a pore field on each cell;
 Certain species have two short horns or spines protruding from the valve face just
above the pore field. The valves are covered by rows of round or elongated
areolae;

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  The cells appear rectangular when viewed from the girdle or side view. Each cell
has two long, plate-like plastids.

6. Euglena

 Domain Eukaryota, Kingdom Excavata, Phylum Euglenozoa, Class Euglenoidea, Order

Euglenales, Family Euglenaceae, Genus Euglena
 Genus of unicellular protists
 Reproduction: binary fission and there has been no evidence of sexual reproduction
 Movement: able to move through aquatic environments by using a large flagellum for
locomotion
 Feeding: Euglena is a Protist that can both eat food as animals by heterotrophy; and can
photosynthesize, like plants, by autotrophy

7. Chlamydomonas

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 Division Chlorophyta, Class Chlorophyceae , Order Volvocales, Family
Chlamydomonadaceae, Genus Chlamydomonas
 Genus of green alga;
 Movement: They are unicellular flagellates;
 The green algae are not actually considered to be plants, but are thought to be related to the
organisms that gave rise to the first plants. They are usually placed in the Kingdom Protista

8. Volvox

 Kingdom Plantae , Phylum Chlorophyta , Class Chlorophyceae , Order Volvocales, Family

Volvocaceae, Genus Volvox;
 Genus of chlorophytes. It forms spherical colonies of up to 50,000 cells. They live in a variety
of freshwater habitats. The cells of Volvox can be single or biflagellate.
 Reproduction: both by sexual and asexual reproduction
 Movement: composed of numerous flagellate
 Feeding: One can find parasites feeding on cells of Volvox in some colonies

9. Spirogyra

 Domain Eukaryota, Kingdom Protoctista , Phylum Charophyta , Class Zygnemophyceae ,

Order Zygnematales , Family Zygnemataceae , Genus Spirogyra

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 Unbranched green algae with cylindrical cells connected end to end in long green filaments
 Reproduction: both by sexual and asexual reproduction;

10. Amoeba

 Domain Eukaryota, Kingdom Amoebozoa, Phylum Tubulinea, Order Tubulinida, Family

Amoebidae, Genus Amoeba.
 Unicellular, eukaryote, no cell wall.
 Reproduction: binary fission.
 Movement: use of pseudopodia.
 Feeding: phagocytosis — similar to our phagocytic white blood cells.

11. Blepharisma

 Domain Eukaryota, Phylum Alveolata, Subphylum Ciliophora, Class Heterotrichea, Order

Heterotrichida, Family Blepharismidae, Genus Blephorisma
 Eukaryote, pigmented with some shade of red or pinks ;
 Reproduction: Binary fission. They also make use of conjugation, unlike some other ciliates.

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 Movement: Blepharisma is covered in tiny hairlike parts called cilia, which allows it to move
through water;
 Feeding - It generally eats bacteria from decomposing vegetation, which is drawn into the buccal
cavity and then passes to the food vacuoles at the posterior end of the cell.

12. Giardia

 Domain Eukaryota, Phylum Metamonada, Order Diplomonadida, Family

Hexamitidae, Genus Giardia
 Anaerobic flagellated protozoan parasites
 Reproduction: Their life cycle alternates between an actively
swimming trophozoite and an infective, resistant cyst.

13. Plasmodium

 Domain Eukaryota, Kingdom Chromalveolata, Superphylum Alveolata, Phylum Apicomplexa,

Class Aconoidasida, Order Haemosporida, Family Plasmodiidae, Genus Plasmodium
 Obligate eukaryotic parasites;

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  Reproduction: undergo merogony (multiple divisions of the nucleus followed by segmentation of
the cytoplasm producing daughter cells called merozoites). All malaria parasites have a sexual
life stage that occurs in a blood-feeding insect, which is the definitive host for these organisms

14. Saccharomyces cerevisiae

 Kingdom Fungi, Phylum Ascomycota, Subphylum Saccharomycotina, Class

Saccharomycetes, Order Saccharomycetales, Family Saccharomycetaceae, Genus
Saccharomyces, Species S. cerevisiae
 Species of budding yeast. It is perhaps the most useful yeast owing to its use since
ancient times in baking and brewing.
 All strains of S. cerevisiae can grow aerobically on glucose;
 Growth in yeast is synchronised with the growth of the bud.

15. Rhizopus

 Kingdom Fungi, Class Zygomycetes, Order Mucorales, Family Mucoraceae, Genus Rhizopus

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 Rhizopus reproduces by vegetative, asexual and sexual methods by spores.

 They are found on a wide variety of organic substrates, including mature fruits and
vegetables, feces, jellies, syrups, leather, bread, peanuts and tobacco.

16. Penicillium

 Kingdom Fungi, Class Eurotiomycetes, Order Eurotiales, Family Trichocomaceae, Genus

Penicillium

 Genus of ascomycetous fungi of major importance in the natural environment as well as

food and drug production. It produces penicillin, a molecule that is used as an antibiotic,
which kills or stops the growth of certain kinds of bacteria inside the body.

 Sexual reproduction involves the production of ascospores;

 Some species have a blue color, commonly growing on old bread and giving it a blue
fuzzy texture.

6. Conclusion:

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