Untitled Quiz

Microbes play a crucial role in the environment, impacting various processes like plastic degradation and phytoplankton populations in seas.
Microbes are also key components in technology, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction enzymes, and CRISPR-Cas systems.
Microbes are integral parts of medicine encompassing cancer therapeutics and antibiotics.
Microbes are the foundation of all life. Following different energy sources, they are classified as either phototrophs or chemotrophs. They are likewise classified based on their carbon sources: autotrophs and heterotrophs.
Different classifications of microbes exist based on their energy and carbon sources, such as photoautotrophs, photoheterotrophs, chemoautotrophs, and chemoheterotrophs.
Specific examples of microbes include plants, algae, cyanobacteria, extremophiles, purple/green non-sulfur bacteria, humans, and animals.

Plastic pollution has substantially increased since 1950.
Microbes play a role in plastic degradation.
Microbes like those in the microbiome can be platforms for colonizing plastics, affecting their toxic effects, and providing carbon sources.

All life begins with microorganisms.
Microbes can utilize either light or chemical oxidation as their energy source, classifying them into phototrophs and chemotrophs, respectively.
Microbes can obtain carbon from either inorganic sources (CO2), classifying them as autotrophs, or from organic compounds, classifying them as heterotrophs.
Microbes utilize these sources of energy and carbon in various ways, like photoautotrophs, photoheterotrophs, chemoautotrophs, and chemoheterotrophs.

Microorganisms have varying optimal growth temperatures, ranging from psychrophiles, that thrive in cold temperatures, to hyperthermophiles, which thrive in extreme heat conditions.
Cell membranes of microbes change their fatty acid composition depending on the temperature to adapt to different conditions
Important factors in microbial survival and adaptation are cryoprotectants, cold/heat shock proteins
Cell membrane composition has a high content of saturated fat to form a solid at extreme temperatures

Microbes exist in various environments including marine environments, caves, plants, animals, soil, and the atmosphere.

Marine environments encompass various zones, including neritic and oceanic zones, characterized by different water conditions.
Neritic zones are nutrient-rich with moderately high temperatures and pressures.
Oceanic zones display higher pressures and lower temperatures and nutrients.
Photosynthetic organisms and diverse marine life characterize neritic zones.
Chemo- and phototrophs exhibit in oceanic zone.

Oceanic plankton, crucial for oxygen production, account for 50-80% of Earth's oxygen.
Specific plankton like Prochlorococcus are responsible for a significant portion (20%) of Earth's oxygen production.
Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus are key players in marine carbon fixation.

The field of molecular biology has been transformed by the application of DNA polymerase I from Thermus aquaticus (Taq polymerase).
This led to the development of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Restriction enzymes are proteins produced by bacteria that cut DNA at specific sites.
CRISPR-Cas systems have applications in gene editing and biotechnology, offering resistance to viruses or plasmids containing related sequences, matching the spacers.
Applications of restriction enzymes include recombinant gene technology.

Microbes contribute significantly to diverse diseases, including cancer.
Viruses like HPV can lead to various cancers.
Microbes are used in the production of recombinant vaccines through expressing antigens in yeast cells. This approach has been applied to hepatitis B, human papillomaviruses (HPVs), and SARS-Cov-2.
Recombinant viruses are also used as vaccines