LIFE SCIENCE
HUMAN BODY SYSTEMS RESOURCES
CELLS PROJECT TOOLKIT
Introduction to the Fungi
The Kingdom Fungi includes some of the most important organisms, both in terms of their ecological and economic roles. By breaking down dead organic material, they continue the cycle of nutrients through ecosystems. In addition, most vascular plants could not grow without the symbiotic fungi, or mycorrhizae , that inhabit their roots and supply essential nutrients. Other fungi provide numerous drugs (such as penicillin and other antibiotics), foods like mushrooms, truffles and morels, and the bubbles in bread, champagne, and beer. Fungi also cause a number of plant and animal diseases: in humans, ringworm, athlete's foot, and several more serious diseases are caused by fungi.
Making Spore Prints
Making Spore Prints by Michael Kuo While a single mushroom spore can't be seen by the naked eye, a pile of many spores can--and the color of a mushroom's spores, seen en masse , is a crucial identification feature. Obtaining a mushroom's "spore print" is therefore an essential step in the identification process. Before going through the nuts and bolts of making a spore print at home, it is worth noting that mushrooms frequently make their own spore prints, in nature. If you have ever noticed colored dust covering a leaf or the ground beneath a mushroom's gills or pores, you have probably witnessed this phenomenon.
Fun Facts: Pilobolus
Home > Catalog >Pilobolus Pilobolus -- Fungal Shotgun A cow stays close to its calf to make sure it will get everything it needs to grow.Mushroom Key
Please note that the groupings used in this key do not correspond to taxonomic groups, but to observable characteristics. When you have found the group most like your mushroom, there will be several photos to compare. DO NOT BE SURPRISED if you do not get an exact match; there are over 2000 species of fungi in the Northern Rockies and Pacific northwest, and under 400 photos on our site. You may wish to check with mycoweb or one of the other links listed on this site to find more photos to compare with. Serious students should check out Matchmaker, a program that keys out several hundred species.
Protista
Some members of Kingdom Protista are unicellular, others are colonial, and yet others are multicellular. Note that in the colonial forms, all the cells are similar with similar, generalized functions, whereas in the truly multicellular species, the “body” of the organism consists of a variety of types of cells, each type with its own specialized function. These organisms are all eukaryotes (they have a true nucleus).
GIANT BLADDER KELP
Giant Bladder Kelp ( Macrocystis pyrifera ) Introduction Giant kelp ( Macrocystis pyrifera ) is a species of marine alga found along the Pacific coast of North America from central California to Baja California. Although it begins life as a microscopic spore at the ocean floor, this species may grow to lengths of 60 m (200 ft) with its upper fronds forming a dense canopy at the surface.
Bacteria are often maligned as the causes of human and animal disease (like this one, Leptospira , which causes serious disease in livestock). However, certain bacteria, the actinomycetes, produce antibiotics such as streptomycin and nocardicin; others live symbiotically in the guts of animals (including humans) or elsewhere in their bodies, or on the roots of certain plants, converting nitrogen into a usable form. Bacteria put the tang in yogurt and the sour in sourdough bread; bacteria help to break down dead organic matter; bacteria make up the base of the food web in many environments. Bacteria are of such immense importance because of their extreme flexibility, capacity for rapid growth and reproduction, and great age - the oldest fossils known, nearly 3.5 billion years old, are fossils of bacteria-like organisms. Click on the buttons below to learn more about the Bacteria.
Introduction to the Bacteria
Antibiotic / Antimicrobial Resistance
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Antimicrobial resistance
Key facts Infections caused by resistant microorganisms often fail to respond to conventional treatment, resulting in prolonged illness and greater risk of death. About 440 000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) emerge annually, causing at least 150 000 deaths. Resistance to earlier generation antimalarial medicines such as chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine is widespread in most malaria-endemic countries. A high percentage of hospital-acquired infections are caused by highly resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).Introduction to the Archaea
The Domain Archaea wasn't recognized as a major domain of life until quite recently. Until the 20th century, most biologists considered all living things to be classifiable as either a plant or an animal. But in the 1950s and 1960s, most biologists came to the realization that this system failed to accomodate the fungi, protists, and bacteria. By the 1970s, a system of Five Kingdoms had come to be accepted as the model by which all living things could be classified. At a more fundamental level, a distinction was made between the prokaryotic bacteria and the four eukaryotic kingdoms (plants, animals, fungi, & protists).
Diatoms can be found living in a wide variety of extreme environments, including ancient Antarctic Ice. Some believe they may even exist on Europa and in interstellar dust. The above diatom, Surirella, was collected from the alkaline and hypersaline Mono Lake. Details An extremophile is an organism that thrives under "extreme" conditions.
Who Are The Extremophiles?
Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
1. DNA , the genetic material contained in one or more chromosomes and located in a nonmembrane bound nucleoid region in prokaryotes and a membrane-bound nucleus in eukaryotes 2. Plasma membrane , a phospholipid bilayer with proteins that separates the cell from the surrounding environment and functions as a selective barrier for the import and export of materialsVirus Structure
Virus Structure Viruses are not plants, animals, or bacteria, but they are the quintessential parasites of the living kingdoms. Although they may seem like living organisms because of their prodigious reproductive abilities, viruses are not living organisms in the strict sense of the word.Created by George Rice , Montana State University "Viruses straddle the definition of life. They lie somewhere between supra molecular complexes and very simple biological entities. Viruses contain some of the structures and exhibit some of the activities that are common to organic life, but they are missing many of the others.