Microbes:
Microbes are microscopic organisms, or microorganisms. They include the following:
About 97% of these microscopic creatures are extremely beneficial to us and to the environment. They are not all bad or pathogenic. They serve as decomposers, and break things down. They work together to enrich the soil. They result in the beautiful colors of springs and pools and rust. They are fermenters and provide us foods and beverages like breads, cakes, biscuits, doughs, cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, kefir, yogurt, beer, wine, saki, kimchi, kombucha, pickled foods, sauerkraut, and others. These are nonpathogens and are part of the microbiome of the environment, the ocean, and even ourselves.
About 3% are opportunistic pathogens. These are typical "colonizers". They make the reservoir their home, and in return, in terms of humans, provide us digestion and things like vitamin K, which is a blood-clotting factor. This means that they can cause an infection only if all the conditions are just right for them to "take the opportunity" to do so. Many of these organisms are part of the human microbiome and live inside our guts and other parts of our bodies, and live on us, and they usually live in mutualism and symbiosis. However, if our normal microbiome is disturbed or barriers are overcome or broken, they can overgrow or get into places they don't normally belong and cause infection.
About <1% are true pathogens, never part of the normal human microbiome, and can cause infection. These not only include bacteria, fungi, and protozoans, but also include the acellular, nonliving infectious molecules viruses and prions. Viruses are nothing more than nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein shell called a capsid, made up of protein subunits called capsomeres. These are naked viruses. Some viruses are surrounded by a lipid envelope they gain upon budding from the host cell as they pinch off a piece of the host cell's plasma/cell membrane, forming a vesicle around them. Prions are also acellular, nonliving infectious molecules that are misfolded proteins resulting in spongiform encephalopathy. In humans, this fatal dementia and brain degeneration usually results in death in just less than a year. It is often referred to as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). In cattle, this bovine spongiform encephalopathy is known as mad cow diseases. In sheep, this results in scrapie. In cannibals, this results in kuru. In deer and mule deer and antelope, this results in chronic wasting disease.
- Domain Bacteria
- Kingdom Prokaryotes
- Photosynthesizers (Cyanobacteria)
- Nonphotosynthesizers
- Kingdom Prokaryotes
- Domain Archaea
- Kingdom Prokaryotes
- Ancient bacteria
- Extremophiles
- Capnophiles
- Cryophiles/psychrophiles
- Thermophiles
- Acidophiles
- Alkaliphiles
- Barophiles
- Kingdom Prokaryotes
- Domain Eukarya (Eukaryotes)
- Kingdom Animalia
- Humans
- Animals
- Kingdom Plantae
- Plants
- Algae (Kelp)
- Kingdom Fungi
- Molds
- Yeasts
- Mushrooms
- Kingdom Protista (Protists)
- Parasites
- Helminthes
- Nematodes
- Amoeba
- Kingdom Animalia
About 97% of these microscopic creatures are extremely beneficial to us and to the environment. They are not all bad or pathogenic. They serve as decomposers, and break things down. They work together to enrich the soil. They result in the beautiful colors of springs and pools and rust. They are fermenters and provide us foods and beverages like breads, cakes, biscuits, doughs, cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, kefir, yogurt, beer, wine, saki, kimchi, kombucha, pickled foods, sauerkraut, and others. These are nonpathogens and are part of the microbiome of the environment, the ocean, and even ourselves.
About 3% are opportunistic pathogens. These are typical "colonizers". They make the reservoir their home, and in return, in terms of humans, provide us digestion and things like vitamin K, which is a blood-clotting factor. This means that they can cause an infection only if all the conditions are just right for them to "take the opportunity" to do so. Many of these organisms are part of the human microbiome and live inside our guts and other parts of our bodies, and live on us, and they usually live in mutualism and symbiosis. However, if our normal microbiome is disturbed or barriers are overcome or broken, they can overgrow or get into places they don't normally belong and cause infection.
About <1% are true pathogens, never part of the normal human microbiome, and can cause infection. These not only include bacteria, fungi, and protozoans, but also include the acellular, nonliving infectious molecules viruses and prions. Viruses are nothing more than nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein shell called a capsid, made up of protein subunits called capsomeres. These are naked viruses. Some viruses are surrounded by a lipid envelope they gain upon budding from the host cell as they pinch off a piece of the host cell's plasma/cell membrane, forming a vesicle around them. Prions are also acellular, nonliving infectious molecules that are misfolded proteins resulting in spongiform encephalopathy. In humans, this fatal dementia and brain degeneration usually results in death in just less than a year. It is often referred to as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). In cattle, this bovine spongiform encephalopathy is known as mad cow diseases. In sheep, this results in scrapie. In cannibals, this results in kuru. In deer and mule deer and antelope, this results in chronic wasting disease.