Importance of Microorganisms - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems
On a tight schedule?
Get a 10 bullets summary of the topic
1
concept
Importance of Microorganisms
Video duration:
1m
Play a video:
in this video, we're going to begin our lesson on the importance of microorganisms. And so microorganisms are incredibly important to all living organisms, especially to humans. It turns out that we actually cannot survive without microorganisms recall that microorganisms are going to live on our bodies and in our bodies. And we refer to those organisms as the human microbiota. And so they're important for many different reasons as we'll talk about later in our course, but we cannot survive without microorganisms. However, microorganisms have also killed more people through disease than through war. And so it's kind of a love hate relationship with microorganisms. We need them to survive. But some types of microorganisms can cause us disease and harm. Now, microorganisms have really important roles commercially environmentally as research tools and they have important roles in health as well. And so as we move forward in our course, we're going to continue to talk about the important roles that microorganisms have once again commercially environmentally as research tools and in health. And so I'll see you all in our next video
2
concept
Commercial Benefits of Microorganisms
Video duration:
3m
Play a video:
in this video, we're going to talk about some of the commercial benefits of microorganisms. And so microorganisms can actually be used strategically by humans to make lots of money to make bank essentially, microorganisms can be used by humans to make really valuable products that can be bought and sold to make a profit. For example, microorganisms are used in food production to make foods such as bread, beer, milk, yogurt and cheeses, which I personally love. Microorganisms can also be used to make valuable products such as antibiotics to help people defend against bad bacteria that may cause harm. Microorganisms can also be used to make dietary supplements to help boost people's nutrition. Microorganisms can also be used to make biofuels to help power our vehicles that we use for transportation. Microorganisms can be used to make insecticides, which we can use on plants to help protect our plants and crops from insects. And microorganisms can also be used to make molecules that we used to make plastics. And of course we use plastics for so many different things. And so down below, we're showing you an image here, uh that shows you some of the commercial uses of microorganisms. So on the far left over here, we're showing you how baker's and brewer's yeast, which is really just a specific types of sacrum, iasi sarah V. C, a specific types of fungi um can be used in the production of making wine and beer and breads. And so you can see here we have beer and wines and breads which microorganisms can be used to produce. They can also be used to produce cheeses such as blue cheese mold. penicillin. Rocket 40 is used in cheesemaking to make these different types of cheeses that you see here also. They can be used to make other valuable products such as penicillin. Antibiotics that humans can use to help defend against bad bacteria that might cause harm and may cause disease such as penicillium rubens is a type of filament, it's mold that is going to be making penicillin a class of antibiotics. And of course these antibiotics can be sold to help protect humans against bad bacteria. And so microorganisms can have a lot of commercial benefits. And there are a lot of career opportunities in the microbiology field when it comes to using microorganisms for commercial purposes. And so this year concludes our introduction here to how microorganisms can be commercially beneficial. And I'll see you all in our next video.
3
concept
Environmental Benefits of Microorganisms
Video duration:
4m
Play a video:
in this video, we're going to talk about some of the environmental benefits of microorganisms. And so some microorganisms play critical roles in maintaining an environment that supports the life of other organisms. And so other organisms that are multi cellular, like animals and plants rely heavily on microorganisms to maintain their environments. So, for example, some microorganisms are capable of a process known as nitrogen fixation, which is the process that converts atmospheric nitrogen gas or end to, which is an unusable form of nitrogen for most animals and plants Into other forms of nitrogen, such as Ammonia, for instance, or NH three, that is a usable form for other organisms. And so down below in our image on the bottom left, we're showing you a little image of the process of nitrogen fixation. And so notice that we're showing you a plant here and in the roots of this plant, zooming into this roots area, you'll see that there are nitrogen fixing bacteria which are right here which are capable of performing nitrogen fixation, which is taking atmospheric nitrogen gas or end to which is an unusable form of nitrogen for the plant. And converting this nitrogen gas into another form of nitrogen, such as ammonia, which is a usable form of nitrogen that the plant can actually use for survival. And so microorganisms are important in that way. Now other microorganisms are capable of degrading a policy Sacco ride, known as cellulose in animal guts, which helps certain types of animals eat and digest many types of plants and grasses and things like that. And uh some microorganisms are also capable of degrading cellulose in the environment uh to prevent fallen leaves and fallen trees from piling up in the environment. And so if we take a look at our image in the middle, down below here, you can see how microorganisms can be important for digesting cellulose. And so notice that this cow here, which eats quite a lot of grass, needs to be thankful for its gut bacteria, It's gut microorganisms because without the gut microorganisms that degrade the cellulose in the grass, this cow would not be able to eat this grass. And so notice the cow is saying thanks, gut bacteria, I couldn't eat this grass without you and the gut bacteria saying you're welcome. And so you can see how these microorganisms can be important for breaking down cellulose. Now, last but not least, some microorganisms can be used in a process known as bio remediation, which is a process that uses microorganisms to degrade various environmental pollutants and toxic chemicals. And so down below, over here, on the right hand side, we're showing you a little image of bio remediation and so notice that the addition of microorganisms nutrients and some oxygen down into uh underground water that may be contaminated with pollutants. These microorganisms can degrade the pollutants and basically help to detoxify an area that may be contaminated with pollutants. And so this groundwater can be treated with microorganisms. The microorganisms can then degrade the pollutants and help to remediate the area that has been polluted. And so microorganisms they have or they can have a great uh impact the beneficial impact on the environment. And then that here concludes this brief introduction and we'll be able to apply some of these concepts as we move forward in our course. So I'll see you all in our next video.
4
concept
Microorganisms as Research Tools
Video duration:
3m
Play a video:
in this video, we're going to talk about the importance of microorganisms as research tools. And so microorganisms are commonly used in research, and a lot of this has to do with the fact that microorganisms have the same fundamental metabolic and genetic features as complex multi cellular organisms. And so studying microorganisms can reveal information about complex multi cellular organisms. Also, all cells are made up of the same chemical elements. All cells will build and perform similar cell structures and metabolic pathways. And so there's a famous quote that says what is true of elephants is also true of bacteria, and bacteria are way easier to study than elephants. And so that might not be entirely true, elephants are not identical to bacteria, but at the metabolic and molecular level, there are a lot of similarities between microorganisms and complex multi cellular organisms. And so microorganisms are really inexpensive to grow very quickly, which means that it's cheap to grow microorganisms quickly. And that also helps to make microorganisms excellent research tools. Microorganisms can also be used as what are known as model organisms and model organisms are non human species that are studied to provide insight into other organisms. And so by studying microorganisms and using microorganisms as research tools, we can also gain insights into other types of organisms. And so if we take a look at our example down below, we can get a better feel for this idea. And so notice that we're showing you a bunch of model microorganisms that are used by scientists to study and reveal uh information about other types of organisms as well. And so notice that at the bottom of each of these boxes, we have what scientists are studying with these particular organisms. And so on. The far left, we're showing you a bacterium, Escherichia coli. And scientists uses Escherichia coli as a model organism for molecular genetics. Then uh next what we have is an alga or a specific type of algae and it is clement Ramona's rain hardy. And scientists use this organism to study photosynthesis and flagellum motility. Then we have an example of a protozoan model organism stent or Corey uh serious. And uh scientists use this protas own um to study single cell regeneration and then last but not least over here. On the far right, we have a specific fungus, uh schizo sacrifices palm Bay. And uh scientists use this organism as a model organism to study cell cycle and cell division. And so microorganisms play a really important role as research tools to help scientists gain information not only about the organism itself, but also to gain insights into other organisms as well. And so this year concludes our brief introduction to how micro organisms microorganisms are important as research tools. And so I'll see you all in our next video
5
Problem
Problem
Which of the following is a beneficial activity of microorganisms?
A
Some microorganisms are used in the creation of food and drink.
B
Some microorganisms remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
C
Some microorganisms provide nitrogen for plant growth.
D
Some microorganisms are used in sewage treatment processes.
E
Some microorganisms are used to remove pollutants from the environment.
F
All of the above.
6
Problem
Problem
Which of the following is an example of bioremediation?
A
Using oil-degrading bacteria to clean up an oil spill.
B
Microorganisms in soil providing usable Nitrogen to plants.
C
Using bacteria in a laboratory to create human proteins and hormones, such as insulin.
D
All of the above.
7
concept
Microorganisms in Health & Disease
Video duration:
6m
Play a video:
in this video, we're going to talk about the importance of microorganisms and health, but also in disease. And so it turns out that even our own human bodies actually carry an enormous population of microorganisms at all times that we refer to as the normal microbiota. And so this normal microbiota is also sometimes referred to as the normal flora. And once again, it's referring to an enormous population of microorganisms, more specifically, trillions of microbes that live on and in the bodies of multicellular organisms such as ourselves. Now, as the name implies, with the term normal, these trillions of microbes normally exist on humans and under normal conditions, these trillions of microbes do not cause us harm, they do not cause us disease under normal conditions. And in fact, the normal microbiota actually plays important roles in sustaining and maintaining human health, helping to keep us healthy and protecting us from disease causing pathogens by competing with disease causing microbes. Now, later in our course, we'll talk a lot more about the normal microbiota, but for now this here is our brief introduction. And it turns out that there was a project named the human microbiome Project, which was a set of coordinated studies that used advanced technology to help characterize the microbes that inhabit humans. And millions upon millions of dollars were invested in this human microbiome project, which goes to show how important the human normal microbiota is in helping to sustain our health. Now again, once again because the normal microbiota or the normal flora are normally found on our bodies and they're important for helping to maintain human health. This shows how microorganisms are important in health, but it's important to also realize that microorganisms are not only important for health, they are also capable of causing disease depending on the type. So some can act as what are known as pathogens and pathogens is really just the fancy scientific term to refer to disease causing microbes, microbes that can cause humans harm and disease. And so if we take a look at our image down below, notice at the top here, it's focusing in on the human normal microbiota and so notice that it's showing you all of these microbes that are on the surface of this person's skin. But notice that they're saying, don't worry, we are here to help. And so this image is supposed to emphasize that the normal microbiota plays important roles in helping to maintain human health and keep us healthy and protect us from other disease causing pathogens. Now, although some microbes are going to be important for maintaining health. Other microbes are capable of acting as pathogens and causing human diseases. And so here we're showing you some different groups of pathogens and different diseases that they are capable of causing. So over here, on the far left, we're showing you some bacterial diseases that you may or may not be familiar with, such as strep throat tuberculosis, gonorrhea, tetanus pneumonia and syphilis and these are all going to be diseases that are associated with a bacterial infection. And so here we're showing you an image of mycobacterium tuberculosis which is the bacterium that causes tuberculosis disease. Then next what we have are some examples of fungal diseases that you may or may not be familiar with, such as ringworm, athlete's foot candidate basis, yeast infections, fungal nail infections, valley fever. And down below we're showing you an image of tri ko fight and ruby um which is the specific fungus that causes ringworm and athlete's foot. Next over here, what we have are some examples of protozoan diseases that you may or may not be familiar with, such as malaria. Um Grd I Gr de ASIS traveler's diarrhea, sleeping sickness, tax a plasma Asus. And so down below we're showing you an image of giardia. Do Arduino do analysis which is the protozoan that causes Gr de ASIS. Uh next what we have are some viral diseases that are caused by viruses such as the common cold, the flu covid 19 which you all have heard of before in the news Ebola HIV and AIDS measles and mumps and so down below we're showing you an image of the SARS cov two virus which is responsible for causing the Covid 19 disease. And so this year reminds us that microorganisms are important in maintaining our health, specifically the ones that are part of the human microbiota but they're also going to be important for causing human diseases as well. And so studying microorganisms are of great importance to humans because they can help improve our health and help protect us from specific diseases. Now this here concludes our brief introduction to how microorganisms are important in health and disease. But we'll continue to talk more about this as we move forward in our course. So I'll see you all in our next video.
8
Problem
Problem
Which of the following is true of the normal human microbiota?
A
It consists of only dangerous pathogens that cause harm to humans.
B
It consists of a small subset of viruses that do not cause harm to humans.
C
It consists of trillions of microorganisms living on and in the human body that have a beneficial role in human health.
D
It consists of only of microbes that normally flourish in the absence of oxygen.
Additional resources for Importance of Microorganisms
