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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:
3. Materials:
1. Anabaena
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2. Oscillatoria
3. Chlorella
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
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
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
9. 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
11. Blepharisma
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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
13. Plasmodium
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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
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
Some species have a blue color, commonly growing on old bread and giving it a blue
fuzzy texture.
6. Conclusion:
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