Lecture 1

Question 1

what are the two main cell types?
- what is included
- ?-celled
- nuclei and organelles?

Answer 1

1) Prokaryotic Organisms
- eubacteria and archaea
- single celled
- lack nucleus and organelles

2) Eukaryotic Organisms
- Plants, fungi, animals, humans
- Single-celled OR multicellular
- have nuclei and organelles

Question 2

what are the parts of a prokaryotic cell? (6)

Answer 2

• semi permeable membrane
• DNA is in the nucleoid
• cell wall: tough protective outer coat (not in all prokaryotes)
• ribosomes for protein synthesis
• flagellum for locomotion (not in all prokaryotes)
• very small 1 micrometer

Question 3

what are the parts of a eukaryotic cell? (5)

Answer 3

• one component of the cytoskeleton are microtubules
• membrane bound organelles
• mitochondria for ATP synthesis
• have a nucleus
• larger than prokaryotes (5 micrometers)

Question 4

what is the microbiota? what does it include? where does it reside? what is its role?

Answer 4

Microbiota refers to the community of microorganisms that live in a particular environment. the microorganisms of a particular site can also be a habitat or geological period

microbiota includes bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, and viruses

microbiota reside on skin, lungs, mouth, gastrointestinal tract etc.

Important role in human health (e.g., digestion, immune system)

Question 5

what is the ratio of microbial cell to human cell and how many more microbial genes are there than human genes

Answer 5

microbial cell: human cell is at least 1:1

Up to 200 times more microbial genes than human genes in the human body.

Question 6

what is the microbiome

Answer 6

combined genomes of microbiota