Microbes and Nutrition Flashcards
What does microbes in soil do? (Advantages)
- Nitrogen fixation
- Decomposition
- Suppress pathogens
- Breaking down toxic substances
How do microbes help plants have access to nutrients? (NH3)
There are microorganisms in the soil that fixes inorganic nitrogen from the air to make it into organic nitrogen such as ammonia. Plants needs ammonia as a nutrient source and these nitrogen-fixing bacteria are usually situated near or on the plant’s roots
How does decomposition provide the soil with nutrients?
Microbes in the soil can break down waste products/dead organisms and turn it to useful nutrients. These microbial enzymes are able to break down complex plant tissues turn it into simpler products that plants can use
How does bacteria and fungi supress pathogen?
Through competition. They reduce and suppress pathogens through competing resources in the environment. These bacteria and fungi that grows normally would have a good impact on the surrounding environment depending whether the soil is healthy or not. In a healthy soil, harmful microbes are difficult to grow
How do microbes help the environment from toxic substances?
Substances like pesticides can be broken down by microbes and detoxified to recycle it into a useful nutrient
How does rumen help with the herbivores diet like cows?
Rumen is a normal flora that can be found in cows’ gut. This flora is used to digest cellulose as cows eat grass and cellulose is the main component of cell walls in plants. It can turn cellulose to simple sugars. These sugars are then fermented inside the cow’s gut to butyrate or cyanide which can be taken up through the gut lining and used as a source of carbon and energy
Why is it not favourable for these cows to eat cellulose?
The end product of the digestion of cellulose is CO2 and methane, which is expelled from the cow through fart or faeces. CO2 and methane are two major contributors to climate change
How microbes can act as a sacrificial nutrient
Microbes can act as nutrients for animals themselves. They build more microbial cells and when the cells die it can feed the animal indirectly.
What is one of the solutions to reducing greenhouse gases from cows?
Feeding them seaweeds. Seaweed have potent antigenic property that stops microbes making methane. This is important as methane is a more dangerous/potent gas than CO2
Mutualism vs Symbiosis
Mutualism: When two organisms benefit from each other
Symbiosis: Two organisms that live very tightly associated with each other. This includes mutualism AND parasitism
Mycorrhizal fungi and plants
Mycorrhizal fungi lives on the plant roots which helps increase the surface area of the root network as helps takes water and nutrients like ammonia for the plant. In return the fungi gets sugars from the plant. Plants can also take up phosphorus from the fungi
Rhizobium bacteria and plants
These bacteria can fix nitrogen which helps the plants take up nitrogen as their nutrient source such as ammonia. It enables the plant to live on air more or less so it can make protein from air. In return, plants give bacteria sugars
Examples of bad microbes in plants and animals
- Tobacco mosaic virus
- Sigatoka fungus
- Foot and mouth disease
Why is the tobacco mosaic virus so dangerous?
It can live outside of the host cell for a very long time and while it is surviving it can infect many plants. These plants include tobacco, tomato and cannabis. Since it is viral, it can cross-contaminate with other plants easily.
Why are bananas susceptible to getting disease?
Because bananas, specifically Cavendish bananas, are made from propagation. Meaning that these bananas are grown by cutting from the stem of the plant making the bananas to be genetically identical instead of having any sexual recombinants like in the wild. This means if one banana is susceptible to a disease like the Sigatoka fungus, all bananas would be infected as easily.
