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Name: __________________________________ Date __________________ Microbe Scavenger Hunt 1 Directions: You are going to go online to find the latest information about microbes from the American Society for Microbiology at http://archives.microbeworld.org/microbes/. Go to my webpage at www.cwcboe.org > School (GCMS) > Staff (Isabella D’Agostino) > Viruses and Bacteria Page > Microbe Scavenger Hunt 1.Use the hyperlinks within the document to navigate the site and complete the statements that follow. What is a Microbe? 1. Microbes are ___________________ organisms so tiny that ________________ can fit into the eye of a needle. 2. Microbe fossils date back more than ______________________ to a time when the earth was covered with oceans. 3. Without microbes, we couldn’t _______ or __________. 4. Microbes are in the _______ we breathe, the ____________ we walk on, the ______________ we eat – they’re even inside ______! 5. We couldn’t _____________ food without them – animals couldn’t, either. 6. Without microbes, plants couldn’t ___________, garbage wouldn’t ____________, and there would be a lot less _______________ to breathe. Types of Microbes (Click Types of Microbes on the left-hand menu.) 1. Microbes can be divided into six main types: a. ___________________ b. ___________________ c. ___________________ d. ___________________ e. ___________________ f. ___________________ Bacteria (Click Bacteria on the left-hand menu.) 1. Bacteria consist of only a single ________________. 2. Bacteria have been found that can live in temperatures above the _________________ point and in cold that would ____________ your blood. 3. There’s even a species of bacteria – Deinococcus radiodurans – that can withstand blasts of radiation 1,000 times greater than would kill a human being. Classification 4. Bacteria fall into a category of life called the ____________________. 5. Prokaryotes’ genetic material or DNA is not enclosed in a cellular compartment called the _______________________. 1 How Long They’ve Been Around 6. Bacteria are among the earliest forms of life that appeared on Earth __________ of years ago. 7. Scientists think they helped shape and change the young planet’s environment, eventually creating atmospheric ______________ that enabled other, more complex life forms to develop. 8. Many believe that more complex ___________ developed as once free-living bacteria took up residence in other cells, eventually becoming the ___________ in modern complex cells. 9. The __________________ that make energy for your body cells is one example of such an organelle. What They Look Like (Click What They Look Like on the left-hand menu.) 1. There are ____________________ of species of bacteria, but all of them are basically one of _______ different shapes. Some are ________ or stick-shaped and called _______________. 2. Others are shaped like little balls and called _____________. 3. Others still are helical or _________________ in shape, like the Borrelia pictured at the top of this page. 4. Some bacterial cells exist as _________________while others ____________ together to form pairs, chains, squares, or other groupings. Where They’re Found (Click Where They’re Found on the left-hand menu.) 1. Bacteria live on or in just about every __________________ and environment on Earth from soil to water to air, and from your _____________ to arctic ___________ to ________________ vents. 2. Each square centimeter of your skin averages about ____________________ bacteria. 3. A single teaspoon of topsoil contains more than ____________________ bacteria. What They Eat (Click What They Eat on the left-hand menu.) 1. Some bacteria are __________________________ - they can make their own food from sunlight, just like plants. 2. Also like plants, they give off ____________________. 3. Other bacteria absorb food from the material they live on or in. Some of these bacteria can live off unusual “foods” such as ______________ or sulfur. 4. The microbes that live in your gut absorb __________________ from the digested food you’ve eaten. 2 How They Move (Click How They Move on the left-hand menu.) 1. Some bacteria move about their environment by means of long, whip-like structures called _____________________. 2. Other bacteria secrete a ______________________ layer and ooze over surfaces like __________________. 3. Others are fairly ________________________. Archaea and Other Extremists (Click Archaea on the left-hand menu.) Types of Archaea 1. There are three main types of archaea: a. ___________________ b. ___________________ c. ___________________ 2. Archaea look a lot like _________________. So much so that until the late 1970s, scientists assumed they were a kind of “weird” bacteria. 3. Then microbiologist Carl Woese devised an ingenious method of comparing ______________ information showing that they could not rightly be called bacteria at all. Their genetic recipe is too different. Classification 4. Archaeans are single-celled creatures that join bacteria to make up a category of life called the _______________________. 5. Prokaryotes’ genetic material, or DNA, is not enclosed in a central cellular compartment called the ________________. 6. Bacteria and archaea are the only ____________________. 7. All other life forms are _______________________________, creatures whose cells have nuclei. Early Origins 8. Archaeans are among the __________________ forms of life that appeared on Earth billions of years ago. 9. It’s now generally believed that the archaea and bacteria developed separately from a ___________ ancestor nearly 4 billion years ago. 10. Millions of years later, the ancestors of today’s eukaryotes split off the archaea. So historically, archaeans are more closely related to _________ than they are to bacteria. What They Look Like (Click What They Look Like on the left-hand menu.) 1. Some archaea look like little __________ or tiny balls, and some even get around like bacteria using long hair- or whip-like appendages called ________________ that stick out of their cell walls. 2. Like bacteria, archaea lack a true __________________. 3 Where They’re Found (Click Where They’re Found on the left-hand menu.) 1. Archaea comes from the Greek word meaning “_______________.” 2. An appropriate name, because many archaea thrive in conditions mimicking those found more than __________________ years ago. 3. Back then, the earth was still covered by oceans that regularly reached the boiling point — an extreme condition not unlike the __________________ vents and ______________ waters where archaea are found today. 4. In addition to superheated waters, archaea have been found in acid-laden ____________ around old mines, in frigid _________________ ice and in the super-salty waters of the ______________________. What They Eat (Click What They Eat on the left-hand menu.) 1. Archaeans dine on a variety of substances for energy including _______________ gas, carbon _________________ and sulfur. 2. One type of salt-loving archaean uses _________________ to make energy, but not the way plants do. 3. This archaean has a light-harvesting pigment in the ________________ of its cell. 4. This pigment, called ____________________, reacts with light and enables the cell to make __________, an energy molecule. Viruses (Click Viruses on the left-hand menu.) What They Are 1. A virus is basically a tiny bundle of _________________ material - either DNA or _____ - carried in a shell called the viral coat, or ______________, which is made up of bits of protein called _______________. 2. Some viruses have an addition layer around this coat called an _____________. 3. Viruses can’t metabolize ______________, produce and excrete wastes, move around on their own, or even ______________ unless they are inside other organisms. They aren’t even _____________. 4. Viruses have been the culprits in many human _____________, including smallpox, flu, _________, certain types of cancer, and the ever-present ___________________. Single-Minded Mission 5. Viruses exist for one purpose only: to _______________________. 6. To do that, they have to take over the _______________ machinery of suitable host cells. 7. Upon landing on an appropriate _________ cell, a virus gets its genetic material inside the cell either by tricking the host cell to pull it inside, like it would a ________________ molecule, or by fusing its viral coat with the host cell wall or membrane and releasing its __________ inside. 8. If the virus is a ________ virus, its genetic material then inserts itself into the host cell’s DNA. If the virus is an ________ virus, it must first turn its RNA into _________ using the host cell’s machinery before inserting into the host cell. 9. The viral _________ are then copied many, many times, using the machinery the host cell would normally use to _____________ its own DNA. 10. The virus uses the host cell’s enzymes to build new viral capsids and other viral ______________. 4 What They Look Like (Click What They Look Like on the left-hand menu.) 1. Viruses are the ______________ and tiniest of microbes; they can be as much as ____________ times smaller than bacteria. 2. There are _____________ of different viruses that come in a variety of shapes. Many are _________________ or multi-sided. 3. Other viruses are shaped like spiky ovals or ___________ with rounded corners. 4. Some are like skinny ____________ while others look like bits of looping ___________. 5. Some are more complex and shaped like little lunar ____________________. Where They’re Found (Click Where They’re Found on the left-hand menu.) 1. Viruses are found on or in just about every material and _________________ on Earth from soil to water to _______. 2. They’re basically found anywhere there are __________ to infect. 3. Viruses have _________________ to infect every form of life, from animal to plant and from fungi to ______________. 4. However, viruses tend to be somewhat picky about what type of cells they ___________. 5. Plant viruses are not equipped to infect _____________ cells, for example, though a certain plant virus could infect a number of related _____________. 6. Sometimes, a virus may infect one creature and do no harm, but cause havoc when it gets into a different but closely _______________________ creature. 7. True parasites, viruses are basically little more than molecular ______________ moving genetic information from one cell to another. 5