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Sporosarcina Aquimarina
''Sporosarcina aquimarina'' is a rod-shaped bacterium of the genus ''Sporosarcina''. Characteristics Cells of ''Sporosarcina aquimarina'' are 0.9–1.2 μm x 2.0–3.5 μm. It is motile by means of a single polar flagellum. The bacterium forms endospores (like all species of the genus). Metabolism ''Sporosarcina aquimarina'' is heterotrophic, as it does not perform photosynthesis. It is facultative anaerobe. If oxygen is present the metabolism is due to cellular respiration, but it can also grow anaerobic if oxygen is absent. The species is halophilic. 13% NaCl are still tolerated. ''Sporosarcina aquimarina'' is one of the bacteria that can make use of urea with the enzyme urease. Others bacteria of the same genus which possess the enzyme urease are for example '' S. ureaea'' und '' S. pasteurii''. Etymology The genus name derives from the Greek word ''spora'' ("spore") and the Latin word ''sarcina'' ("package", "bundle") and refers to the fact that it forms endospores an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacteria
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among the first life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its habitats. Bacteria inhabit soil, water, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, and the deep biosphere of Earth's crust. Bacteria are vital in many stages of the nutrient cycle by recycling nutrients such as the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere. The nutrient cycle includes the decomposition of dead bodies; bacteria are responsible for the putrefaction stage in this process. In the biological communities surrounding hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, extremophile bacteria provide the nutrients needed to sustain life by converting dissolved compounds, such as hydrogen sulphide and methane, to energy. Bacteria also live in symbiotic and parasitic relationsh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heterotroph
A heterotroph (; ) is an organism that cannot produce its own food, instead taking nutrition from other sources of organic carbon, mainly plant or animal matter. In the food chain, heterotrophs are primary, secondary and tertiary consumers, but not producers. Living organisms that are heterotrophic include all animals and fungi, some bacteria and protists, and many parasitic plants. The term heterotroph arose in microbiology in 1946 as part of a classification of microorganisms based on their type of nutrition. The term is now used in many fields, such as ecology in describing the food chain. Heterotrophs may be subdivided according to their energy source. If the heterotroph uses chemical energy, it is a chemoheterotroph (e.g., humans and mushrooms). If it uses light for energy, then it is a photoheterotroph (e.g., green non-sulfur bacteria). Heterotrophs represent one of the two mechanisms of nutrition (trophic levels), the other being autotrophs (''auto'' = self, ''troph'' = ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Family (biology)
Family ( la, familia, plural ') is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". What belongs to a family—or if a described family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no hard rules for describing or recognizing a family, but in plants, they can be characterized on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive features of plant species. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions, and there may be no broad consensus across the scientific community for some time. The publishing of new data and opini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cell (biology)
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life forms. Every cell consists of a cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane, and contains many biomolecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA, as well as many small molecules of nutrients and metabolites.Cell Movements and the Shaping of the Vertebrate Body in Chapter 21 of Molecular Biology of the Cell '' fourth edition, edited by Bruce Alberts (2002) published by Garland Science. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos. It is also common to describe small molecules such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sporosarcina Pasteurii
''Sporosarcina pasteurii'' formerly known as ''Bacillus pasteurii'' from older taxonomies, is a gram positive bacterium with the ability to precipitate calcite and solidify sand given a calcium source and urea; through the process of microbiologically induced calcite precipitation (MICP) or biological cementation. ''S. pasteurii'' has been proposed to be used as an ecologically sound biological construction material. Researchers studied the bacteria in conjunction with plastic and hard mineral; forming a material stronger than bone. It is a commonly used for MICP since it is non-pathogenic and is able to produce high amounts of the enzyme urease which hydrolyzes urea to carbonate and ammonia. Physiology ''S. pasteurii'' is a gram positive bacterium that is rod-like shaped in nature. It has the ability to form endospores in the right environmental conditions to enhance its survival, which is a characteristic of its bacillus class. It has dimensions of 0.5 to 1.2 microns in wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sporosarcina Ureae
''Sporosarcina ureae'' is a type of bacteria of the genus ''Sporosarcina'', and is closely related to the genus ''Bacillus''. ''S. ureae'' is an aerobic, motile, spore-forming, Gram-positive coccus, originally isolated in the early 20th century from soil. ''S. ureae'' is distinguished by its ability to grow in relatively high concentrations of urea through production of at least one exourease, an enzyme that converts urea to ammonia. ''S. ureae'' has also been found to sporulate when environmental conditions become unfavorable, and can remain viable for up to a year . History In the early 20th century, famous Dutch microbiologist Martinus Beijerinck isolated a microorganism that he named ''Planosarcina ureae''. In an effort to isolate bacteria from urea-containing soil enrichments, he repeatedly came across a motile coccus that clustered in packets and had the ability to form endospores. The isolated organism's nomenclature changed often as the result of the morphological and bio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urease
Ureases (), functionally, belong to the superfamily of amidohydrolases and phosphotriesterases. Ureases are found in numerous bacteria, fungi, algae, plants, and some invertebrates, as well as in soils, as a soil enzyme. They are nickel-containing metalloenzymes of high molecular weight. These enzymes catalyze the hydrolysis of urea into carbon dioxide and ammonia: : (NH2)2CO + H2O CO2 + 2NH3 The hydrolysis of urea occurs in two stages. In the first stage, ammonia and carbamic acid are produced. The carbamate spontaneously and rapidly hydrolyzes to ammonia and carbonic acid. Urease activity increases the pH of its environment as ammonia is produced, which is basic. History Its activity was first identified in 1876 by Frédéric Alphonse Musculus as a soluble ferment. In 1926, James B. Sumner, showed that urease is a protein by examining its crystallized form. Sumner's work was the first demonstration that a protein can function as an enzyme and led eventually to the reco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urea
Urea, also known as carbamide, is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest amide of carbamic acid. Urea serves an important role in the metabolism of nitrogen-containing compounds by animals and is the main nitrogen-containing substance in the urine of mammals. It is a colorless, odorless solid, highly soluble in water, and practically non-toxic ( is 15 g/kg for rats). Dissolved in water, it is neither acidic nor alkaline. The body uses it in many processes, most notably nitrogen excretion. The liver forms it by combining two ammonia molecules () with a carbon dioxide () molecule in the urea cycle. Urea is widely used in fertilizers as a source of nitrogen (N) and is an important raw material for the chemical industry. In 1828 Friedrich Wöhler discovered that urea can be produced from inorganic starting materials, which was an important conceptual milestone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halophile
The halophiles, named after the Greek word for "salt-loving", are extremophiles that thrive in high salt concentrations. While most halophiles are classified into the domain Archaea, there are also bacterial halophiles and some eukaryotic species, such as the alga ''Dunaliella salina'' and fungus ''Wallemia ichthyophaga''. Some well-known species give off a red color from carotenoid compounds, notably bacteriorhodopsin. Halophiles can be found in water bodies with salt concentration more than five times greater than that of the ocean, such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah, Owens Lake in California, the Urmia Lake in Iran, the Dead Sea, and in evaporation ponds. They are theorized to be a possible analogues for modeling extremophiles that might live in the salty subsurface water ocean of Jupiter's Europa and similar moons. Classification Halophiles are categorized by the extent of their halotolerance: slight, moderate, or extreme. Slight halophiles prefer 0.3 to 0.8 M (1.7 to 4.8%†... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cellular Respiration
Cellular respiration is the process by which biological fuels are oxidised in the presence of an inorganic electron acceptor such as oxygen to produce large amounts of energy, to drive the bulk production of ATP. Cellular respiration may be described as a set of metabolic reactions and processes that take place in the cells of organisms to convert chemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then release waste products. The reactions involved in respiration are catabolic reactions, which break large molecules into smaller ones, releasing energy. Respiration is one of the key ways a cell releases chemical energy to fuel cellular activity. The overall reaction occurs in a series of biochemical steps, some of which are redox reactions. Although cellular respiration is technically a combustion reaction, it is an unusual one because of the slow, controlled release of energy from the series of reactions. Nutrients that are commonly used by animal and plan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metabolism
Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes; the conversion of food to building blocks for proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and some carbohydrates; and the elimination of metabolic wastes. These enzyme-catalyzed reactions allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. The word metabolism can also refer to the sum of all chemical reactions that occur in living organisms, including digestion and the transportation of substances into and between different cells, in which case the above described set of reactions within the cells is called intermediary (or intermediate) metabolism. Metabolic reactions may be categorized as ''catabolic'' – the ''breaking down'' of compounds (for example, of glucose to pyruvate by ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Facultative Anaerobic Organism
A facultative anaerobic organism is an organism that makes Adenosine triphosphate, ATP by aerobic respiration if oxygen is present, but is capable of switching to Fermentation (biochemistry), fermentation if oxygen is absent. Some examples of facultatively anaerobic bacteria are ''Staphylococcus'' Species, spp., ''Escherichia coli'', ''Salmonella'', ''Listeria'' spp., ''Shewanella oneidensis'' and ''Yersinia pestis''. Certain eukaryotes are also facultative anaerobes, including fungi such as ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' and many aquatic invertebrates such as Nereid (worm), nereid polychaetes. See also * Aerobic respiration * Anaerobic respiration * Fermentation * Obligate aerobe * Obligate anaerobe * Microaerophile References External links Facultative Anaerobic Bacteria {{Bacteria Anaerobic respiration Cellular respiration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
