Chapter 7- BACTERIA

Under what conditions do bacteria thrive and reproduce?

When bacteria have plenty of food, the right temperature, and other suitable conditions, they thrive and reproduce frequently.

Flagellum

A bacterial cell may also have a flagellum (fluh jel um) (plural flagella), a long, whiplike structure that helps a cell to move. A flagellum moves the cell by spinning in place like a propeller. A bacterial cell can have many flagella, one, or none. Most bacteria that do not have flagella cannot move on their own. Instead, they are carried from place to place by the air, water currents, objects, or other methods.

Endospores

An endospore is a small, rounded, thick-walled, resting cell that forms inside a bacterial cell. It contains the cell's genetic material and some of its cytoplasm.

Asexual Reproduction

Asexual reproduction is a reproductive process that involves only one parent and produces offspring that are identical to the parent

What positive roles do bacteria play in people's lives?

Bacteria are involved in oxygen and food production, environmental recycling and cleanup, and in health maintenance and medicine production.

Bacteria

Bacteria are prokaryotes. The genetic material in their cells is not contained in a nucleus

How do the cells of bacteria differ from those of eukaryotes?

Bacteria are prokaryotes. The genetic material in their cells is not contained in a nucleus

What do bacteria need to survive?

Bacteria must have a source of food and a way of breaking down the food to release its energy.

binary fission

Bacteria reproduce by a process called binary fission, in which one cell divides to form two identical cells. Binary fission is a form of asexual reproduction.

Conjugation

During a process called conjugation, one bacterium transfers some genetic material to another bacterium through a threadlike bridge. After the transfer, the cells separate.

Pasteurization

During pasteurization, the food is heated to a temperature that is high enough to kill most harmful bacteria without changing the taste of the food.

Sexual Reproduction

In sexual reproduction, two parents combine their genetic material to produce a new organism, which differs from both parents.

Decomposers

organisms that break down large chemicals in dead organisms into small chemicals.