How are viruses treated?
The role of vaccines in treating viruses is to develop immunity by copying the infections and produce antibodies but without causing any illness in the body like germs and viruses do. Instead, the vaccine help the body immune system to develop to same response it does to a real infection. Once the immune system can produce its own anti bodies, it will be able to recognise diseases the body has been vaccinated against and fight them off.
For example flu vaccines are made using three different types of flu viruses, the three strains of the viruses are grown in hen eggs and then the viruses are killed off and purified before doctors turn it into definite vaccines. There 3 are different types of flu viruses that can be used to make flu vaccines, these are
- Type A flu Viruses ( H1N1), type is the type of virus that cause pandemics before
- Type B flu viruses, this virus can cause severe disease and mostly affects children
- Type c flu viruses, this virus can cause mild illness
Fungi structure
The body of many fungi is made up of many colourless hyphae weaved together to make a web called the mycelium. The mycelium cannot be seen with the naked eyes so the microscope is often is used to see it.
Sometimes, when there are too many of the hyphae packed together, they form some black cables called rhizomorphs. These can easily be seen with the naked eyes and they make a different kind of fungi. The most common type of fungi is known as mushrooms.
Fungi are divided into four main groups and these are zygomycota, Ascomycota, basidiomycota and deuteromycota.
An example of the zygomycota is black mold on bread
This is a picture of a zygomycota under a microscope
An example of the Ascomycota is yeast
This is an Ascomycota under a microscope
An example of the basidiomycota is mushroom
This is a basidiomycota under a microscope
An example of deuteromycota under a microscope
Fungi are really important for decomposition and are a very important in the carbon cycle which is almost a part of life itself.
Fungi and the carbon cycle
All types of Fungi secretes enzymes which makes digestion happen on the outside of the fungal body. Fungi together with bacteria are what decompose the earth, in the carbon cycle, they help decompose dead organisms and waste products. Bread mould, yeast and mushrooms are all different types of fungi
Fungi and penicillin
Penicillin is the most common medicine that we can obtain from fungi; it especially comes from a type of fungi called penicillum. There are also other fungi that can produce antibiotic which is then used to control different diseases.
Fungi and food
Fungi can be served directly as food ready to eat, for example mushrooms is one of the types of fungi that can be eaten. Mushrooms are not the only type of fungi we eat, some fungi are also used in the production of other types of food like beer, cheeses, wine, bread and some types of soya beans.
Difference between different groups of fungi
We can find the main difference between the ascomycetes and the basidiomycetes in the way they produce their microscopic spores. In the basidiomycetes, the pores are produced externally on the end of specialised cells called basidia. This means we can find them on the outside. Whereas in the Ascomycetes, the spores are produced internally in a sac called ascus
Ascomycetes
Basidiomycetes
Bacteria
There two different types of bacteria, eukaryotic cells and prokaryotic cells. The eukaryotic cells have a nucleus that is wrapped up with a nuclear envelop but the prokaryotic cells don’t have that part.
There are three different shape of bacteria that exist, which are rod shaped bacteria known as bacilli, cocci which has the shape of a sphere and the spirilla which has a curved shape
How are bacteria treated?
Because bacterial diseases and infections are caused by a bacterium, when treating these infect ions, people are given a special antibiotic that aims to kill the bacterium that caused the infection in the first place
Characteristics of bacteria
When bacterium are in the body, they reproduce by dividing. First, the first bacterium divides by two to make daughter cell then both these two daughter cells divide and make two each and they continue the pater till there are enough of them in the body. They can divide and reach up to more than 100,000 in the body.
When bacteria are in an environment or temperature that doesn’t suit them they go into their Sleeping state where they wait for the right temperature to become active. Also when they enter that state, they become even more difficult to be killed compared to when they are active because in that state they create a protective coat which unwraps them and that protective coat is hard to destroy
How does bacteria affect white blood cells?
Bacteria cells multiply rapidly and they crowd and invade the host tissues and cells, then they kill these cells and tissues. Sometime the bacterial use other methods to cause harm in the bod y by making toxins that will poison and paralyse the cell’s metabolic machinery which stops them from defending the body. This then lead the cells to their destruction
There are different bacteria shapes
Gram-negative bacteria are a class of bacteria that do not retain the crystal violet stain that is used in the Gram stain method of bacterial differentiation which makes positive identification possible.
The thin peptidoglycan layer of the bacteria cell wall is shared between an inner cell membrane and a bacterial outer membrane.
When testing for bacteria, there are different bacterium that we can look for, gram positive and gram negative. The Gram negative bacteria are usually the hardest gram to kill. This is due to the fact that they have less peptidoglycan in their cell walls and normally this is the drugs act against.
Some of the differences between the gram positive and gram negative bacteria is that in the gram negative bacteria, the cell wall is less thicker 8 – 12 nm than the cell wall in the gram positive bacteria which is about 20 to 20 nm
Why do different bacteria have different shapes?
Bacteria have different size due to the role of their cell walls which pays an important role in the shape of the bacteria. All bacteria have a cell wall made of a substance called peptidoglycan which is a mesh of peptides and saccharides that provides strength to the bacteria and makes them hard enough.
Difference between different groups of fungi
We can find the main difference between the ascomycetes and the basidiomycetes in the way they produce their microscopic spores. In the basidiomycetes, the pores are produced externally on the end of specialised cells called basidia. This means we can find them on the outside. Whereas in the Ascomycetes, the spores are produced internally in a sac called ascus
Ascomycetes
Basidiomycetes
How does bacteria affect white blood cells?
Bacteria cells multiply rapidly and they crowd and invade the host tissues and cells, then they kill these cells and tissues. Sometime the bacterial use other methods to cause harm in the bod y by making toxins that will poison and paralyse the cell’s metabolic machinery which stops them from defending the body. This then lead the cells to their destruction