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Microorganisms, or microbes, span all three domains of life – bacteria, archaea, and many unicellular eukaryotes including some fungi and protists.Typically defined as unicellular life forms that can only be observed with a microscope, microorganisms were the first cellular life forms, and were critical for creating the conditions for the evolution of more complex multicellular forms.
Human interactions with microbes include both practical and symbolic uses of microbes, and negative interactions in the form of human, domestic animal, and crop diseases. Practical use of microbes began in ancient times with fermentation in food processing ; bread , beer and wine have been produced by yeasts from the dawn of civilisation, such ...
Graphic depicting the human skin microbiota, with relative prevalences of various classes of bacteria. The human microbiome is the aggregate of all microbiota that reside on or within human tissues and biofluids along with the corresponding anatomical sites in which they reside, [1] [2] including the gastrointestinal tract, skin, mammary glands, seminal fluid, uterus, ovarian follicles, lung ...
Access to the previously invisible world opened the eyes and the minds of the researchers of the seventeenth century. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek investigated diverse bacteria of various shapes, fungi, and protozoa, which he called animalcules, mainly from water, mud, and dental plaque samples, and discovered biofilms as a first indication of microorganisms interacting within complex communities.
The bugs in the gastrointestinal tract do far more than just digest food.
The bacteria inside Trichonympha in termites produces cellulase. Cellulase enzymes are used to break down cellulose which is found in plants' cell walls. The termites, the gut protist Trichonympha, and the cellulase-producing bacteria are all involved in a 3-way obligate symbiotic mutualism. The termites benefit from the other two species ...
The vast majority of bacteria don’t hurt us, and many – like the ones that live in our gut and help digest food – are helpful. However, some can harm us by replicating too quickly in our ...
There is evidence that 3.45-billion-year-old Australian rocks once contained microorganisms, the earliest direct evidence of life on Earth. [1] [2] Microbes are important in human culture and health in many ways, serving to ferment foods and treat sewage, and to produce fuel, enzymes, and other bioactive compounds.