What is bacteria?

Biology

What is bacteria?
bacteria are single celled, microscopic organisms.


There are several different shapes (eg rod (bacillis), sphere (cocci) and spiral (vibrio, spirillium etc)) and have several features like flagella, villi, etc.


They differ from plant, animal, protists and fungi in that they don't have a nucleus and are called prokaryotes (pro=before, karyote = nucleus).





There are 2 main groups of bacteria, the main Eubacteria and the Archaebacteria or extremeophiles that while they look like "normal" bacteria they have a lot of diffs in the biochemical make-up...these live in thermal springs, exteme salty conditions, hydrothermal vents etc.





we know about 5% of the bacteria out there, they are the oldest and most primative organisms on earth and about 5% of the known bacteria cause disease (ie are pathogenic), the other 95% help us with protection on the skin and in the gut, help sheep, cows digest food, use it in fermenting, cooking and food eg sour cream, sauerkraut, sausages, cheeses etc.


The majority are found on surfaces and in things like soil, the latter help plants by "fixing nitrogen" from the atmosphere while the others just go about their business and do nothing to us.
Reply:germs.
Reply:microrganisms that can possibly make u sick?
Reply:Bacteria is a one cell organisim that can multiply to make more bacteria
Reply:Itty-bitty guys that can make you sick.
Reply:germs, little embryo's found in everyday life. Some are good like penicillin and yogurt, and some are obviously bad, but bacteria is everyday life. We consist of bacteria
Reply:ubiquitous one-celled organisms, spherical, spiral, or rod-shaped and appearing singly or in chains, comprising the Schizomycota, a phylum of the kingdom Monera (in some classification systems the plant class Schizomycetes), various species of which are involved in fermentation, putrefaction, infectious diseases, or nitrogen fixation.
Reply:Bacteria are NON-living entities. They are like parasites because bacteria use the host cell's nucleic blue prints to replicate itself--the bacteria.





Some bacteria are helpful, like in our stomachs. These bacteria help to digest the nutrients from the food.





Some bacteria are bad and can cause short-term illnesses. Few bacteria are strong enough to cause death.





Antibiotics help to kill/fight off bacteria. BUT, overtime humans have used so much antibiotics, that resistant strains of bacteria have accumulated and replicated. So we are in danger. This MEANS people need to wash their hand more often, esp. after using the restroom.





If you don't wash your hands after you go to the restroom and then start eating with those hands, you can get diarrhea and sometimes people even die of undiscovered bacterias.