BIOA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Syphilis, Thermophile, Virulence Factor

• School: UTSC
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIOA01H3
• Professor: Steve Joordens

Document Summary

Prokaryotes organism in which the dna is suspended in the cell interior without separation from other cellular components by a discrete membrane. Thrive almost everywhere: including extreme habitats too hostile for most organisms, remarkable diversity (billions of years to evolve) Appear simple in structure compared to eukaryotic cells. Have the greatest metabolic diversity of all organisms. Prokaryotes play a crucial role in ecosystems, recycling nutrients and breaking down compounds that no other organisms can. Others carry out reactions important in food production, in industry (eg, production of pharmaceutical products), or in bioremediation of polluted sites. The full extent of prokaryote diversity is unknown. Only 6000 species of prokaryotes (as low as 1% of total population) have been isolated and identified. Detailed studies can only be made of prokaryotes that are grown in culture and the vast majority cannot grow on the media and conditions that can be provided. We haven"t explored many extreme environments in which they thrive.