BOTANY

SET
PAPER II
Unit 1: Diversity of life forms 1
•Moduel 1: Bacteria
• Bacterial growth, metabolism and reproduction
 BACTERIAL REPRODUCTION

Asexual reproduction Sexual reproduction

Fission Conidia Conjugation Transformation Transduction

Budding Sporangiospore

Cysts Endospore

Fragmentation
Vegetative reproduction
• Binary Fission
 Vegetative reproduction
• Budding
• Genome replication follows, and one copy of the genome gets into the bud.
• Then the bud enlarges and eventually become a daughter cell.
• Finally gets separated from the parent cell.
• Hyphomicrobeales: commonly called the
budding bacteria, a branch strand of cell wall
material may be initiated prior to the separation
of a bud.
Vegetative reproduction
• Cysts
• The entire protoplast of the cell recedes from the cell wall and
becomes rounded.
• A thick wall is then secreted around it to form resistant structure
known as cyst.
• These are formed in certain species of Azobacter.
• Under favorable environmental conditions the cyst germinate to
produce the new bacterium.
Minicells
• Minicells are small spherical cells that bud off the poles of bacteria.

• Because bacterial poles are chromosome free, minicells have no

chromosomal DNA.

• They harbor membranes, ribosomes, RNA, protein, and plasmid DNA.

As a result, minicells cannot replicate but are capable of other cellular
functions.
Sporulation:
(i). Conidia:
• Many filamentous bacteria like Streptomyces form chains of small,
spherical spore like conidia at the tips of the filaments.

• A conidium develops by the formation of a transverse wall at the tip of

the filament.

• The filament bearing conidia are known as conidiophores.

• Conidium gives rise to a new filamentous bacterium under favourable

conditions.
 Sporulation:
(ii). Sporangiospores:
• In some branching bacteria sporangia like structure may developed at the
end of certain filaments.

• The protoplast of the sporangia may divided to form tiny sporangiospores.

• On liberation of these spores germinate under suitable condition and

produces a filamentous bacterium.
 Sporulation:
(iii). Endospore
• During the unfavorable condition bacteria forms endospores.

• In this state, the bacteria can tolerate exceedingly high and low temperatures, acidic
and basic conditions, and large amounts of radiation.

• Endospores can only be made by Gram positive bacteria.

• Within the endospore remains the bacterial DNA, but the cytoplasm has a decreased
water concentration.

• The bacteria will take on a tough coating composed of calcium and dipicolinic acid,
creating a dense and impregnable barrier to stabilize the DNA within the cell.

• DNA repair enzymes are also still active, aiding in the resistance of the endospore.
 Sexual reproduction
(i). Conjugation: the unidirectional transfer of genetic material from a
donor cell (male cell)
to a recipient cell
(female cell) through
a cell to cell contact
or through a
conjugation tube.
Sexual reproduction
Conjugation between Hfr cell and F- cell
Sexual reproduction
Sexduction or F duction
Sexual reproduction
(ii). Transformation
• It is the absorption of DNA segment from the surrounding medium by
a living bacterium.

• The phenomenon was discovered by Griffith in 1928.

• Experiment in mice with pathogenic bacteria Streptococcus

pneumoniae
R-II S-III

Conclusion: The S-III strain

had transferred its genetic
material which transformed
the R-II strain into the
virulent strain and caused the
death of mice.
 Sexual reproduction
(iii). Transduction
Transduction is the gene transfer mechanism, which facilitates the transfer of genetic material from one bacterial
cell to the next bacterial cell by the bacteriophages.

There are two types of transduction:

1. Generalized Transduction
It is the kind of Lytic phase, in which the bacteriophage only carries the pure bacterial DNA, not the phage DNA
and this pure bacterial gene is inserted into the recipient cell.

2. Specialized Transduction
It is the kind of Lysogenic phase, in which the gene transfer occurs from one bacterial cell to the next via
bacteriophages that do not carry the pure bacterial DNA, i.e. it contains both the bacterial DNA and the phage
DNA.
Generalized Transduction
Specialized Transduction
 Bacterial growth
• Bacterial growth take place by reproduction.
• Majority of the bacteria reproduce through binary fission.
• The generation time is the time taken for the number of bacteria to
double or duration of the growth cycle.
• On average it is usually about 30 minutes.
• The growth pattern of bacteria is in “Geometric fashion” i.e. a
bacterial cell first divides into two, then four, then six and so on ( x,
x2,x4,x6……xn). Here, n indicates the number of generations.
• The growth of bacteria, there is a relationship that exists between
the initial number of cells (in the log phase) and the final number of
cells (after the log phase) in the cell culture, which can be expressed
as:

N=N0 X 2n
• The final number of cells: N
• The initial number of cells: N0
• Number of generations: n

• If the generation time is 30 minutes, find the number of cells for one
bacteria after 2 hours?
Bacterial growth curve
• The Growth of bacteria characterized by the increase in cell number, cell size and cell
mass.

• A growth curve depicts the number of viable cell.

• There are 4 growth phases, and they gradually change from one to the other:
• Lag - microbes are growing but not dividing.
• Log (exponential) - cells are dividing at a constant speed. There are more than enough
nutrients to allow the cells to grow.
• Stationary - the number of cells is stable - the number of cells being produced is equal
to number of cells dying.
• Death - number of cells dying > number of cells being produced.
 Growth conditions:
1) Temperature: most bacteria grow optimally at human body temperatures (37ºC). e.g. E.coli,
which is part of the normal human intestinal microflora. Some can survive at higher/lower
temperatures than the human body temperature.

2) pH: optimal conditions are between 6,7-7,5. However some other bacteria, like vibrio cholera
can survive in pH conditions as high as 9,0 and gastric helicobacter can survive in acidic pH.

3) NaCl concentration: should be about 0.9% (physiologic saline). Staphylococci can multiply
on sweaty skin, where the concentrations are about 10%.

4) Nutrients: need to be in the correct balance of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulphur, iron, etc,
for synthesis of specific bacterial compounds.

5) Osmotic pressure: bacteria are about 80-90% water; they require moisture to grow because
they obtain most of their nutrients from their aqueous environment.

6) Anaerobes/aerobes: oxygen may or may not be needed, depending on the species of bacteria
and the type of metabolism used to extract energy from food
Bacterial metabolism
• This is the way in which a microbe obtains energy and nutrients it
requires; to survive and reproduce.
• The processes can be anabolic (synthesis of compounds and the
consumption of energy) or catabolic (break down of substrates to gain
energy).
• Catabolic reactions: -
• Digestion - bacterial exoenzymes split the nutrient substrates into smaller
molecules outside the cell.
• Uptake - nutrients are taken up by passive diffusion, or more usually active
transport through the membrane.
• Preparation for oxidation - phosphorylation, etc.
• Oxidation - removal of electrons and H+ ions. The H2 atoms are then transferred to
the hydrogen acceptor.
There are 3 types of catabolism:

1) Fermentation - breakdown of nutrients without the need for oxygen.

Only small amounts of energy are produced. Products are lactate,
ethanol, etc.

2) Aerobic respiration - uses oxygen and a small amount of nutrient

provides a large amount of energy. Products are CO2 and H2O.

3) Anaerobic respiration - using electron acceptor other than oxygen.

other less-oxidizing substances such as nitrate, fumarate, sulfate, sulfur
etc are used.
 The type of catabolism is related to oxygen
consumption
• Facultative anaerobes: they oxidize nutrients by respiration and fermentation. They can
grow in all conditions.

• Obligate (strict) aerobes: they can only reproduce in the presence of oxygen.

• Obligate (strict) anaerobes: they die in the presence of oxygen. Their vital enzymes are
inhibited by oxygen.

• Micro-aerophilic bacteria - grow in conditions with traces of oxygen.

• Aerotolerant anaerobes - they don’t utilize oxygen for growth but can survive in its
presence.

• Capnophilic bacteria - they need higher amounts of CO2.