Kingdom: Protist, fungi, eubacteria
Scientific Name: Entodinium caudatum et al.
Image Courtesy of: Yokoyama, Mel; Cobos, Mario A.
Image Width: 40 microns
Image Technology: SEM
Cattle, like other ruminant animals such as goats, deer, and giraffes, have billions of microbes inside their guts which help them digest their food. These are some of the many types of microbes that live in the rumens (stomachs) of cows. The large microbe is a type of protist. The creature that looks like a tadpole attached to the side of the protist is a fungal spore. The smaller, rod-shaped beasts lining the underside of the protist are bacteria.
Kingdom: Eubacterium
Scientific Name: Azoarcus tolulyticus
Image Courtesy of: Shirley Owens and Catherine McGowan
Image Width: 3.5 microns
Image Technology: SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope)
This bacterium is an anaerobic toluene degrader. It was isolated from a gasoline-contaminated aquifer in Michigan. This organism was isolated and studied by Joanne Chee-Sanford as part of her doctoral dissertation research. It is being displayed as our "Microbe of the Week" (during April 1996) in honor of Dr. Chee-Sanford's recent successful defense of her dissertation project
Kingdom: Fungus
Scientific Name: Saccharomyces cereviceae
Image Courtesy of: Whallon, Joanne
Image Width: 24 microns
Image Technology: Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy
Yeast are small fungi which are incredibly important in the food and beverage industries. Yeast ferement the sugars in fruits to make wine, the sugars in grains to make beers. When grown in the presence of oxygen, yeast give off the gas carbon dioxide which makes bread rise. Yeast can grow with oxygen, (aerobically) or without oxygen (anaerobically.) Because it can grow either aerobically or anaerobically, it is known as a "facultative aerobe."
Kingdom: Unknown
Scientific Name: Unknown
Image Courtesy of: N.A.S.A
Image Width: 450 nanometers
Image Technology: SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope)
In August of 1996 NASA scientists reported finding what look like fossils of microbes inside a meteorite (called ALH84001) thought to be from Mars. They believe the 4.5 billion year old rock was once a part of Mars. It was blasted from Mars by a huge meteor impact 16 million years ago. It fell to Earth in Antarctica 13 thousand years ago. A piece of the meteorite was discovered on an ice field in Antarctica by scientists in 1984. Inside of the meteorite, along cracks and fissures within the rock, scientists found mineral structures such as the one shown here. Some scientists believe this may be a fossil of an ancient Martian microbe, similar to Earthly bacteria. Other scientists are skeptical, and believe that these deposits are the result of inorganic chemical processes that by chance happen to resemble terrestrial monerans. The NASA scientists have also found traces of chemicals within the cracks in the meteorite that they believe came from living organisms. These polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and carbonate globules may be products of microbial metabolisms. Visually, this structure certainly does resemble rod-shaped bacteria found on Earth. It is, however, quite small compared to terrestrial monerans; it's size is closer to that of large viruses than to the size of most bacteria. Most scientists doubt that life currently exists on Mars. However, it is very likely that Mars was much wetter early in the history of that planet, and water seems to be a critical ingredient for the formation and continuation of living organisms on Earth. Further studies, including two NASA space missions due to be launched toward Mars in late 1996, may shed additional light on the question of whether there is life elsewhere in the universe.
Kingdom: Protist
Scientific Name: Spirogyra
Image Courtesy of: Whallon, Joanne
Image Width:30 microns
Image Technology: Laser scanning confocal microscopy
This is the spiral-shaped chloroplast of the algae, Spirogyra. This chloroplast is green when viewed with traditional light microscopy. Here it is seen as red, since the chloroplast was fluorescing red.
