EUKARYOTIC

MICROBES
CHAPTER 5
 ALGAE
• sing: alga • they are classified into: Green, golden
• are photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms (or golden brown), brown or red

• they lack true roots, stems and leaves • are considered to be microorganisms
include diatoms, dinoflagellates,
• Phycology/Algology – study of algae
desmids and many different types of
• Phycologist/Algologist – who study algae green algae
• Pellicle – a thickened cell membrane
• Stigma – AKA: Eyespot
• a light-sensing organelle
 ALGAE
• are easy to find
• are an important source of food, iodine and other
minerals, fertilizers, emulsifiers for pudding and
stabilizers for ice cream and salad dressings
• used as a gelling agent for jams and nutrient media
for bacterial growth
• red marine alga – solidifying agent used in agar
• has content of 50% oil – source of biofuels
DIATOMS
• are tiny, usually unicellular algae that
live in both freshwater and seawater
• they are important members of the
phytoplankton
• have been investigated for use as drug
delivery systems in medicine, and the
potential use in nanotechnology
DINOFLAGELLATES
• are microscopic, unicellular, flagellated,
often photosynthetic algae
• also an important members of
phytoplankton which produces much of
the oxygen in our atmosphere and
serving as important links in food chains
• are responsible for “red tides”
 PROTOTHECA
• one genus of algae; a very rare cause of human
infection which is known as Protothecosis – it
produces a small subcutaneous lesion that can progress
to a crusty, warty-looking lesion
• it lives in soil and can enter wounds, especially those
located in feet
• when this organisms enters the lymphatic system, it
may cause a debilitating, sometimes fatal action,
especially in immunosuppressed individuals
 PROTOZOA
• sing: protozoans
• are unicellular (single-celled), free living
microorganisms (found in soil and water), ranging
in length from 3 to 2,000 mcm
• are eukaryotic organisms; classified in the second
Kingdom Protista
• Protozoology – study of protozoa
• Protozoologist – who study protozoa
 PROTOZOA
• no chlorophyll
• do not have cell walls:
• Pellicles – protection

• Cytostome – an opening or primitive mouth wherein

flagellates and ciliates ingest their food
• Protozoal cells – are more animal-like than plantlike
• they possess pellicles, cytostomes, contractile
vacuoles, pseudopodia, cilia and flagella
•
 PARAMECIUM SPP
• a common pond water ciliates
• possess both pellicle (a thickened cell
membrane) and a cytostome
• Amebae & Paramecium
• a pond water protozoa
• contain an organelle called Contractile
vacuole – which pumps water out of the
cell
 LIFE CYCLE OF PROTOZOAN
• Trophozoite stage
• the motile, feeding, dividing stage in a
protozoan life cycle

• Cyst stage
• is the non-motile, dormant, survival stage

• Parasitic protozoa
• they break down and absorb nutrients from the
body of the host in which they live
• Malaria, Giardiasis, African sleeping
sickness and amebic dysentery
CLASSIFICATION OF PROTOZOA
 AMEBAE OR AMEBAS
• they moved by means of cytoplasmic extensions called
Pseudopodia (“false feet”)
• Ameboid movement – a process wherein the first extends a
pseudopodium in the direction it intends to move and then
the rest of the cell slowly flows into it
• Phagocytosis – the process wherein an ameba ingests a food
particle (e.g. yeast or bacterial cell) by surrounding the
particle cell with pseudopodia, which the fused together
• Phagosome – AKA: Food vacuole
• it is the ingested particle surrounded by a membrane
• Pinocytosis – same process in phagocytosis, but
fluids are ingested instead of solid foods
• Entamoeba histolytica – which causes amebic
dysentery (amebiasis) and extraintestinal amebic
abscesses
• Naegleria fowleri – the causative agent of primary
amebic meningoencephalitis
• Acanthamoeba spp. – which causes eye infections
 CILIATES
• move about by means of large numbers of hairlike
cilia on their surfaces
• it exhibit an oarlike motion
• are the most complex of all protozoa
• Balantidium coli – a pathogenic ciliate that
causes dysentery
• it is usually transmitted to humans from drinking
water that has been contaminated by swine feces
• it is the only ciliated protozoan that causes diseases
in humans
 FLAGELLATES
• flagellated protozoa • Trichomonas vaginalis – causes persistent
• move by means of whiplike flagella sexually transmitted infections
(trichomoniasis) of the male and female
• Kinetosome/kinetoplast – a basal body that
genital tracts
anchors each flagellum within the cytoplasm
• Giardia intestinalis
• Trypanosoma brucei – transmitted by tsetse fly,
• AKA: Giardia lamblia & Giardia duodenalis
causes African sleeping sickness in humans (Giardiasis)
• Trypanosoma cruzi – causes American • causes a persistent diarrheal disease
trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease)
 SPOROZOA
• a nonmotile protozoa • Babesia spp. – the cause of babesiosis
• protozoa that lacks pseudopodia, flagella or cilia • Cyclospora cayetanensis – the cause of
• Plasmodium spp. – the most important diarrheal disease called cyclosporiasis
sporozoan pathogens that causes malaria • Toxoplama gondii – the cause of
• Malarial parasites are transmitted by female toxoplasmosis
Anopheles mosquitoes
• Cryptosporidium parvum – causes severe
diarrheal disease (cryptosporidiosis) in
immunosuppressed patients, especially with AIDS
FUNGI
PART 3
 FUNGI
• Saprophytic fungi – are fungi living on organic
matter in water and soil
• parasitic fungi – living on and within animals and
plants
• Beneficial fungi – are important in the production
of cheeses, beer, wine and other foods, as well as
certain drugs (e.g. the immunosuppressant drug
cyclosporine) and antibiotics (e.g. penicillin)
 FUNGI
• they are considered as “garbage disposers” of
nature & the “vultures” of the microbial world;
original “recyclers”
• saprophytes – their main source of food is dead and
decaying organic matter
• Fungal cell walls – it contain a polysaccharide
called chitin, which is not found in the cell walls of
any other organisms
• chitin is also found in the exoskeletons or
arthropods
 NOTE:
• Yeasts & microsporidia – are unicellular
• Moulds – are multicellular
• Hyphae – sing: hypha
• others grow as filaments which intertwine to form a mass called
mycelium (AKA: Thallus)

• Septate hyphae – wherein cytoplasm within the hypha is divided

into cells by cross-walls or septa
• Aseptate hyphae – wherein cytoplasm within the hypha is not
divided into cells; no septa
• contain multinucleated cytoplasm (described as being coenocytic)
 NOTE

DECOMPOSERS SAPROPHYTE
• relates to what an organism “does for a living”; • AKA: Saprobe
breakdown materials • relates to how an organism obtains nutrients
• they absorb nutrients from dead and decaying
• All saprophytes are decomposers organic matter

• Not all decomposers are saprophytes • NOTE:

• parasites – obtain nutrients from living organisms
• saprophyte – obtain nutrients from dead ones
REPRODUCTION OF FUNGI
• spore production – one of the ways in
which fungi reproduce
• 2 General Types of Fungal Spores:
• Sexual spores
• Asexual spores
SEXUAL SPORES ASEXUAL SPORES

• they have variety of names (e.g. • AKA: Conidia

ascospores, basidiospores & • are formed in many different ways, but not by the fusion of
zygospores) gametes
• are produced by the fusion of two • Sporangium - if the reproductive structure is formed within a
gametes (fusion of two nuclei) sac-like structure
• Sporangiospore (AKA: Spore)
• the asexual spore of sporangium

• Conidiophore – the reproductive structure arises from a fungal

component
• Conidia – the asexual spore of conidiophore
 CLASSIFICATION
• Zygomycotina (or Zygomycota) & • Ascomycotina (or Ascomycota) & Basidiomycotina (or
Chytridiomycotina (or Basidiomycota) – the two phyla known as “higher fungi”
Chytridiomycota) - the two phyla • Ascomycotina – include certain yeasts like Candida species,
known as “lower fungi” moulds like Aspergillus and Penicillium, and some fungi that
• Zygomycotina – include the common cause plant diseases (e.g. Dutch elm disease)
bread moulds and other fungi that cause • Basidiomycotina – include some yeasts like Cryptococcus, some
food spoilage
fungi that cause skin infections and plant diseases, and the large
• Chytridiomycotina – live in water “fleshy fungi” that live in the woods (e.g. mushrooms, toadstools,
(“water moulds” and soil bracket fungi and puffballs)
 DEUTEROMYCOTINA
• AKA: Deuteromycota; Fungi Imperfecti
• contained in this phylum are fungi in which the
sexual form of the organism has not been
discovered or that the organisms have loss the
ability to perform sexual reproduction
• include certain medically important moulds such as
some species of Aspergillus and yeasts such as
Candida albicans
 YEASTS
• are microscopic, single-celled (unicellular)
organisms that usually reproduce by budding; they
lack mycelia; are eukaryotic
• Pseudohypha – pl: pseudohyphae
• the string where elongated bud is formed

• Chlamydospores (or Chlamydoconidia)

• a sporelike structures which produces thick-walled for
some some yeasts
YEASTS
• are found in soil and water and on the
skins of many fruits and vegetables
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• AKA: Baker’s yeast
• the most common yeast that ferments
sugar to alcohol under anaerobic
conditions
• used as a leavening agent in bread
production
YEASTS THAT ARE HUMAN PATHOGENS
• Candida albicans & Cryptococcus
neoformans
• C.albicans – is the yeast most frequently
isolated from human clinical specimens
• Yeasts are usually larger than bacteria
(ranging from 3 to 8 µm in diameter)
and are usually oval shaped
 MOULDS
• are the fungi often seen in water and soil and on food
• they grow in the form of cytoplasmic filaments or
hyphae that make up the mycelium of the mould
• Aerial hyphae – AKA: Reproductive hyphae
• are dissected above the surface of media

• Vegetative hyphae – beneath the surface of the

media
MOULDS
• Chytridiomycotina – it does contain an
interesting mould called Phytophthora
infestants – it is the potato blight mould
that caused a famine in Ireland
 MOULDS
• Penicillium & Acremonium
• found in Ascomycotina
• these are antibiotic- producing moulds

• Penicillin – the 1st antibiotic to be

discovered by a scientist, was actually
discovered by accident
• Semisynthetic penicillins – e.g. Ampicillin,
Amoxicillin and Nafcillin
 DIMORPHIC FUNGI
• can live either as yeasts or as moulds, depending on
growth conditions
• Dimorphism – the phenomenon wherein some fungi can
live either as yeasts or as moulds depending on growth
conditions
• Dimorphic fungi that cause human disease are:
• Histoplasma capsulatum (histoplasmosis)
• Sporothrix schenckii (sporotrichosis)
• Coccidiodes immitis & C. posadasii (coccidioidomycosis)
• Blastomyces dermatitidis (blastomycosis)
 MICROSPORIDIA
• are obligate intracellular parasitic fungi
• are small in size (1-4 µm; about size of a bacterium)
• Polar filament – a unique organelle which is coiled
around inside the microsporidial spore
• mainly cause infections in immunocompromised
hosts
• they mainly cause infection in the eye or the
gastrointestinal tract (e.g. diarrhea & malabsorption)
 FLESHY FUNGI
• these are large fungi that are encountered in forests,
such as mushrooms, toadstools, puffballs and
bracket fungi
• Mushrooms – are a class true fungi that consists of a
network of filaments or strands (the mycelium) that
grow in the soil or in rotting log and a fruity body
(the mushroom that rises above the ground) that
forms and releases spores
 MEDICAL SIGNIFICANCE
• Blights and rusts – refer to plants diseases
that are caused by moulds
• Mycotoxins – the toxins produce from fungi
that cause disease in humans and animals
• Mycoses – refer to variety of infectious
diseases of human and animals caused by
moulds and yeasts
FUNGAL INFECTIONS OF HUMANS
• Mycoses – sing: mycosis
• fungal infections
 SUPERFICIAL AND CUTANEOUS MYCOSES
• Superficial mycoses – are fungal infections of the
outermost areas of the human body, such as hair,
fingernails, toenails and the dead, outermost layer of
the skin (the epidermis)
• Cutaneous mycoses – are fungal infections of the
living layers of the skin (the dermis)
• Dermatophytes – refer to tinea (ringworm)
infections caused of moulds
TINEA INFECTIONS
• Tinea pedis – athlete’s foot
• Tinea unguium – fingernails & toenails
• Tinea capitis – scalp
• Tinea barbae – face & neck
• Tinea corporis – trunk of the body
• Tinea cruris – groin area
CANDIDA ALBICANS
• is an opportunistic yeasts that lives
harmlessly on the skin and mucous
membranes of the mouth, gastrointestinal
tract and genitourinary tract
 SUBCUTANEOUS & SYSTEMIC MYCOSES
• Subcutaneous mycoses- are fungal infections of
the dermis and underlying tissues
• usually these infections arise from traumatic
implantation of the organism into the subcutaneous
tissue
• e.g. Madura foot – a type of eukaryotic mycetoma,
in which the patients foot becomes covered with
large, fungus-containing bumps
SYSTEMIC MYCOSES
• AKA: Generalized mycoses
• are fungal infections of internal organs of
the body, sometimes affecting two or
more different organ systems
simultaneously
 LABORATORY DIAGNOSIS OF FUNGAL INFECTIONS
• Minisystems
• AKA: Miniaturized biochemical test
• commercially available for the identification of clinically
important yeasts

• Macroscopic – include color, texture, and topography of

the mould colony (mycelium)
• Microscopic – reveals the types of structures on which or
within which spores or conidia are produced
• Mycoses are effectively treated with antifungal agents,
such as Nystatin, amphotericin B, an azole, or an
echinocandin
LICHENS
• is a combination of two or three
organisms: an alga (or a
cyanobacterium), a fungus, and a yeast
• classified as protists
• some substances produced by lichens
have been shown to have antibacterial
properties
SLIME MOULDS
• which are found in soil and on rotting
logs, have both fungal and protozoal
characteristics
• have very complex life cycles initially
starting as ameba, but progressing into a
multicellular organism