This museum deals exclusively with bacteria. Bacteria are single cell organisms that do not have a nucleus (see: what are bacteria). Other single cell organisms are fungi and amoebas. They are eukaryotes because they have their genetic material stored away in a nucleus. That is one of several fundamental differences between prokaryotes (to which bacteria belong) and eukaryotes. An example of a single-cellular fungus is yeast, used for making bread and wine. Since yeast is not a bacterium, it is not included in our exhibits.
Bacteria can cause infectious diseases, see our exhibit on 'pathogenic
bacteria'. Infections cannot only be caused by bacteria, but also by
viruses and eukaryotic micro-organisms. Viruses
are much smaller than bacteria, and they cannot live by themselves. They
sneak into other cells and live there as little parasites, eating at the
cost of the 'host' cell. They are dependent on their involuntary host not
only for food, but they also need the cell's machinery to multiply.
And they do so at the cost of the cell, often eventually killing it. Look
up more about viruses
(Source: "Microbes" at ASM).
Viral infectious diseases are very common, and include a spectrum of
less or more severe diseases like the common cold, influenza, measles,
and AIDS. Some viruses can even cause certain forms of cancer. Antibiotics
are not effective against viruses (see antibiotics
to
find out more about these drugs) but our
immune system knows how to deal with most of them. The study of viruses
is an important part of microbiology but it is a specialization like bacteriology
is.
Infectious diseases can also be caused by parasites, which can be single cell organisms, as in the case of malaria or giardia, or little animals like parasitic worms. All these nasty creatures are not bacteria, and are not part of our display.
The content of this page is copyright of the Virtual Museum of Bacteria and was written by Dr. T. M. Wassenaar (curator), with support of the Foundation for Bacteriology.
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Page last modified: 08 Mar 2007
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