Notes on Microbes, Microbiota, and Binomial Nomenclature

Learning objectives and assessment alignment

• The instructor designs exams and quizzes around the stated learning objectives.

• As long as you master these learning objectives, you will do fine on assessments.

• The learning objectives are designed to be usable and applicable beyond the course content.

Foundational role of photosynthesizing microbes

• Photosynthesizers, including marine and freshwater microbes, are at the base of the food chain.

• They produce their own food using energy from sunlight and available materials (nutrients and substrates).

• As these microbes grow and create their own food, other organisms eat them, and energy and matter flow up the food chain through this process.

Gut microbiome and host health

• Microbes in the gut occupy space and nutrients that pathogens would otherwise be able to take.

• When an organism (e.g., live mice) lacks a microbiome, they tend to have more health problems because those beneficial microbial activities are missing.

Microbiota terminology and major research initiatives

• There are two main terms related to microbial communities that you need to understand:

  • microbiota

  • microbiome

• Historically, scientists discovered that microbes were doing things for us, which led to large-scale research efforts.

• A major project that emerged from this realization is the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), aimed at studying the microbiota and their genomes.

Binomial nomenclature: Genus and species

• All living organisms have two names, a system called binomial nomenclature.

• The two names are the Genus (first name) and the Species (second name).

• The Genus name is always capitalized; the Species name is always lowercase.

• The two-part name can be represented as \text{Genus} \ \text{Species}.

• These two names are used to uniquely identify each living organism.