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The Economic Importance Of Bacteria In The Environment
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Environment
is a comprehensive term, which comprises of all the factors which make
up the surroundings. The air that one breathes, the land on which one
lives, the water one drinks and all the living and non-living things
that are part of the surroundings are referred to as the environment1.
Environments are components of ecosystems. An ecosystem is a community
of micro-organisms and their physical and chemical environment that
functions as an ecological unit. The ecosphere or biosphere, organise
the entirety of living organisms on Earth and the abiotic surroundings
they occupy. It can be divided into atmosphere, hydrosphere and
litho-ecosphere to define the shares of the global expense inhabited by
living things in air, water and soil environments respectively. The
environment has rendered a significant contribution in the evolution of
the biological spectrum by the process of natural selection and
elimination. The environment has influenced and structured the lives of
the individuals since ancient past.
Notably, within the environment,
there are presence of micro-organisms. Micro-organisms lives within the
habitats of the ecospheres. The habitat is one component of a
comprehensive concept of the ecological niche, which includes not only
where an organism lives but also the functions it performs. The niche is
the functional role of an organism within an ecosystem. Micro-organisms
may be autochthonous or indigenous or allochthonous or foreign.
Micro-organisms, by their omnipresence, have an influence upon the
entire biosphere. They are present in essentially all of the planet's
environments, including some of the most extreme, from acidic lakes to
the deepest ocean, and from frozen environments to hydrothermal vents.
Microorganisms are found in each of the three domains of life: Archaea,
Bacteria, and Eukarya2.
Bacteria and their phages are the oldest and
most abundant life forms on the planet. Bacteria are single-celled, or
simple, organisms. Though small, bacteria are powerful and complex, and
they can survive in extreme conditions. Bacteria are also instrumental
for understanding fundamental life processes that are required by all
organisms, including central metabolism, replication, transcription,
translation, protein targeting, assembly and structure of macromolecular
complexes, protein folding, stress responses, error correction
mechanisms, signal transduction, and developmental programs. These
processes are more easily characterized in model bacteria and their
phages than in other organisms because microbes provide such tractable
experimental systems. The large repertoire of genetic and biochemical
tools and data that have been acquired from basic research on bacteria
is crucial for dissecting the complex metabolic and regulatory networks
that control these processes3. Although we also live in an environment
replete with bacteria that can cause a wide variety of human diseases,
bacteria have been proven to be of environmental benefit this is because
they make possible the continued existence of green plants and
therefore of animals because the plants are the only source of food for
animals.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The broad of this study is to examine the economic importance of bacteria in the environment using Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture (MOUA), Abia State as case study. Survey research design was employed for the study and with aid of purposive sampling sixty (60) student in microbiology department of Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture was selected as the participant of the study. The sources of data collection was both primary and secondary with the application of questionnaires as a ... Continue reading---
