Microbe gallery – bacteria, archaea, protists and fungi
BiologyMicrobiology & VirusesAges 11–12
Loading…
Sign in to play
Twelve microbes with animations of how each one feeds, moves and reproduces: a bacterium, an archaeon, a cyanobacterium, Amoeba, Paramecium, Euglena, Plasmodium, a diatom, a dinoflagellate, a slime mould, yeast and bread mould. A size scale lines them up with a virus at true scale; the Compare screen sets bacteria against archaea, and a virus beside a bacterium, a protist and a fungus; the Roles screen asks students to find the microbe that decomposes, fixes nitrogen, makes food or causes disease.
Lesson: Diversity of microorganisms: Monera, Protista and Fungi
What it shows
Microbes are living things too small to see clearly without a microscope. This gallery shows three kingdoms of the five-kingdom system: Monera (bacteria, archaea and cyanobacteria, all prokaryotes), Protista (single-celled eukaryotes and slime moulds) and Fungi (yeast and moulds), with a virus for comparison. Each organism is a schematic drawing with its own scale bar; the size scale puts them at true relative size. The animation cycles are much faster than in life. The comparison table follows the three-domain view, in which archaea differ from bacteria in membrane lipids, cell wall and genes.
How to use
On Gallery, choose an Organism and press Feeding, Movement or Reproduction; Pause stops the animation and Show labels hides the labels. On Size scale, pick the organism for Centre of view and move Field of view width, or press Small to large for a tour. On Compare, choose a pair and tap a table row to highlight that feature. On Roles, tap a numbered place, choose the Microbe and press Check.
Parameters you can change
- Screen Gallery, Size scale, Compare, Roles
- Organism Bacterium E. coli, Methanogenic archaeon, Cyanobacterium Anabaena, Amoeba, Paramecium, Euglena, Malaria parasite (Plasmodium), Diatom, Dinoflagellate, Slime mould (Physarum), Yeast (Saccharomyces), Bread mould (Rhizopus)
- Activity Feeding, Movement, Reproduction
- Show labels
- Centre of view Influenza virus, Bacterium E. coli, Methanogenic archaeon, Cyanobacterium Anabaena, Amoeba, Paramecium, Euglena, Malaria parasite (Plasmodium), Diatom, Dinoflagellate, Slime mould (Physarum), Yeast (Saccharomyces), Bread mould (Rhizopus)
- Field of view width 0.2–50000 µm
- Compare Bacteria – archaea, Virus – bacterium – protist – fungus
Questions to explore
- Why can a light microscope show a bacterium but not a virus?
- How does a paramecium get its food into a food vacuole?
- Which features show that archaea are not simply unusual bacteria?
