14/14!

1^st June 2015, Monday

Assalamualaikum w.b.t and a very good day to you :D 

Today was the last class for BMY3102. It was held at BMF which is also where our first meeting with Dr. Wan took place. He he he.

However, today’s lesson was a bit… dull because everybody is… sleepy? Everybody was quite quiet during the whole lesson. Except when Dr. Wan was talking about something that is non-related to the lesson, only then everybody was talking and looked animated again. Haha.

Today we learnt the last two topics in BMY3102 which is Biogeochemical Cycle and Aspects of Biotechnology in Microbial Ecology.

As for Biogeochemical Cycle, there are five major cycle which involved elements that are important to the environment. There are carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, sulphur cycle, iron cycle and manganese cycle.

I wonder if there are other element’s cycle? Hmm. I will look up about it on the Net and tell you by the end of this post. He he he.

Or I will just tell you now. Haha.  

Other than the five well-known cycles, there are also other cycles such as phosphorus cycles, oxygen cycle, water cycle and hydrogen cycle. These are all important elements in our lives and ecology. 

So.. Here are some new information I managed to obtain during class today :

• Methanogens/ methanotrophs are abundant in Klang and Banting (in Malaysia). For example : Oil palm farms

• What organisms that involved in carbon fixing? What kind of bacteria? --> Photoautotroph

• Organelles involved in carbon fixations are carboxysome and also magnetosome in magnetotactic bacteria. 

• There are few processes involved during nitrogen fixation. Other than biological fixation which is done by microbes that we have learnt in this topic, nitrogen can also be fixed by lightning which is also called atmospheric fixation. There are also industrial fixation. 

Industrial fixation : 

"Under great pressure, at a temperature of 600°C, and with the use of a catalyst, atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen (usually derived from natural gas or petroleum) can be combined to form ammonia (NH₃). Ammonia can be used directly as fertilizer, but most of its is further processed to urea and ammonium nitrate (NH₄NO₃)."

- Retrieved from http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/N/NitrogenCycle.html 

• Why do we need nitrogen cycle? To be used in fertilizers to give nutrients to plants. 

• Other than Nitrosomonas, Nitrococcus and Nitrobacter. Nitropyra can also fix nitrogen.

• Prokaryotes that can fix nitrogen is called “rhizotroph”.

• Manganese is one of the trace elements.

 What important about biogeochemical cycles is that there are elements that  needed to be recycle and broken down in order for the organisms to obtain nutrients. If you think about, if there are no microorganisms that can break down this nutrients, the nutrients will remain in the surrounding or environment and non-usable. 

Thus, when this happen, the organisms cannot obtain the much required nutrients to carry out certain reactions or to grow healthily. 

That is why microbes play a big role in our ecology as well as biogechemical cycles.

Try to imagine our life without microbes to help carry out all this cycles! (°□°)

For second part of the lecture, we went on with Aspects of Biotechnology in Microbial Ecology. The last lesson!

 Points that I managed to jot down during lecture~ :

• Why do the farmers burn the residues of the farms after harvesting? --> To prevent growth of fungal pathogen. Although it is the fastest way to get rid of crops residues, it is also the most un-environmental friendly and actually harmful to our biosphere. 

• Instead of burning the crops residues, we should bury them. It is more environmental friendly that way.

• Where can we find Salmonella?  --> In raw meat or poultry (chicken) and eggs.

• What is “eutrophication”? --> It is a condition in which the nutrients are high especially in lakes and ponds that can cause pollution such as algae bloom and red tide.

• Mercury is also a heavy metal.

• Methyl mercury can also cause cancer.

• Microorganisms act as an indicator in pollution. For example : when E. coli are present, it indicates that the water source is contaminated with stools. This can be due to the water not properly treated.

• How to culture microorganisms in big amount/scale? --> Using a tank called “bioreactor”. It functions to produce a large scale of microbes. Dr. Wan even suggested that we go for a trip to visit the bioreactor sometime during third semester where everybody happily agreed aside from the continuous request to go to a chocolate factory too but countered by Dr. Wan when she asked “Tell me what microbes involved in production of chocolate?”. Haha. I myself do not know.

Actually there are microbes involved! I searched about it. Just now. He he he. 

"Chocolate Products

Microorganisms are also used in the production of finished chocolate products. Alpha amylase obtained from Aspergillus is used to hydrolyze starch for chocolate syrup and invertase from Saccharomyces is used to hydrolyze sucrose in filling mixtures to make soft-centered chocolate-covered candies."

- Retrieved from http://www.smccd.edu/accounts/case/chocolate.html 

Microbes involved in production of chocolates are yeast, lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, aerobic spore forming bacteria and filamentous fungi. In which the microbes have their respective functions. 

Yeast -> important to enhance fermentation by bacteria. They convert sugars, such as sucrose, glucose, and fructose, into ethanol and CO2, decrease the acidity of the pulp by using up citric acid, and produce aromatic compounds, which contribute to the chocolate aroma and are important to development of flavor.
Lactic acid bacteria -> The Bacillus spp. found during the aerobic phase of fermentation have been found to be responsible for the flavoring of chocolate.

- Retrieved from http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Chocolate 

• Biodegradation --> Breakdown of big molecules to small molecules.

• Oil-degrading bacteria are bacteria that can produce mycolic acid.

• Recalcitrant --> Molecule compound that cannot be degraded.

• "Blue baby" syndrome is a disease caused by high number of nitrogen in haemoglobin.

"Blue baby" syndrome 

"Potentially fatal blood disorder in infants under six months of age which is also called methemoglobinemia in which there is a reduction in the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood."

• As we all know, bioremediation is a process where we use living organisms to enhance the degradation of pollutants. Thus, the organisms that are going to be used must be ensured that they are not contaminated. For example : a pure culture or mixed cultures that its’ identities are known.

• “Superbug”? --> Microorganisms that are resistant to drugs and antibiotics.

In conclusion, microorganisms are everywhere around us and they are important in our lives and to the environment. Based on this topic, I can see that they are very important to our ecology because there are some microbes that are the cause of pollution (pollutants) but they arealso some of them that can detect the pollution such as lichen. Even so, microbes are also the ones who can reduce pollution! 

Hence, it is important to know the microorganisms’ capabilities in order to have the best solution to ensure pollution are at low levels. 

It's a wrap! See you guys in next semester. In shaa Allah. :D 

P/S Pray for our success in the upcoming final examination!