5 Second Rule

Ever heard of the 5-second rule?

Is it scientifically correct? Check out the following lessons to find out.

Meet the Bacteria

Most bacteria have similar basic cellular structures.

Below is a picture of a typical bacterium. Bacteria may or may not have all of the structures. Hover over each structure in the picture to learn about its function.

Although it seems that unicellular bacteria could not possibly be diverse, they most certainly are! Bacteria vary in a number of characteristics:

shape
cell wall construction
movement
how they obtain/use energy

Let's take a look at each in the following presentation:

Viroids and Prions

Viroids - consist of a single, tiny strand of RNA without a protein coat. Most are plant pathogens.
Prions - prions are small sequences of misfolded proteins. They are the only type of pathogen that does not use DNA or RNA to cause disease. Prions attack animals, causing holes in brain tissue; Mad cow disease, or Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a prion-caused disease.

Challenge and Before You Go

Practice Time! Use the knowledge you learned from the lesson to complete the practice activities below.

Before You Go - You Need To Know

The following key points are from the explore section of the lesson. You must know the following information before moving to the next lesson. This is just a summary of the key points.

What are the two Domains of bacteria?
- Archaebacteria and Eubacteria
What are the three shapes of bacteria?
- Bacilli (rod), Cocci (round), and Spirilla (spiral)
What are the characteristics of bacteria?
- They are prokaryotes (lack a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles), unicellular (made of one cell), and have a cell wall

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS (FREEPIK)