Bacteria Causes Disease

Bacteria are unicellular prokaryotes that lack a nucleus and organelles, but they do have cell walls that contain peptidoglycan. Most bacteria are helpful and beneficial to the environment as well as to many organisms, living in a mutualistic relationship, a close relationship in which, at most, both species will benefit. But a small number of bacteria can be pathogenic, bacteria that cause diseases, therefore harming other organisms. This trend leads to a thought that all bacteria are harmful and are disease-causing, but in many ways, there are a majority of bacteria that proves to be beneficial and that only a small percentage of 1% are hazardous. Some that are favourable are decomposers, bacteria that can break down dead organic material,

Many of which can cause infections and diseases that can irritate that can lead to death. The ways that they are hazardous are by damaging and breaking down the tissues of their host for food or by releasing toxins in the body, interfering with normal functions. Many can cause infections and diseases such as the Streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes pneumonia, an infection in the lungs and the Salmonella Typhi bacterium which causes typhoid fever. Some other diseases that are caused are tetanus, bubonic plague, syphilis, leprosy and many other deadly sicknesses. Another reason why bacteria are harmful is that they can be present in the food and water that we ingest, such as rotting our foods that we consume. An example would be that Giardia Lamblia can be present in our drinking water, causing nausea and diarrhea as well as Botulism which can be present in the foods that we eat, and can release a toxin that even by cooking cannot kill. Bacteria can also be present in plants, therefore causing diseases in them as well. A few examples are the Fire-Blight, known to destroy apples and another bacteria infecting potatoes, a disease known as potato ring-rot. This affects farmers by interfering with their source of income as well as us by decreasing our supply for that particular food, therefore causing the increase of the price for it. Not only are bacteria harmful, but

They are helpful because some bacteria are decomposers making nutrients available for other organisms from dead organic matter and from recycling nutrients, they are sustaining a balance in the ecosystem. In the environment, bacteria are also nitrogen fixers, converting nitrogen in the atmosphere into nitrogen compounds that plants are able to use for growth, therefore they are significant contributors to the nitrogen cycle. An example of a plant would be legumes, in which these types of bacteria live in their root nodules, supplying them with nitrogen compounds for their growth. This is also an example of a mutualistic relationship, where most species would live in a close relationship with bacteria, helping them in survival and benefiting them from this close relation. Such as, the E.coli bacteria that live in our intestines where we would provide them with a warm and a safe place to live, an abundance of food and a source of transportation and they would provide us with vitamins and nutrients that we cannot make on our own as well as helping us digest our food. Another great use of bacteria would be in our sewage treatments, where they would help us break down complex compounds into simpler ones and can help in cleaning up oil spills by