Melissa Lyons

Period # 2

Research Paper
Monera Classification
Kingdom Monera
Subkingdom Archaea: Ancient bacteria found in extreme conditions
Phylum Euryarcheota: Methanogens
Phylum Crenarchaetoa: Thermoacidophiles
Subkingdom Eubacteria: True bacteria
Phylum Proteobacteria: Gram negative; includes purple bacteria, nitrogen-fixing bacteria,
and pseudomonads.
Phylum Spirochaetae: Gram negative; includes spirochetes and flagellated bacteria.
Phylum Cyanobacteria: Gram negative; formerly called blue-green algae.
Phylum Saprospirae: Gram-negative fermenters.
Phylum Chloroflexa: Gram-negative green nonsulfur phototrophs.
Phylum Chlorobia: Gram negative; anoxygenic green sulfur phototrophs
Phylum Endospora: Gram-positive, protein walled, endospore-forming bacteria
Phylum Pirellae: Gram-positive, stalked, protein-walled bacteria
Phylum Actinobacteria: Gram-positive, protein-walled actinomycetes
Phylum Deinococci: Gram-positive, protein walled, aerobic, radioresistant bacteria.
Phylum Thermotogae: Gram-positive, protein-walled, thermophilic fermenters
Phylum Aphragmabacteria: Bacteria without walls; mycoplasmas and spiroplasmas

The Kingdom Monera is the oldest and most numerous of all the kingdoms on earth. They are
microscopic; you cannot see them with the naked eye, unless they are in huge colonies. Around
300 years ago, Dutch lens maker Anton van Leeuwenhoek looked through a microscope he had
made and saw microbes. But even after 200 years we have just begun to learn more about these
small organisms. Originally bacteria where put with animals because they seemed like one-celled
organisms like protozoans. Then they were moved to the plant kingdom with blue-green algae.
Neither kingdom really worked so in the late 1800s Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist,
suggested that the living things should be divided into three groups: animals, plants, and protists.
This group would hold one-celled organisms like yeasts, protozoans, and bacteria. He is also
were the term Monera came from, but he didnt use it in the exact same way. He hypostasized
that the first ancestors of life were Monera.
Although around the 1950s with new advances in technology scientists concluded that there
were differences between what Haeckel called protists. R.H. Whittaker thought of a new
classification of five kingdoms, they were grouped separately as Monera. The Whittaker is the
most common system used today. It classifies three of the kingdoms by how they the get
nutrients; plants with photosynthesis, animals by ingesting food, and fungi by absorbing
nutrients. Monerans and protists are the other two in this system; they are mostly one-celled
organisms. Only these two are classified more on how there structured than how they get there
nutrients.
The structure of a bacterial cell is a cylinder capsule with a cell wall and cell membrane. There
are pili, hair looking appendages, sticking out from the cell wall, and on one side of the cell there
is a flagellum, a tail-like appendage. Inside there is a nuclear region that contains genetic
material, storage granules, and ribosomes.

The members of the monera kingdom have no exact organized cell nuclei. There DNA is in a
long double strand coiled into one circular chromosome called a nucleoid, as opposed to the
other more-complex organisms that have multiple chromosomes. Since they dont have a nucleus
these organisms are called prokaryotes, named from the Greek words meaning prior to and
nucleus. Other organisms that do have cell nuclei are called eukaryotes, regardless if there
multicellular or unicellular.
Although the new discoveries of types of bacteria are making scientists question on how they
classify prokaryotes. Originally Kingdom Monera was divided into two main groups: bacteria
and cyanobacteria. But now many scientists see another subkingdom; Archaea. Its member called
archaebacteria. They are simple organisms that live in extreme conditions. Usually without
oxygen with extreme temperatures and acidic environments.
Bacteria are pretty much everywhere you look, although it is true that a lot of them do cause
deadly diseases, they are a very important part of our life; and if they didnt exist we wouldnt
function properly. Bacteria are extremely small, most at around 0.005 of a millimeter. Most
bacteria have one of three shapes: spherical (like coccus); rod-shaped (like bacillus); and spiral
(like spirillum). But there are many other less-common shapes that have been found.
Almost all bacterial cells have cell walls, usually covered with a layer of slime the cell produces.
Some more common bacteria that cause meat spoilage are: E.Coli and Salmonella.
Escherichia coli (E. coli) are members of a large group of bacteria that live in the intestines of
humans and other mammals. E. coil usually help us digest food but there a certain strand of E.
coil that is harmful to humans. Over 700 serotypes of E. coli have been identified. The E. coli
serotypes that cause the outbreaks and harm to humans are the ones that produce Shiga toxin or
Stx. Shiga toxin is one of the deadliest toxins known to humans, so deadly that Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention looks at it as potential bioterrorist agent. They think that E. coli
got the DNA from Shiga toxin-producing Shigella bacteria. Bacteriophage (a virus that infects
bacteria) gave it to the E. coli giving them genetic material to make the Shiga toxin. The most
known Stx-producing E. coli is E. coli O157:H7.
Stx-producing E. coli have multiple things about them that make them dangerous. They are
pretty strong organisms that can live several weeks on counters and around a year in compost.
Only a small number of bacteria are necessary to infect a victims intestinal tract and cause
infection.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that every year at least 2000
Americans are sent to hospitals for treatment, and around 60 die due to E. coli infection. They
estimated the annual cost of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses to be $405 million which included $370
million for premature deaths, $30 million for medical care, and $5 million for lost productivity.
Salmonella (S.) is the genus name for a large number ,over 2,500, of types of bacteria..
Salmonella bacteria are rod-shaped, flagellated, Gram stain-negative, and are known to cause
disease in humans, animals, and birds around the world.
The bacteria were discovered by Theobald Smith in 1885 from pigs. The name Salmonella was
from the name of D.E. Salmon, Smith's director. Salmonella is spread to people by eating
Salmonella contaminated food. Salmonella is global and can contaminate pretty much any food
type, although the outbreaks of Salmonella involved raw eggs, raw meat , egg products, fresh
vegetables, cereal, pistachio nuts, tomatoes, and contaminated water. Toxins produced by the
bacteria , which are enterotoxin and cytotoxin, can damage and kill the cells that line the
intestines.

Meat Spoilage Chart

Indication of spoiling
Tainting, souring, and putrefacation

Cause
Anaerobic bacterial spoilage of meat interiors,
vacuum packed products, and sealed

Oxidative Rancidity

containers.
Oxidation of meat fats due to improperly

Brown or grey discoloration

wrapped meat.
Protein denaturation cause by heat, salts,
ultraviolet light, low pH, and surface

Dehydration and discoloration during freezing

dehydration.
Freezer burn and drip which occurs during

resulting in dryness of cooked meat, nutrient

slow freezing.

loss, and an occasional bitter flavor

Absorption of off-flavors

Storage of meat next to foods that give off

Ammonia or sulfur smell, bad odor, tallow or

strong odors.
Degradation of proteins, lipids and

chalky taste.

carbohydrates caused by bacteria and/or

Slime formation, bad odor and rancid flavor,

enzymes naturally present in meat.

Bacterial and yeast spoilage.

color change.
Sticky meat surface
Whiskers
Surface colorations such as black or green
Bibliography

Mold spoilage.
Mold spoilage.
Growth of mold colonies.

The New Book of Popular Science. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier, 2004

McGraw-Hill Science. Farmington, New York: McGraw-Hill School Division, 2000

Forrest, John Meat Spoilage ag.ansc.purdue.edu

http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/meat_quality/spoiled_meat.html

Anissimov, Micheal. What are Archaebacteria? Wisegeek.com 28 September, 2010

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-archaebacteria.htm

Elderdge, Niles True Bacteria amnh.org

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/hall_tour/spectrum/1.html

Marler, Bill E.Coli about-ecoli.com

http://www.about-ecoli.com/

Davis, Charles Salmonella Poisoning Medicinenet.com

http://www.medicinenet.com/salmonella/article.htm