Prokaryote

From The School of Biomedical Sciences Wiki
Revision as of 17:01, 4 December 2016 by Nnjm2 (talk | contribs) (Removed a lot of junk code. Was this written in Word and the pasted in?)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Prokaryotes are a group of organisms which are separated from eukaryotes. Unlike eukaryotes, they do not have membrane-bound organelles such as the nucleus, mitochondrion. Prokaryotes have a Cell wall which is made out of peptidoglycan. It's function is to provide support for the cell and protect against damage from osmotic rupture or from mechanical stress. Their genetic materials float free in the cytoplasm of the cells. An example of a prokaryote is E. coli. Prokayotes can be classified into two domains:

  1. Bacteria
  2. Archaea

Some of them live in adverse environments, such as hot springs and salt lakes, which are considered to be inhospitable to sustain the life of other kinds of organisms. Arachea, also known as extremophiles, have structures that are non-typical to other kinds of eukaryotes and bacteria. Unlike normal plasma membrane which is made of phospholipid bilayer, some of their plasma membranes are composed of phospholipid monolayer, these archaea fuse the heads of the phospholipid molecules into a single molecule with two hydrophilic heads. This might help the organism to be more rigid and to adapt better to the harsh environment. Ferroplasma is one of the members of the archaean which lives in extremely acidic habitat, having this extraordinary structure is thought to aid their survival.