BENGUET STATE UNIVERSITY, College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology

Exercise No. 2
SURVEY OF MICROORGANISMS
Microorganisms are ubiquitous in nature, being found in almost every type of
environment. In order to recognize microorganism recovered from their natural habitat,
you must be able to distinguish them based on their over-all characteristics and
microscopic features.
Bacteria are the small, unicellular, prokaryotic organism with simple cellular structures.
They do not have nucleus or other membrane-bound organelles. Protozoans, Fungi and
Algae are eukaryotic organisms having distinct nucleus and organelles. Protozoans are
unicellular, animal-like microbes which move by cilia, flagella or pseudopodia. Fungi may
be unicellular (yeasts) or multicellular (molds and fleshy fungi) that obtain their food
commonly by absorbing organic substances from their environment. Multicellular fungi
have filamentous bodies known as hyphae that form hairy masses known as mycelia.
Algae on the other hand may be made up of only one or several cell. Some members,
like the sea weeds are large and plant-like. Regardless of the number of cells making up
the body, all algae are bounded by cell wall made up mostly of cellulose and possess
chloroplast and are therefore autotrophic. They do not exhibit tissue differentiation as
plants do.

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the activity, the students will be able to:
1. observe some common representatives of bacteria, fungi, algae,
cyanobacteria and protozoa.
2. differentiate types of microorganism with respect to relative size, complexity of
structure and gross appearance.

MATERIALS:
PROCEDURES:
To be borrowed from the preparatory room:
✓ Compound microscope ✓ Prepared slides of:
✓ Plain slides ▪ Cyanobacteria - Oscillatoria, Nostoc
✓ Depression slide ▪ Eubacteria - Staphylococcus, Bacillus, Spirillum
✓ Coverslips ▪ Algae- Oedogonium, Spirogyra, Diatoms
✓ Dropper ▪ Fungi - Aspergillus, Penicillium, Rhizopus,
Candida albicans
▪ Protozoa - Amoeba, Paramecium, Euglena

To be brought by students:
✓ Brewer’s yeast ✓ For hay infusion preparation (done 1 week prior)
✓ Distilled water ▪ dried leaves or hay
✓ Cotton ▪ thin cloth or clean stockings
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✓ Hay infusion ▪ containers

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BENGUET STATE UNIVERSITY, College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology

A. MICROSCOPIC OBSERVATION OF PREPARED SLIDES

1. Observe prepared slides of the microorganisms given to you.
2. Note the morphological differences of the different representative organisms.
3. Draw and label all observations.
B. OBSERVATION OF MICROBES IN THE HAY INFUSION
1. Allow a week before this activity to prepare hay infusion by following the
procedure given.
HAY INFUSION PREPARATION

Boil water with dried leaves or hay for 5 minutes. Cool it. Decant. Place the liquid
in another container then add new dried leaves or hay. Leave it overnight or more (at
most 3 days) with thin cloth or stocking as cover. After which, add pond water (1 part
hay infusion: 20 parts pond water) and leave it for another 5 days and it will be ready
for use. Keep your bottle covered with thin cloth or stocking.
a. Prepare a wet mount by putting a drop of the hay infusion on the center of a plain
glass slide and carefully put a coverslip over the drop.
b. Scan under the microscope for the presence of microbes, specially protozoans.
c. Put cotton fiber. Observe their reaction when they run into a fiber as they move
through the water. How do they react? How do you differentiate this kind of
movement exhibited by protozoans from Brownian Movement?
d. Alternatively, you can make some hanging drop preparations from the hay infusion.
Your instructor will show the procedure. Place a few cotton fibers to slow down the
protozoa, and examine under the microscope.
e. Draw all microbes observed and identified.
C. OBSERVATION OF LIVE YEASTS
1. Prepare a wet mount of the brewer’s yeast suspension. Examine under HPO.
Note the size of the yeast cells and compare to bacteria. What is the general
form of the cells? Do they exhibit true motility?

QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH

1. How is fungal cell wall different from cell wall of plants?
2. Compare the different Cyanobacteria observed on the basis of
degree of complexities of the body.
3. What are the characteristics that distinguish the yeast from the molds?
What is dimorphism among fungi? Name at least 5 medically important
dimorphic fungi and describe them briefly.
4. What are the general characteristics of protozoans. Briefly describe
some procedures used in culturing protozoa.
5. Differentiate archeabacteria from eubacteria.
Worksheet

Exercise No. 2: SURVEY OF MICROORGANISMS

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 BENGUET STATE UNIVERSITY, College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology

Name: _______________________________ Date: _______________

Year and Section: _____________________
Group Number: _______________________ Score: ______________

A. Draw the prepared slides of microorganisms.

CYANOBACTERIA CYANOBACTERIA BACTERIA

Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________

Cell Type: __________________ Cell Type: __________________ Cell Type: __________________
Natural Habitat : ____________ Natural Habitat: ____________ Cell Form: __________________
Natural Habitat: ____________

BACTERIA BACTERIA ALGAE

Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________

Cell Type: __________________ Cell Type: __________________ Cell Type: __________________
Cell Form: __________________ Cell Form: __________________ Natural Habitat: ____________
Natural Habitat: ____________ Natural Habitat: ____________

ALGAE ALGAE FUNGUS

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BENGUET STATE UNIVERSITY, College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology

Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________

Cell Type: __________________ Cell Type: __________________ Cell Type: __________________
Natural Habitat: ____________ Natural Habitat: ____________ Natural Habitat: ____________

FUNGUS FUNGUS FUNGUS

Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________

Cell Type: __________________ Cell Type: __________________ Cell Type: __________________
Natural Habitat: ____________ Natural Habitat: ____________ Natural Habitat: ____________

PROTOZOA PROTOZOA PROTOZOA

Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________

Cell form: ___________________ Cell form: ___________________ Cell form: ___________________
Locomotory structure : Locomotory structure : Locomotory structure :
___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________
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Habitat: ____________________ Habitat: ____________________ Habitat: ____________________

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 BENGUET STATE UNIVERSITY, College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology

B. Draw the microorganisms observed in hay infusion and yeast suspension.

Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________

Cell Form: __________________ Cell Form: __________________ Cell Form: __________________
Locomotion: Locomotion: Locomotion:
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________

Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________

Cell Form: __________________ Cell Form: __________________ Cell Form: __________________
Locomotion: Locomotion: Locomotion:
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________

Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________ Genus: _____________________

Cell Form: __________________ Cell Form: __________________ Cell Form: __________________
Locomotion: Locomotion: Locomotion:
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____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________

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