Microbes enable all life — and they adapt constantly

Source: The post is based on an article “Microbes enable all life — and they adapt constantly” published in The Times of India on 3^rd September 2022.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Biodiversity

Context: This article discusses microbes and issues related to them.

Microbes

1) They have the ability to respond to the environment by constantly adapting to the environment. 2) Microbes have groups of molecules or proteins that behave like sensors when they see sugar and light. 3) They pass this information to cells and they move in that direction. 4) This process of movement is called taxis. 5) They have photoreceptor that senses different molecules and light wavelengths including infrared.

What are the problems with microbes?

Fertilizers entering into lakes allow microbes to grow into algal blooms.

Algal blooms expand very fast and suck up nutrients and release virus and toxins which can poison animals.

Cyanobacteria

It is a type of microbe.

They are blue-green in colour because they have pigments which let them absorb lights for photosynthesis.

They have existed for about two billion years and over the time they became mineralized.