Importance of the Prokaryotic Cell

Serena Cuoghi
Title of Professor of Biology

Microscopic life is also made up of a great diversity of unicellular life forms, with much simpler structural, organic and genetic characteristics than the rest of organisms. These tiny beings are systematically grouped into their own kingdom called protista, which is made up of prokaryotic cells. These peculiar individuals share unique evolutionary characteristics such as: 1) a chain of DNA organized in a circular agglomerated form, constituting a nucleoid, without the presence of a nucleus definite; 2) they have a cell wall composed of various substances that gives it greater resistance to environmental factors. environmental, molecularly different between the genera of this kingdom, and also of the cell wall of plants; 3) they are smaller than eukaryotic cells; 4) do not have defined cell organelles such as mitochondria, chloroplasts or endoplasmic reticulum, but do have some specialized internal structures, such as ribosomes, that allow them to synthesize proteins.

Smaller, more efficient

As forms of life, prokaryotic cells are the simplest and smallest that can be found, an honorary title that could be modified according to the result of, until now, endless debate on the classification of viruses as living beings or not, more for the moment, bacteria and archaea, represent the tiniest organisms with their own life, of which very Possibly the rest of life on the planet originated, since the evidence indicates that these cells appeared more than 3,500 million years ago, when no one else inhabited the planet. land.

Their small dimensions allowed them to colonize all spaces, even the most inhospitable, and the fact is that the organic simplicity of these cells represents a great advantage when it comes to adapting to the means and resources, allowing them to take advantage of any type of substance energetically, Therefore, many species are considered extremophiles, exclusively inhabiting niches in which no other species is capable of surviving. species. The wide metabolic diversity existing among this type of organisms therefore allows them to live in an equal variety of environments. and resources, being capable of producing energy from inorganic and inorganic chemical substances, or even through photosynthesis.

This condition of extreme adaptability coupled with the tiny amount of nutrients that they require to survive, has generated as a consequence that the prokaryotic cells have a high metabolic efficiency, being able to degrade, absorb and metabolize almost any type of organic substance and existing inorganic structure, which is why they would be the only living beings that could really be guaranteed eternal life, also as a consequence of that the metabolic waste of some species can serve as food for others, maintaining a perfect balance if they only existed prokaryotes.

However, the opposite of this last idea according to how the dynamics of life between species have developed, is a more quite catastrophic for most, since prokaryotes also facilitate the living conditions for almost all other beings alive. For example, without bacteria capable of decomposing organic matter, the nutrients that can be obtained from it would not return to the soil to be used by the plants, feeding these in turn to the herbivores and these to the carnivores, thus also completing the transformation cycle of the energy.

reproductive speed

A capacity for rapid reproduction through cell division by binary fission is what allows prokaryotic cells to reproduce at a rate very high, a fact that can play both for and against ecosystems and even more so for organisms that may be affected by an infection bacterial.

The prokaryotic cell has also influenced the evolution of life on Earth by being the precursor to eukaryotic cells. The endosymbiotic theory proposes that eukaryotic cells evolved from symbiosis between different prokaryotic cells. For example, it is believed that the mitochondria, which are the organelles responsible for producing energy in cells eukaryotic cells, evolved from prokaryotic cells that were taken over by cells hostesses.

Another example of the importance of the prokaryotic cell in evolution is the development of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is known to have originated in photosynthetic bacteria about 3 billion years ago, long before multicellular organisms appeared. Photosynthetic bacteria were able to convert sunlight into chemical energy, allowing them to thrive in environments where other organisms could not survive.

Harnessing the bacteria

In addition to being the most abundant organisms on the planet, both by number of individuals and by the regions where they can be found, they are capable of performing many critical roles in ecosystems, such as fixing nitrogen from the air into a form usable by other living beings, as well as many other substances, an ability that has strongly attracted attention for the development of biotechnology based on the use of these types of bacteria, for the reversal of the damages caused by the contamination produced with human action.

On the other hand, for centuries various species of bacteria have essential jobs that are very useful for the production of many of the delicacies to which humans are used to, like yogurt, cheese and some other ferments, but there are also prokaryotes that are used in the production of enzymes and other important compounds in the pharmaceutical industry, while others further scientific research by serving as models to understand genetics and biology molecular, due to its relative organic and functional simplicity, making it easier and cheaper to study its biochemical and genetic processes than those of more complex cells like eukaryotes.

While it is true that bacteria are also responsible for many infectious diseases. Understanding how prokaryotic cells function and how they interact with their environments has allowed the development of effective treatments to combat the diseases caused by them, being with all this that its relevance at an economic level has a true global scope and in all kinds of items.

References

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