Difficulties in Classification of Microorganisms,Haploid,Eucaryotic Protists,Microbial Species

Difficulties in Classification of Microorganisms

	Difficulties in Classification of Microorganisms - Most microorganisms are haploid and reproduce by asexual methods. The concept of the species as it is in plants and animals which reproduce sexually and in which species can be defined in genetic or evolutionary terms, cannot be applied very rigidly to microorganisms: A microbial species cannot be considered as an interbreeding population and two off springs produced by the division of a bacterial cell are free to evolve in a divergent manner.
Although genetic isolation is reduced by sexual or parasexual recombination or by special mechanisms of recombination, it is difficult to assess the effect of these recombination processes since in nature, the frequencies with which they occur are unknown. In bacteria, the problem is further complicated by the presence of extrachromosomal pigments which initiate chromosomal transfer and rearrangements. Nonetheless, when many strains of a given microbial group are analyzed, it is possible to divide them in a series of discontinuous groups and such groups can be recognized as species.
In recent years, attempts have been made to characterize species both by complete description of the phenotype as well as the genotype. In recent years, attempts have been made to characterize species both by complete description of the phenotype as well as the genotype.