Earth is home to an estimated 10 million forms of life, but we can't see most of them with our own eyes. In today's episode, we'll take a peek behind the curtain. We'll explore the bizarre structures, lethal defenses, and fascinating mating habits of bacteria. And we'll finally get introduced to archaea, the newest, oddest, and least understood members of the family tree.

0:00 - Part 0: Introduction

5:56 - Part 1: General Prokaryotic Features

• Prokaryotes vs. Eukaryotes
• Morphological Diversity
• Cell Wall Characteristics
• Cell Membranes, Lipopolysaccharide, and Lipid A

26:02 - Part 2: Gram Staining

• The Gram Stain Protocol
• Gram Staining Insights

34:23 - Part 3: Additional Prokaryotic Structures

• Capsules and Tonicity
• Endospores
• Fimbriae
• Pili
• Non-Flagellar Locomotive Structures
• Flagella and Taxis

51:30 - Part 4: Prokaryotic Growth and Metabolism Considerations

• Autotrophs, Heterotrophs, Chemotrophs, and Phototrophs
• Aerobes vs Anaerobes

53:32 - Part 5: Prokaryotic Reproduction and Gene Exchange

• Binary Fission
• Transduction
• Transformation
• Conjugation

1:04:34 - Part 6: Bacteria vs Archaea

• The First Archaebacteria
• Difficulties in Studying Archaea

Correction

- At 34:49, Michael misspoke. Capsules connect to peptidoglycan in Gram-positive bacteria and to the outer cell membrane in Gram-negative bacteria, not the other way around.

Special Thanks

- University of Wisconsin-Madison

- U.S. National Park System

- T. Aleman, J. Ishimwe, J. Wilson, and A. Graulau

Cover Art

"Escherichia coli Bacterium, 2021" by David S. Goodsell, RCSB Protein Data Bank. doi: 10.2210/rcsb_pdb/goodsell-gallery-028