Microorganisms

and
Microbiology
B S 2 0 2 0 B AS I C M I C ROBIOLOGY
A S S T . P R O F. D R . P A T C H A N E E Y .
P’TIK
 WHAT IS
MICROBIOLOGY?
Microbial Cells

• Cells can communicate, move about, and exchange

materials with their environments, and so they are
constantly undergoing change
Properties of Cellular Life
 Microorganisms and Their Environments
• In nature, microbial cells live in populations in association with populations of cells of
other species.
• A population is a group of cells derived from a single parental cell by successive cell
divisions.
• The immediate environment in which a microbial population lives is called its habitat.
• Populations of cells interact with other populations in microbial communities
• The diversity and abundance of microorganisms in microbial communities is controlled
by the resources (foods) and conditions (temperature, pH, oxygen content, and so on)
that prevail in their habitat.
Evolution and the Extent
of Microbial Life

• a particular group of microorganisms called

the cyanobacteria were pivotal in biological
evolution because oxygen (O2)—a waste
product of their metabolism—prepared planet
Earth for more complex life forms
Life on Earth through the Ages
• During the first 2 billion years or so of Earth’s existence, its atmosphere was anoxic; O2 was absent,
and nitrogen (N2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and a few other gases were present.
• Only microorganisms capable of anaerobic metabolisms could survive under these conditions, but
these included many different types of cells, including those that produce methane, called
methanogens.
• The evolution of phototrophic microorganisms—organisms that harvest energy from sunlight—
occurred within a billion years of the formation of Earth.
• The first phototrophs were relatively simple ones, such as purple bacteria and other anoxygenic (non-
oxygen evolving) phototrophs, which are still widespread in anoxic habitats today.
• Cyanobacteria (oxygenic, or oxygen-evolving, phototrophs) evolved from anoxygenic phototrophs
nearly a billion years later and began the slow process of oxygenating the atmosphere.
• Triggered by increases in O2 in the atmosphere, multicellular life forms eventually evolved and
continued to increase in complexity, culminating in the plants and animals.
The Impact of
Microorganisms on Humans
Microorganisms as Agents of Disease
Microorganisms, Digestive Processes,
and Agriculture
Microorganisms and Food, Energy,
and the Environment
Pathways of
Discovery in
Microbiology
What did happen before we know Microbe?
• “Dark age”
• Infectious diseases have played major roles in shaping human
history (decline of Roman Empire & conquest of the New
World
• Smallpox and other infectious diseases introduced by
European explorers to the Americas in 1500's were
responsible for decimating Native American populations
Microscope: Robert Hooke
• Robert Hooke (1635–1703)
• An English mathematician and natural historian, was
also an excellent microscopist.
• In his famous book Micrographia (1665), the first
book devoted to microscopic observations, Hooke
illustrated, among many other things, the fruiting
structures of mold
Van Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes
• Van Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes were crude by today’s
standards, but by careful manipulation and focusing he was
able to see bacteria, microorganisms considerably smaller
than molds (molds are fungi).
• He discovered bacteria in 1676 while studying pepper–water
infusions. He reported his observations in a series of letters to
the prestigious Royal Society of London, which published them
in 1684 in English translation.
Drawings of some of van Leeuwenhoek’s “wee animalcules”
Cohn, Beggiatoa and Endospores

• Ferdinand Cohn (1828–1898).

• He was trained as a botanist and became an excellent microscopist. His interests in

microscopy led him to the study of unicellular algae and later to bacteria, including
the large sulfur

• bacterium Beggiatoa.

• Cohn was particularly interested in heat resistance in bacteria, which led to his
discovery that some bacteria form endospores.

• We now know that bacterial endospores are formed by differentiation from the
mother (vegetative) cell and that endospores are extremely heat resistant.

• Cohn described the life cycle of the endospore-forming bacterium Bacillus

(vegetative cell endospore vegetative cell) and showed that vegetative cells but not
endospores were killed by boiling
Spontaneous Generation

• the hypothetical process by which living

organisms develop from nonliving matter
• the archaic theory that utilized this process to
explain the origin of life.
The Transition stage
“Golden Age”
Accomplishments of Louis Pasteur
• triumphs in microbiology and medicine.
• Some highlights include his development of vaccines for
the diseases anthrax, fowl cholera, and rabies during a
very scientifically productive period from 1880 to 1890
• Pasteur used heat to eliminate contaminants.
• Killing all the bacteria or other microorganisms in or on
objects is a process we now call sterilization
Koch, Infectious Disease, and
Pure Culture Microbiology
Koch’s postulates, for definitively linking a specific microorganism to a specific disease.
Koch’s postulates state the following:
1. The disease-causing organism must always be present in animals suffering from the
disease but not in healthy animals.
2. The organism must be cultivated in a pure culture away from the animal body.
3. The isolated organism must cause the disease when inoculated into healthy
susceptible animals.
4. The organism must be isolated from the newly infected animals and cultured again in
the laboratory, after which it should be seen to be the same as the original organism
Koch and Pure Culture
• developed several simple but clever methods of obtaining and growing bacteria in pure
culture.
• the first to grow bacteria on solid culture media.
• och initially employed gelatin as a solidifying agent for the various nutrient fluids he
• used to culture bacteria, and he kept horizontal slabs of solid gelatin free of contamination
under a bell jar or in a glass
• Nutrient-supplemented gelatin was a good culture medium for the isolation and study of
various bacteria, but it had several drawbacks, the most important of which was that it did
not remain solid at 37°C, the optimum temperature for growth of most human pathogens.
• Thus, a different solidifying agent was needed. Agar
 The Modern Era of Microbiology
• discovery of antibiotics: Alexander Fleming , penicillin
• Watson and Crick 1953 : Model of DNA
• Mullis 1983: PCR
• Venter and Collins 2000: Human Genome

penicil
Big Ideas
Big Ideas
• Microorganisms, which include all single-celled microscopic organisms and the viruses,
are essential for the well-being of the planet and its plants and animals.

• Metabolism, growth, and evolution are necessary properties of living systems. Cells
must coordinate energy production and consumption with the flow of genetic
information during cellular events leading up to cell division
Big Ideas
• Microorganisms exist in nature in populations that interact with other populations in
microbial communities. The activities of microorganisms in microbial communities can
greatly affect and rapidly change the chemical and physical properties of their habitats.

• Diverse microbial populations were widespread on Earth for billions of years before
higher organisms appeared, and cyanobacteria in particular were important because
they oxygenated the atmosphere. The cumulative microbial biomass on Earth exceeds
that of higher organisms, and most microorganisms reside in the deep subsurface.
Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya are the major phylogenetic lineages of cells.
Big Ideas
• Microorganisms can be both beneficial and harmful to humans, although many more
microorganisms are beneficial or even essential than are harmful

• Robert Hooke was the first to describe microorganisms, and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek
was the first to describe bacteria. Ferdinand Cohn founded the field of bacteriology and
discovered bacterial endospores
Big Ideas
• Louis Pasteur is best remembered for his ingenious experiments showing that living
organisms do not arise spontaneously from nonliving matter. He developed many
concepts and techniques central to the science of microbiology, including sterilization

• Robert Koch developed a set of criteria anchored in experimentation—Koch’s

postulates—for the study of infectious diseases and developed the first methods for
growth of pure cultures of microorganisms
 Again
WHAT IS
MICROBIOLOGY?