Pharmaceutical
Microbiology
Lecture 1
What is Microbiology?
• Micro - too small to be seen with the
naked eye
• bio - life
• logy - study of
Organisms included in the study of
Microbiology
1. Bacteria • Bacteriology
2. Protozoa • Protozoology
3. Algae • Phycology
4. Parasites • Parasitology
5. Fungi (Yeasts & Molds) • Mycology
6. Viruses • Virology
Microorganisms - Microbes - Germs
How small is a microorganism
German shepherd 1 meter
Human gamete 1 millimeter
A human red blood cell 100 micrometers
A typical bacterium cell 10 micrometers
A virus 10 nanometers
An atom 0.1 nanometer
5 Characteristics of Life
1. Cells; basic unit of life
2. Maintain structure by taking up chemicals and
energy from the environment
3. Respond to stimuli in external environment
4. Reproduce and pass on their organization to
their offspring
5. Evolve and adapt to the environment
Classification System:
5 Kingdoms of Living Organisms
Robert H. Whitteker from Cornell University, USA
proposed five kingdoms taxonomy in 1969
1. Animalia
2. Plantae
3. Fungi
4. Protista
5. Monera - Bacteria and Cyanobacteria
Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes????
Classification System: Domains
3 Domains of life proposed by Carl Woese (1978)
1. Bacteria or Eubacteria
Unicellular prokaryotes with cell wall containing
peptidoglycan
2. Archaea
Unicellular prokaryotes with no peptodoglycan in cell
wall
3. Eukarya
•Protista
•Fungi
•Plantae
•Animalia
Taxonomic Classification
Man Cat
• Kingdom: Animalia • Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata • Phylum: Chordate
• Class: Mammalia • Class: Mammalia
• Order: Primate • Order: Carnivora
• Family: Hominidae • Family: Felidae
• Genus: Homo • Genus: Felis
• Species: sapien • species: domestica
How you would Scientifically name Man & Cat????
Binomial System of Taxonomic Classification
Use only the Genus and species
•Homo sapien
•Felis domestica
•Escherichia coli
Genus and species are either underlined or italicized
•Genus is always capitilized
•species is never capitilized
Naming Bacteria
• Genus and species:
Binomial System of Taxonomic Classification
• Information usually given:
1. Describes an organism
2. Identifies a habitat
3. Honors a scientist or researcher
Example: Escherichia coli
– Dr. Escherich (Scientist who discovered)
– Colon (Intestine; Place from where discovered)
Bacteria - what comes to mind?
• Diseases
• Infections
• Epidemics
• Food Spoilage
• Only 1% of all known bacteria cause human diseases
• About 4% of all known bacteria cause plant diseases
• 95% of known bacteria are non-pathogens
Microbes Benefit Humans
[Link] are primary decomposers - recycle
nutrients back into the environment (natural
decay, sewage treatment plants)
2. Microbes produce various food products
– Food like cheese, pickles, yogurt, soy sauce,
vinegar, bread
– Beverages like beer, wine & other alcoholic
products
3. Microbes produce Antibiotics
• 1928: Alexander Fleming
discovered the first antibiotic.
• He observed that Penicillium
fungus produced some
chemical that that killed S.
aureus cells around its colony.
• 1940s: Penicillin was tested
clinically and mass produced.
• Saved millions of lives during WWII
4. Bacteria synthesize chemicals that our
body needs, but cannot synthesize
Many bacteria take shelter in our body and in
response, help body get some important
chemicals that body can’t synthesize
Example: E. coli
– B vitamins - for metabolism
– Vitamin K - blood clotting
5. Study of Biochemical Reactions and
Metabolism
• Very simple structure
• rapid rate of reproduction
• provides “instant” data
6. Microbial Antagonism
Normal microbial flora prevents potential
pathogens from gaining access to our body
and cause disease
7. Insect and Pest Control
• Using bacteria to control the growth of insects
• Recently, life span of dengue virus harboring
mosquito substantially reduced by targeting it with a
bacteria hence checking viral infection
• Bacillus thuringiensis
– caterpillars
– bollworms
– corn borers
8. Bioremediation
• Using microbes with natural or genetically
engineered specificity for pollutants and toxic
wastes like pesticides, plastics, chemicals as
their food to clean environment or precious
mineral resources
• 2 important Genera
– Pseudomonas sp.
– Bacillus sp.
9. Recombinant DNA Technology
Gene Therapy-Genetic Engineering
Bacteria can be genetically manipulated to
produce human enzymes and proteins (of
therapeutic, diagnostic or commercial
importance) they normally would not produce
– Human Growth Hormone
– Insulin
– Interferon
– Commercial Enzymes
10. Basis of the food chain
Marine and fresh water microorganisms form
the basic food chain that is important for
survival of other species
Microbes do benefit us, but they are
also capable of causing many diseases
Pneumonia Whooping Cough
Botulism Typhoid Fever Measles
Cholera Scarlet Fever Mumps
Syphilis Gonorrhea Herpes 1
Chlamydia Tuberculosis Herpes 2
Meningitis Tetanus Strep Throat
Lyme Disease AIDS Black Plague
Diarrhea Gangrene
History of the Study of
Microorganisms
• 1665 Robert Hooke first observed the
compartments in a cork of bottle
– “little boxes” - “cells”
– Basis for Cell Theory - all living things are made up
of cells
Anton van Leeuwenhoek 1674
- 1st person to actually see living microorganisms
“wee animalcules”
Spontaneous Generation & Biogenesis
• The hypothesis that living organisms arise from
nonliving matter is called spontaneous generation.
According to spontaneous generation, a “vital force’
forms life.
• The Alternative hypothesis, that the living organisms
arise from preexisting life, is called biogenesis.
Evidence Pro and Cons
• 1668: Francisco Redi filled six jars
with decaying meat.
Conditions Results
Jars covered with No maggots
fine net
Open jars Maggots appeared
From where did the maggots come?
What was the purpose of the sealed jars?
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
Evidence Pro and Cons
• 1765: Lazzaro Spallanzani boiled nutrient
solutions in flasks.
Conditions Results
Nutrient broth No
placed in flask, microbial
heated, then growth
sealed
Spontaneous generation or
biogenesis?
The Theory of Biogenesis
• Pasteur’s S-shaped flask kept microbes (in dust
particles) out but let air (vital force) in.
• No microbes – No growth
Germ Theory of Disease
• Hard for people to believe that diseases
were caused by tiny invisible creatures
• Diseases, they thought, were caused by:
– demons
– witchcraft
– bad luck
– the wrath of God
– curses
– evil spirits
Robert Koch - 1st to prove that
bacteria actually caused diseases
• 1876; German
• Microbial Etiology of Infectious Disease
– etiology - the cause of a disease
• Established “scientific rules” to show a cause
and effect relationship between a microbe
and a disease
– Koch’s Postulates
Koch’s Postulates
1. The same organisms must be found in all cases of a
given disease.
2. The organism must be isolated and grown in pure
culture.
3. The isolated organism must reproduce the same
disease when inoculated into a healthy susceptible
animal.
4. The original organism must again be isolated from
the experimentally infected animal.
Exceptions to Koch’s Postulates
1. Some organisms have never been grown in
pure culture on artificial media
Treponema pallidum- Mycobacterium leprae - Leprosy
Syphilis
Exceptions to Koch’s Postulates
[Link] exclusively human diseases, it is not
morally acceptable to inoculate a deadly
pathogen into “human being” e.g, HIV
Koch established the Microbial Etiology
of Three important diseases
1. Cholera (fecal-oral disease)
– Vibrio cholerae
2. Tuberculosis (pulmonary infection)
– Mycobacterium tuberculosis
3. Anthrax (sheep and cattle)
– Bacillus anthracis
Koch - 1st to use Agar to solidify culture media
Golden Age of Microbiology 1857 - 1914
• Pasteur
– Pasteurization
– Fermentation
– Rabies vaccine by attenuation
• Joseph Lister
– Phenol to treat surgical wounds – 1st attempt to control
infections caused by microorganisms
• Robert Koch
– Koch’s Postulates
• Edward Jenner
– vaccination
• Paul Erlich
– 1st synthetic drug used to treat infections; Salvarsan - arsenic
based chemical to treat Syphilis
• “salvation” from Syphilis
Some Important Bacteria
• Staphylococcus aureus • Escherichia coli
• Staphylococcus epidermidis • Bacillus anthrasis
• Streptococcus pneumoniae • Salmonella typhi
• Vibrio cholerae • Streptococcus pyogenes
• Bacillus subtilis
• Streptococcus faecalis
• Micrococcus luteus
• Campylobacter jujuni
• Enterobacter aerogenes
• Helicobacter pylori
Selected Nobel Prizes in Physiology or
Medicine
1901* von Behring Diphtheria antitoxin
1902 Ross Malaria
transmission
1905 Koch TB bacterium
1908 Metchnikoff Phagocytes
1945 Fleming, Chain, Florey Penicillin
1952 Waksman Streptomycin
1969 Delbrück, Hershey, Luria Viral replication
1987 Tonegawa Antibody genetics
1997 Prusiner Prions
2003 Agre, Mackirron Water and ion
channels
2005 Marshall, Warren Helicobacter and
* The firstulcers
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.