What is Microbiology?
• Microbes, or microorganisms are minute living things that are usually unable to be
viewed with the naked eye.
• What are some examples of microbes?
• Bacteria, fungi, protozoa, algae, viruses are examples!
• Some are pathogenic
• “Germ” refers to a rapidly growing cell.
Microbes (benefits):
• Decompose organic waste
• Are producers in the ecosystem by photosynthesis
• Produce industrial chemicals such as ethyl alcohol and acetone
• Produce fermented foods such as vinegar, cheese, and bread
Knowledge of Microbes allows humans to
• Prevent food spoilage
• Prevent disease occurrence
• Led to aseptic techniques to prevent contamination in medicine and in microbiology
laboratories.
• The first microbes were observed in 1673. In 1665, Robert Hooke (Englishman) reported
that living things were composed of little boxes or cells.
Many believed spontaneous generation:
life can arise from non-living matter
In 1668, the Italian physician Francesco Redi performed an experiment to disprove
spontaneous generation.
Redi filled six jars with decaying meat.
Conditions Results
3 jars covered with fine net No maggots
3 open jars Maggots appeared
From where did the maggots come?
What was the purpose of the sealed jars?
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
• in three containers. One was uncovered, a second was covered with paper, and the
third was covered with fine gauze that would exclude flies.
• Flies laid their eggs on the uncovered meat and maggots developed.
• The other two pieces of meat did not produce maggots spontaneously.
• However, flies we attracted to the gauze-covered container and laid their eggs on the
gauze; these eggs produced maggots.
• Thus the generation of maggots by decaying meat resulted from the presence of fly
eggs, and meat did not spontaneously generate maggots
So now there are two hypotheses:
• 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.
• Rudolf Virchow (German) presented biogenesis: living cells can arise only from
preexisting cells.
Branches of microbiology
1. Pure Science
• Bacteriology (study of bacteria)
• Mycology (study of fungi)
• Protozoology (study of protozoa)
• Algology (study of algae)
• Parasitology (study of parasites)
• Genetics (study of heredity and variation)
• Immunology (study of mechanism involved in the development of resistance by body to
infectious diseases)
2. Applied science
• Medical microbiology
• Pharmaceutical microbiology
• Industrial microbiology
• Food microbiology
• Soil microbiology
• Agriculture microbiology
• Aquatic microbiology
• Air microbiology
• Epidemiology Branches of microbiology
Medical microbiology
• It deals with the study of causative agents of infectious diseases in human beings.
• Medical microbiology has close links with other disciplines such as pathology, clinical
medicine, pharmacology and therapeutics.
Pharmaceutical microbiology
• It deals with the study of microorganisms which are responsible for the production of
antibiotics, enzymes, vaccines, vitamins and other pharmaceuticals substances.
• It also includes the method of sterilization and disinfection, microbiological testing of
pharmaceuticals, sterile product preparation and diagnosis of disease and treatment.
Industrial microbioilogy
• It is the study of industrially usful microorganisms in the production of alcoholic
beverages,vitamins, aminoacids, enzymes, antibiotics and other drugs.
• It also includes fermentation techniques for the production of different compounds.
Food microbiology
• It deals with the interaction of microorganisms and foodin the relation to food processing,
food spoilage, food borne diseases, their prevention and includes preparation and
preservation of food products.
• It is the study of soil microbes and interaction amongs the soil microorganisms.
Epidemiology
• It is concerned with the monitoring, control and spread of diseases in communities.
Agricultural microbiology
• It is the study of relationships of microorganisms and crops with on emphesis on the
control of the plant diseases and improvement of yield.
Aquatic microbiology
• Aquatic microbiology is the study of microorganisms and their activity in the freash and
marine water including lakes, rivers, bays, estuaries and seas.
• It also includes water purification, microbiological examination and biological degradation
of waste.
Air microbiology
• It deals with the role of aerospora in contamination and spoilage of food.
• It also deals with the spreading of plant and animal diseases through air.
Scope and Importance of microbiology
1. Production of antibiotic Eg: penicillin from penicillium.
2. Production of enzymes , vaccines, biosurfactants, alcoholic and other pharmaceutical
product.
3. Diagnosis of disease and treatment Eg: ELISA, Widal test.
4. Treatment of industrial waste and material
5. Plant growth promotion
6. Sterile product preparation
7. Sterilization ( process of killing microorganisms). Eg: moist heat sterilization, dry heat
sterilization, and membrane filtration.
8. Steroid biotransformation. Eg: progesterone, testosterone.
9. Identification of microorganisms. Eg: morphological, cultural or microscopic study.
10. Testing of Pharmaceuticals products and raw materials.
Discovery of Chemotherapeutic agents
• Paul Ehrlich is known as father of chemotherapy. In 1930 he introduced drug Salvarsan for
the treatment of syphilis.
• In 1929 Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered a substance produced by penicillium
notatum. He extracted from the fungus a compound which he called penicillin that could
destroy several pathogenic bacteria.
• In 1944 S.A Waksman discovered another antibiotic streptomycin.