Microbes in human

welfare

CHAARULATHA.J

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BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that

______________________has
successfully carried out the
project titled
______________________ in
partial fulfilment of his / her
investigatory project in
Biology during the year
____________________

Internal examiner External examiner

Principal

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to acknowledge all the

kind hearts that have featured this
project alongside with me. First, I
would like to thank my parents who
have fed me with immense
knowledge. I would also be grateful
to My Principal and biology teacher
who has been keen in my
development and my friends who
have encouraged me thought.
Finally, I thank the lord almighty for
having giving a wonderful
surrounding and the opportunity to
gain more knowledge

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Contents
S.No. Topic Page No.

1 Acknowledgment 1

2 Introduction 2

3 Uses in Food 3-7

4 Uses in Water Treatment 7-9

5 Uses in Energy 9-11

6 Production of Chemicals 12-14

7 Importance in ecology 15

8 Conclusion 16

9 Bibliography 17

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 Introduction

A microorganism is a microscopic living organism,

which may be single celled or multicellular.
Microorganism was discovered in 1674 by Antonie van
Leeuwenhoek, using a microscope of his own design.
They are very diverse and include all the Bacteria and
archaea and almost all the protozoa. They also include
some fungi, algae, and certain animals, such as rotifers.
Microbes are present everywhere – in soil, water, air,
inside our bodies and that of other animals and plants
and even in Hot springs and Oceans. Some are even
observed in vacuum under certain test conditions.
Microorganisms are crucial to nutrient recycling in
ecosystems as they act as decomposers. As some
microorganisms can fix nitrogen, they are a vital part of
the nitrogen cycle. Microorganisms are also exploited in
biotechnology, both in traditional food and beverage
preparation, and in modern technologies based on
genetic engineering.

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Microbes are vital to humans and the environment as
they participate in the carbon and nitrogen cycle as well
as fulfilling other vital role in virtually all ecosystem
such as recycling other organism’s dead remains and
waste products through decomposition.

Uses in Food

Microorganisms are used in brewing, wine making,

baking, pickling and other food-making processes. They
are also used to control the fermentation process in the
production of cultured dairy products such as yogurt
and cheese. The cultures also provide flavour and
aroma, and inhibit undesirable organisms.

Cheese Making Process

Milk is often pasteurized to destroy pathogenic
microorganisms and to eliminate spoilage and effects
induced by bacteria. The milk is then inoculated with

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fermenting microorganisms and rennet, which promote
curdling.
The fermenting microorganisms carry out the anaerobic
conversion of lactose to lactic.. In the presence of lactic
acid, rennet, or both, the milk protein casein clumps
together and precipitates out of solution; this is the
process known as curdling, or coagulation. Coagulated
casein assumes a solid or gel like structure (the curd),
which traps most of the fat, bacteria, calcium,
phosphate, and other particulates. The remaining liquid
(the whey) contains water, proteins resistant to acidic
and enzymatic denaturation (e.g., antibodies),
carbohydrates (lactose), and minerals.
Enzymes released by the bacterial cells also influence
flavour development during ripening. The curd is then
gently heated, causing it to shrink. The degree of
shrinkage determines the moisture content and the final
consistency of the cheese. Whey is removed by draining
or dipping.
Most cheese is ripened for varying amounts of time in
order to bring about the chemical changes necessary for
transforming fresh curd into a distinctive aged cheese.
The ripening of cheese is influenced by the interaction
of bacteria, enzymes, and physical conditions in the
curing room. The speed of the reactions is determined

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by temperature and humidity conditions in the room as
well as by the moisture content of the cheese.

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 Wine Making Process
The process of winemaking involves numerous stages
starting with the grapes being harvested, taken into a
winery and then prepared for fermentation. At this
stage, red wine is created during the fermentation of
the pulp (or "must") and skins of the red or black
grapes, which gives the wine its colour. White wine, on
the other hand, does not include the grape skins in the
fermentation process; only the juices are extracted.
To start primary fermentation, a process that typically
takes between one to two weeks, yeast is added which
converts the sugars in the grape juice into alcohol and
carbon dioxide, which then evaporates into the
atmosphere. The produced liquid, which is known as
"free wine," is then pumped into tanks and the skins
are pressed in order to extract the remaining wine and
juice. This wine, known as the "press wine," can be
added to the free wine to bring more character and
longevity to the wine.

Secondary fermentation is the next step, which is the

bacterial fermentation involving the conversion of
malic acid to lactic acid. This decreases the amount of
acid in the wine and softens the taste. The wine can

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then be transferred to oak barrels for maturation, with
further adjustments to taste and colour being made
prior to filtering and bottling.

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 CURD MAKING PROCESS
Curds are a dairy product obtained by coagulating milk
in a process called curdling. The coagulation can be
caused by adding rennet or any edible acidic substance
such as lemon juice or vinegar, and then allowing it to
sit. The increased acidity causes the milk proteins to
tangle into solid masses. Lactobacillus is a genus of
bacteria which can convert sugars into lactic acid by
means of fermentation. Milk contains a sugar called
lactose, a disaccharide (compound sugar) made by the
glycosidic bonding between glucose and galactose
(monosaccharide). When pasteurized milk is heated to a
temperature of 30-40 °C, or even at room temperature
or refrigerator temperature, and a small amount of old
curd or whey added to it, the lactobacillus in that curd
or whey sample starts to grow. These convert the
lactose into lactic acid, which imparts the sour taste to
curd. Raw milk naturally contains lactobacillus. And in
this way Curd is made.

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Uses in Water Treatment

Microbes play a Major role in treating million of

Gallons of wastewater everyday across the globe. Water
pollution is due to presence of particulate matter or
presence of inorganic or organic Compounds or because
of too many or non native microorganisms. Sewage
Treatment consists of three stages called Primary,
Secondary and Tertiary Treatment.

Primary treatment
In the primary sedimentation stage, sewage flows
through large tanks, commonly called “pre-settling
basins”, “primary sedimentation tanks” or “primary
clarifiers". The tanks are used to settle sludge while
grease and oils rise to the surface and are skimmed off.
Primary settling tanks are usually equipped with
mechanically driven scrapers that continually drive the
collected sludge towards a hopper in the base of the
tank where it is pumped to sludge treatment facilities.

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Lactobacillus Bacteria

Water Treatment

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 Secondary Treatment
Secondary treatment is designed to substantially
degrade the biological content of the sewage which are
derived from human waste, food waste, soaps and
detergent. The majority of municipal plants treat the
settled sewage liquor using aerobic biological
processes. To be effective, the biota requires both
oxygen and food to live. The bacteria and protozoa
consume biodegradable soluble organic contaminants
(e.g. sugars, fats, organic short-chain carbon molecules,
etc.) and bind much of the less soluble fractions into
floc. Secondary treatment systems are classified as
fixed-film or suspended-growth systems.

Tertiary Treatment
The purpose of tertiary treatment is to provide a final
treatment stage to further improve the effluent quality
before it is discharged to the receiving environment
(sea, river, lake, wet lands, ground, etc.). More than one
tertiary treatment process may be used at any treatment
plant. If disinfection is practised, it is always the final
process. It is also called “effluent polishing.”

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Uses in Energy

Microorganisms are used in fermentation to produce

ethanol, and in biogas reactors to produce methane.
Scientist are researching the use of algae to produce
liquid fuels and bacteria to convert various form of
agricultural and urban waste into usable fuels

Algae Fuel
Algae fuel or algal bio fuel is an alternative to liquid
fossil fuels that uses algae as its source of energy-rich
oils. Several companies and government agencies are
funding efforts to reduce capital and operating costs and
make algae fuel production commercially viable. Like
fossil fuel, algae fuel releases CO2 when burnt, but
unlike fossil fuel, algae fuel and other bio fuels only
release CO2 recently removed from the atmosphere via
photosynthesis as the algae or plant grew. The energy
crisis and the world food crisis have ignited interest in
alga culture (farming algae) for making biodiesel and
other bio fuels using land unsuitable for agriculture.
Among algal fuels' attractive characteristics are that
they can be grown with minimal impact on fresh water
resources can be produced using saline and wastewater,
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have a high flash point and are biodegradable and
relatively harmless to the environment if spilled.

Cellulosic ethanol
Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel produced from wood,
grasses, or the non-edible parts of plants. It is a type of
biofuel produced from lignocellulose, a structural
material that comprises much of the mass of plants.
Lignocellulose is composed mainly of cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin. Corn stover, switchgrass,
miscanthus, woodchips and the by products of lawn and
tree maintenance are some of the more popular
cellulosic materials for ethanol production. Production
of ethanol from lignocellulose has the advantage of
abundant and diverse raw material compared to sources
like corn and cane sugars, but requires a greater amount
of processing to make the sugar monomers available to
the microorganisms that are typically used to produce
ethanol by fermentation.The main advantage of
Cellulosic ethanol is that it reduces greenhouse gas
emissions (GHG) by 85% over reformulated gasoline.

Biogas
Biogas, naturally occurring gas that is generated by the
breakdown of organic matter by anaerobic bacteria and
is used in energy production. Biogas is primarily

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composed of methane gas, carbon dioxide, and trace
amounts of nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide.
Biogas differs from natural gas in that it is a renewable
energy source produced biologically through anaerobic
digestion rather than a fossil fuel produced by
geological processes. Biogas occurs naturally in
compost heaps, as swamp gas, and as a result of enteric
fermentation in cattle and other ruminants. Biogas
produced in anaerobic digesters can be burned to
generate heat or used in combustion engines to produce
electricity. Organic material used to produce biogas
industrially includes animal waste, such as manure and
sewage, and municipal solid waste (MSW) harnessed
from landfills.
Animal and plant wastes can be used to produce biogas.
They are processed in anaerobic digesters as a liquid or
as a slurry mixed with water. Anaerobic digesters are
generally composed of a feedstock source holder, a
digestion tank, a biogas recovery unit, and heat
exchangers to maintain the temperature necessary for
bacterial digestion. Heat is usually required in digesters
to maintain a constant temperature of about 35 °C (95
°F) for bacteria to decompose the organic material into
gas. The use of biogas is a green technology with
environmental benefits. Biogas technology enables the
effective use of accumulated animal waste from food
production and of municipal solid waste from
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urbanization. The conversion of animal waste into
biogas reduces production of the greenhouse gas
methane, as efficient combustion replaces methane with
carbon dioxide.

Uses in Production of Chemicals

Use in production of chemicals, enzymes ,antibiotics

etc. Many microbes are used for commercial and
industrial production of chemicals, enzymes and other
bioactive molecules. Examples of organic acid
produced include

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Acetic acid : Produced by the bacterium Acetobacter
aceti and other acetic acid bacteria (AAB) Acetic acid
bacteria (AAB) are bacteria that derive their energy
from the oxidation of ethanol to acetic acid during
fermentation. They are Gram-negative, aerobic, rod-
shaped bacteria. They are not to be confused with the
genus Acetobacterium, which are anaerobic
homoacetogenic facultative autotrophs and can reduce
carbon dioxide to produce acetic acid, for example,
Acetobacterium woodii .
Butyric acid (butanoic acid): Produced by the bacterium
Clostridium butyricum. Clostridium butyricum is a
strictly anaerobic endosporeforming Gram-positive
butyric acid producing bacillus subsisting by means of
fermentation using an intracellularly accumulated
amylopectin-like α-polyglucan (granulose) as a
substrate. It is uncommonly reported as a human
pathogen and widely used as a probiotic in Asia
(particularly Japan). C. butyricum is a soil inhabitant in
various parts of the world, has been cultured from the
stool of healthy children and adults, and is common in
soured milk and cheeses.
Lactic acid : Lactobacillus and others commonly called
as lactic acid bacteria (LAB) The lactic acid bacteria
(LAB) comprise a clade of Gram-positive, low-GC, acid-
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tolerant, generally non-sporulating, nonrespiring rod or
cocci that are associated by their common metabolic
and physiological characteristics.
These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants
and lactic products, produce lactic acid as the major
metabolic end-product of carbohydrate fermentation.
This trait has, throughout history, linked LAB with food
fermentations, as acidification inhibits the growth of
spoilage agents. Proteinaceous bacteriocins are
produced by several LAB strains and provide an
additional hurdle for spoilage and pathogenic
microorganisms. Furthermore, lactic acid and other
metabolic products contribute to the organoleptic and
textural profile of a food item. The industrial
importance of the LAB is further evinced by their
generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status, due to their
ubiquitous appearance in food and their contribution
to the healthy microflora of human mucosal surfaces.
Citric acid : Produced by the fungus Aspergillus
niger .Aspergillus niger is a fungus and one of the most
common species of the genus Aspergillus. It is
ubiquitous in soil and is commonly reported from
indoor environments, where its black colonies can be
confused with those of Stachybotrys (species of which
have also been called "black mould").
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Antibiotics are chemical substances, which are
produced by some microbes and can kill or retard the
growth of other (disease-causing) microbes. You are
familiar with the commonly used antibiotic Penicillin.
Alexander Fleming while working on Staphylococci
bacteria, once observed a mould growing in one of his
unwashed culture plates around which Staphylococci
could not grow. He found out that it was due to a
chemical produced by the mould and he named it
Penicillin after the mould Penicillium notatum.
However, its full potential as an effective antibiotic was
established much later by Ernest Chain and Howard
Florey. This antibiotic was extensively used to treat
American soldiers wounded in World War II. Fleming,
Chain and Florey were awarded the Nobel Prize in
1945, for this discovery.
Microbes are used for preparation of bioactive
molecules and enzymes. Streptokinase produced by
the bacterium Streptococcus and modified by genetic
engineering is used as a clot buster for removing clots
from the blood vessels of patients who have
undergone myocardial infarctions leading to heart
attack. Cyclosporin A is a bioactive molecule used as an
immunosuppressive agent in organ transplantation
Stains produced by the yeast Monascus purpureus is

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commercialised as blood cholesterol lowering agents
which acts by competitively inhibiting the enzyme
responsible for synthesis of cholesterol.

Acetobacter aceti

Clostridium butyricum

Aspergillus niger

Penicillium notatum

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 Monascus purpureus

Importance in Ecology
amino acids is converted to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) by another series
One of the most important roles of microbes is breaking
up the complex substances in decaying plants and
animals so that they can be used again by living plants.
This involves microbes as catalysts in a number of
natural cycles, among the most prominent being the
nitrogen, and sulfur cycles.
Proteins are the basic stuff of organic tissues, and
nitrogen is an essential element of all proteins. The
availability of nitrogen in forms that plants can use is a
basic determinant of the fertility of soils; the role of
microbes in facilitating the nitrogen cycle is therefore of
great importance. When a plant or animal dies,
microbes break up the complex proteins, polypeptides,
and nucleic acids in their bodies and produce
ammonium, ions, nitrates, and nitrites that plants then
use to build their body tissues.
Both bacteria and blue-green algae can fix nitrogen
directly from the atmosphere, but this is less vital to
plant development than the symbiotic relationship
between the bacteria genus Rhizobium and leguminous
plants and certain trees and shrubs. In return for
secretions from their host that encourage their growth

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and multiplication, Rhizobia fix nitrogen in nodules of
the host plant’s roots, providing nitrogen in a form
usable by the plant.
Microbes also participate in the sulfur cycle, mostly by
breaking up the naturally abundant sulfur compounds in
the soil so that this vital element is available to plants.
Sulfur cycle, is the circulation of sulfur in various forms
through nature. Sulfur occurs in all living matter as a
component of certain amino acids. It is abundant in the
soil in proteins and, through a series of microbial
transformations, ends up as sulfates usable by plants.
Sulfur-containing proteins are degraded into their
constituent amino acids by the action of a variety of soil
organisms. The sulfur of the of soil microbes. In the
presence of oxygen, H2S is converted to sulfur and then
to sulfate by sulfur bacteria. Eventually the sulfate
becomes H2S.
Conclusion
flavour to cheese. Many microbes are used for commercial and
Microbes are a very important component of
industrial
life on earth. Not all microbes are pathogenic. Many
microbes are very useful to human beings. We use
microbes and microbially derived products almost every
day. Microbes are essential in processes like Wine
making and Cheese making. Bacteria called lactic acid
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bacteria (LAB) grow in milk to convert it into curd.
The dough, which is used to make bread, is fermented
by yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Certain
dishes such as idli and dosa, are made from dough
fermented by microbes. Bacteria and fungi are used to
impart particular texture, taste and production of
chemicals, enzymes and other bioactive
molecules .Antibiotics like penicillins produced by
useful microbes are used to kill disease-causing harmful
microbes. For more than a hundred years, microbes are
being used to treat sewage (waste water) by the process
of activated sludge formation and this helps in recycling
of water in nature. Microorganisms are used in
fermentation to produce ethanol, and in biogas reactors
to produce methane Methanogens produce methane
(biogas) while degrading plant waste. Biogas produced
by microbes is used as a source of energy in rural areas.
It is clear from the diverse uses human beings have put
microbes to that they play an important role in the
welfare of human society.

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Bibliography

Referred Books:

• Biological Science: Third Edition

By, N. P. O. Green (Author), G. W. Stout (Author),
D. J. Taylor (Author), R. Soper (Editor)

• Exploring Biology
By, Ella Thea Smith

• NCERT Text Book

• Tell Me Why

• Encyclopaedia Britannica