CHAPTER 1

MICROBIAL CELLS
- The cell is the fundamental unit of life
- In microbiology, they use “Growth” to describe the increase number in cell from cell
division.

Properties of cellular life:

1. Compartmentalization and metabolism
- The cell is a compartment that takes nutrients from the environment, transforms
them, and releases wastes into the environment.
2. Growth
- Chemicals from the environment are turned into new cells under the genetic direction
of pre-existing cells.
3. Evolution
- Cells contain genes and evolve to display new biological properties. Phylogenetic
trees show the evolutionary relationships between cells
4. Motility
- Capable of self-propulsion
5. Differentiation
- Form new cell structures such as a spore, usually as part of a cellular life cycle.
6. Communication
- Many cells communicate or interact by means of chemicals that are released or
taken up.

Cells as a biochemical catalyst and as genetic entities:

- Cells can be viewed as biochemical catalyst (carrying ut the chemical reaction that
constitutes metabolism
- Cells can be viewed as genetic coding devices
- Has two main events, the production of RNA’a (Transcription) and the
production of proteins (Transition).

Microorganisms and their environment:

- Habitat
- the immediate environment in which a microbial population lives
- Habitats differ markedly in their characteristics, and a habitat that is favorable
for the growth of one organism may be actually harmful to other.
- Microbial communities
- populations of cell interact with other population
- Diversity is controlled by the resources and conditions.
- Interact with each other in a neutral, beneficial, or harmful ways.
- Ecosystem
- All living organisms, together with the physical and chemical components of
their environment.
- Greatly influenced and in some cases even controlled by microbial activities.
Evolution of the extent of microbial life:
- Microorganisms were the first entities on Earth with the properties of living systems.
- Cyanobacteria (oxygen is the waste product of their metabolism)
The first cells and the onset of biological evolution
- Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) - thought that cell descended from a
common ancestral cell.
Life on Earth through ages:
- Earth is 4.6 billion years old
- Methanogens (produces methane)
- The evolution of phototrophic microorganisms (organisms that harvest energy
from sunlight)
- Cyanobacteria
- Oxygenic phototrophs
- Evolved from anoxygenic phototrophs
Microbial Eukarya
- Were the ancestors of the plants and animals.
Biomarkers
- Specific molecules that are unique to particular group in present day microorganisms.
- Presence or absence of biomarker in ancient rocks reveals if the particular group was
present that time.
Microbial Habitats supports diverse populations of microbial cells that make their livings in
unusual ways and grow extremely slowly.

The impact og microorganisms on Human:

- Pathogens
- Major caused of death caused by infectious diseases by microorganisms.
- Microbial Diseases
- Major cause of death
Microorganisms, DIgestive Processes, anD Agriculture
- Nitrogen fixing bacteria
- These bacteria convert atmospheric oxygen into ammonia that the plant use
as a nitrogen source for growth.
Major agricultural importance are the microorganisms that inhabit ruminant animals, such as
cattle and sheep. These animals contains a digestive vessel rumen, in which large
population of microorganism digest and ferment cellulose.
Large intestine, skin, and oral cavity
- Contain a significant normal microbial flora, most of which benefits the host.
Escherichia coli or Salmonella
- Transmitted from infected meat, or when microbial pathogens are ingested with
contaminated freah fruits and vegetables.
Microorganisms and food, energy, and the environment
- Baked goods and alcoholic beverages rely on thhe fermentative activities of yeast,
which generate CO2, to raise the dough and alcohol.
- Some microorganisms produce biofuels.
- Natural gas (methane) is a product of the anaerobic degradation of organic matter
by methanogenic microorganisms.
- Ethyl alcohol (ethanol) is produced by microbial fermentation of glucose from
feedstocks such as sugarcane or cornstarch, is a major motor fuel in some countries.
- Microbial bioremediation
- microorganisms are used to clean up human pollution
- And to produce commercially valuable products by industrial microbiology and
biotechnology.
- Bioremediation
- Accelerated cleanup in either two ways:
- By introducing specific miroorganisms to a polluted environment
- By adding nutrients that stimulate pre-existing microorganismsnto degrade
the pollutants.
Biotechnology
- employs genetically engineered microorganisms to sythesize products of high
commercial value, such as human insulin.
Genomics
- is the science of the indentification and analysis of genomes and has greatly
enhanced biotechnology.
Louis Pasteur
- “The role of the infinitely small in nature is infinitely large”
- French scientist

PATHWAYS OF DISCOVERY ON MICROBIOLOGY

Robert Hooke
- His book “Micrographia (1665)”. The first book devoted to microscopic observations.
- Illustrated the fruiting structures of molds.
Antonie van Leewuenhoek
- First person to see bacteria
- Amateur microscope builder
- Discovered bacteria in 1676 while studying pepper-water infusions.
 - “Wee animacules”
Ferdinand Cohn
- Contemporary of Pasteur and Cohn
- The founder of bacteriology.
- Devised simple but effective methods for preventing the contamination of culture
media.
Pasteur and the defeat of spontaneous generation theory:
- Optical Isomers and Fermentation
- Pasteur was a chemist by training and was one of the first to recognize the
significance of optical isomers (a molecule is optically active if a pure
solution or crystal diffracts light in only one direction)
- Sterilization
- Killing all bacteria or other microorganisms by using heat.
- Pasteur Flask
- Swan neck flask
- His development of vaccines for the diseases anthrax, fowl cholera, and rabis
during a very scientifically productive period.
Robert Koch
- “All bacteria which maintained the characteristics which differentiate one from
another when they are cultured on the same medium and under the same conditions,
should be designated as species, varieties, forms, or other suitable designation”
- Studied Anthrax
- A disease of cattle and occasionally humans.
- Caused by endospore-forming bacterium called Bacillus anthracis.
- Koch established that the bacteria were always present in the blood of an
animal that was succumbing to the disease.
- He discovered that the anthrax bacteria could be grown in nutrient fluids
outside the host and that even after many transfers in laboratory culture, the
bacteria still caused the disease when inoculated into a healthy animal.
Koch Postulates:
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.

- Robert koch was the first to grow bacteria on solid culture media.
- Agar (a polysaccharide derived from red algae)
Walter Heese
- First used agar as a solidifying agent for bacteriological culture media.
- Actual suggestion of agar was made by Heese’s wife.
Richard Petri
- Published a brief paper describing a modification of Koch’s flat plate technique
- Petri dishes.
TUBERCULOSIS: THE ULTIMATE TEST OF KOCH’S POSTULATES:
- Koch’s crowning accomplishment in medical bacteriology was his discovery of the
causative agent of tuberculosis.
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the bacterium that causes tuberculosis)
- Tuberculin test (methods to diagnose exposure to M. tuberculosis)

Martinus Beijerinck
- Began his career in microbiology studying plants
- Greatest contribution was his clear formulation of the enrichment culture technique.
- Was apparent when following Winogradsky’s discovery if the process of
nitrogen fixation, he isolated the aerobic nitrogen-fixing bacterium
Azotobacter from soil.
- Described the first virus (Tobacco Mosaic Virus ) and described the basic principles
of virology.
Sergei Winogradsky
- Was particularly interested in bacteria that cycle nitrogen and sulfur compounds,
such as nitrifying bacteria and sulfur bacteria.
- Chemolithotrophy
- Oxidation of inorganic compounds to yield energy.
- Further showed that these organism obtained their carbon from CO2
- Are autotrophs
- Performed the first isolation of a nitrogen-fixing bacterium called Clostridium
pasteurianum.

CHAPTER 2
Resolution (the ability to distinguish two adjacent objects as distinct and separate)
Light Microscope
- Are used to examine cells at relatively low magnifications
- Uses light to illuminate cell structures
 - Total magnification of a compound microscope is the product if the magnification of
its objective and ocular lenses.
- 2000x are the upper limit.
Contrast (typically imporves the final image)
Staining (an easy way to improve contrast)

Staining: Increasing Contrast for Bright-field microscopy

- Dyes can be used to stain cells and increase their contrast so that they can be more
easily seen in the bright-field microscope.
- Dyes are organic compounds, and each class of dye has an affinity for specific
cellular materials.
- Basic Dyes
- used in microbiology that is positively charges
- Bind strongly to the negatively charged cell components.
Differential stain: The Gram stain
- Stains that render different kind of cells different colors
- Gram stain has two groups; Gram Positive and Gram Negative.
- Is one of the most useful staining procedures in microbiology.
Phase-contrast microscopy
- Widely used in teaching and research for the observation of wet-mount preparations
- Based on the principle that cells differ in refractive index from their surroundings.
- Refractive index (a factor by which light is slowed as it passes through a material).
- Phase ring (consists of a phase plate that amplifies the minute variation in phase)
Dark-field microscope
- Light microscope in which light reaches the specimen from the sides only.
- Resolution is somewhat better than by light microscopy
- An excellent way to observe microbial motility, as bundles of flagella are often
resolvable with this technique.
Fluorescence Microscopy
- Used to visualize specimens that fluoresce (they emit light of one color following
absorption of light of another color)
- Cell fluoresce either because they contain naturally fluorescent substances such as
chlorophyll or other fluorescing components, phenomenon called autofluorescene.

IMAGING CELLS IN THREE DIMENSIONS:

Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy
- Form of light microscopy that employs a polarizer in the condenser to produce
polarized light.
- Typically used for observing unstained cells because it can reveal internal cell
structures that are nearly invisible by the bright-field technique.

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

- Useful for three-dimensional imaging of biological structures is the atomic force
microscope.
Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy (CSLM)
- Is computerized microscope that couples a laser source to a fluorescent microscope.
- Generates a three-dimensional image and allows the viewer to profile several planes
of focus in the specimen.
Electron Microscopy
- Use electrons instead of visible light to image cells and cell structures.
- Are fitted with cameras to allow a photograph, called an electron micrograph, to be
taken.

VIRUSES
- Are a major class of microorganisms, but they are not cells.
- Much smaller than cells and lack many of the attributes of cells.
- Virus particle (is static and stable, unable to change or replace its parts by itself)
- Have no metabolic capabilities of their own.
- They contain their own genomes, lack ribosomes.
- Known to infect all types of cells, including microbial cells.
Arrangement of DNA in Microbial Cells:
- Life processes of any cell are governed by its complement of genes, its genome.
- A gene is a segment of DNA that encodes a protein or RNA molecule.
Nucleus vs. Nucleoid
- In most prokaryotic cells, DNA is present in a circular molecule called the
chromosome; a few prokaryotes have a linear instead of a circular chromosome.
- Chromosome aggregates within the cell to form a mass called the nucleoid.
- Most prokaryotes have only single chromosome. Because of this, they typically
contain only a single copy of each gene and are therefore genetically haploid.
- Many prokaryotes also contain one or more small circles of DNA distinct from that of
the chromosome, called plasmids.
- DNA molecules are packaged with protiens and organized to form chromosomes.
- Chromosomes in eukaryotes contains proteins that assist in folding and packing the
DNA and other proteins that are required for transcription.

THE EVOLUTIONARY TREE OF LIFE:

Evolution
- The process of descent with modification that generates new varieties and evntually
new species of organisms.
- Occurs in any self-replicating system in which variation is the results of mutation and
selection is based in differential fitness.
Phylogeny
- Evolutionary relationships between organisms
- Relationships between cells can be deduced by comparing the genetic information
that exists in their nucleic acids or proteins.
- Carl Woese
- Pioneered the use of comparative rRNA sequence analysis as a measure of
microbial phylogeny and, in so doing, revolutionized our understanding of
cellular revolution.
THE THREE DOMAINS LIFE
- Archaea, bacteria, and Eukarya
- (1) all prokaryotes are not phylogenetically closely related
- (2) Archaea are actually more closely related to Eukarya than to Bacteria
- Last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all life forms on Earth, evolutionary
diversification diverged to yield the ancestors of the bacteria and of a second main
lineage.
 - Ancestors of the Archaea retained the prokaryotic cell structure
- Eukarya did not retained the prokaryotic cell structure.
Sequencing to Microbiology
- Molecular phylogeny has not only revealed the evolutionary connections between all
cells.
Microbial Diversity
- All cells require an energy source and a metabolic strategy for conserving energy
from it to drive energy-consuming life processes.
1. Chemoorganotrophs
- Organisms that conserve energy from chemicals are called chemotrophs
- Energy is conserved from the oxidation of the compound and is stored in the cell in
the energy-rich bonds of the compound ATP.
- Majority of the microorganisms that have been brought into laboratory culture
2. Chemolithotrophs
- Tap the energy available from the oxidation of inorganic compounds.
- Occurs only in prokaryotes and is widely distributed among species of bacteria and
archaea.
- H2 and H2S are waste products
3. Phototrophs
- Contains pigments that allow them to convert light energy to chemical energy
- Do not require chemicals as a source of energy.
4. Heterotrophs
- Which require organic compounds as their carbon source
5. Autotrophs
- Use carbon dioxide as their carbon source.
- Called “primary producers”
Habitats and Extreme Environment
- Extremophiles
- Organisms that inhabit extreme environments
- A remarkable group of organisms that collectively define the physiochemical
limits of life.
- Abound in harsh environments

BACTERIA
- All known disease-causing prokaryotes are Bacteria.
Proteobacteria
- Make up the largest phylum of bacteria
- Many chemoorganotrophic bacteria are Proteobacteria like Escherichia coli.
- Species that live in or on plants and animals in both harmless and disease-causing
ways.
 - Pseudomonas (degrade complex or toxic natural and synthetic organic
compounds
- Azotobacter (the bacterium that fixes Nitrogen)
- A number of key pathogens is Proteobacteria
- Salmonella (gastrointestinal diseases)
- Rickettsia (typhus and rocky mountain spotted fever)
- Neisseria (gonorrhea)
(1) Gram-positive bacteria
- Contains many organisms that are united by their common phylogeny and cell
wall structure.
- Bacillus (endospore-forming)
- Clostridium (spore-forming bacteria)
- Streptomyces (antibiotic-producing)
- Lactic acid bacteria are common inhabitants of decaying plant material and
dairy products that include organisms such as Streptococcus and
Lactobacillus.
- Mycoplasma
- Lacks a cell wall
- Have very small genomes
- Many are pathogenic
- In Archaea
- Such as Thermoplasma and Ferroplasma, also lack cell walls.
(2) Cyanobacteria
- Oxygenic phototrophs
- First oxygenic phototrophs to evolve on Earth.
- Heterocysts
- Species in the latter group contain special structures
- That carry out nitrogen fixation
Other Major Phyla of Bacteria
- Syphilis and Lyme diseases (caused by spirochetes)
- Chloroflexus group
- Two other major phyla of Bacteria are phototrophic: the green sulfur bacterua
and the green nonsulfur bacteria.
- A filamentous phototroph that inhabits hot springs and associates with
cyanobacteria to form microbial mats, which are laminated microbial
communities containing both phototrophs and chemotrophs.
- Also note-worthy becuase its ancient relatives may have been the first
phototrophic bacteria on Earth.
- Phylum Chlamydiae
- Harbors respiratory and sexually transmitted pathogen of humans.
- Are intracellular parasites, cells live inside the cells of higher organisms.
- Ex: Rickettsia, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- Phylum Deinococcus - Thermus
- Deinococcus radiodurans is the major species in this group
- Can survive doses of radiation many times greater than that sufficient to kill
humans and can actually reassemble its chromosomes after it has been
shattered by intense radiation.
 - Aquifex and Thermotoga
- Grow in hot springs that are near the boiling point.
ARCHAEA
- Are extremophiles
- Pyrolobus (Hyperthermophile)
- Capable of growing up to 113 degree celcius.
- Methanopyrus (Methanogen)
- Grow up to 122 degree celcius
- Although all Archaea is chemotrophic, Halobacterium uses ATP but in a way that is
distinct from phototrophs.
(1) Euryarchaeota
- Contains the methanogens, extreme halophiles, the thermoacidophiles, and
some hyperthermophiles
(2) Crenarchaeota
- Vast majority are hyperthermophiles
- Either chemolithotrophs or chemoorganotrophs
- Are anaerobes
- Have also been detected in soil and freshwater and are thus widely
distributed in nature.
EUKARYA
- Basednon ribosomal RNA sequencing shows plant and animals to be farthest out on
the branches of the tree.
Eukaryotic Microbial Diversity
- Major groups are protist (algae and protozoa), fungi, and slime molds
- Algae
- Contain chloroplasts and can live in environment containing only a few
minerals
- Inhabit both soil and aquatic habitats and are major primary producers in
nature.
- Fungi
- Lack photosynthetic pigments and are either unicellular (yeasts) or
filamentous (molds)
- Major agents of decomposition in nature and recycle much of the organic
matter produced in soils and other ecosystems.
- Cells of algae and fungi have cell walls, whereas the protozoa and slime molds do
not.
- Protozoans
- Typcally motile
- Different species are widespread in nature in aquatic habitats or as pathogens
of humans and othr animals.
- Slime molds
- Resemble protozoa in that they are motile and lack cell walls.
- Differ from protozoa in both their phylogeny and by the fact that their cells
undergi complex life cycle
- During slime mold cycle, motile cells aggregate to form a multicellular
structure called fruiting body from which spores are produced that yield new
motile cells.
 - Earliest branching organisms on the tree of Eukarya to show the cellular
cooperation needed to form multicellular structures.
- Lichens
- Leaflike structures often found in growing in the surfaces of rocks and
trees
- Example of a microbial mutualism
- Consists of a fungus and a phototrophic partner organism, either an
alga or a cyanobacterium.
- The phototrophic component is the primary producer while the fungus
provides an anchor for the entire structure, protection from the
elements, and the means of absorbing nutrients.
CHAPTER 3
COMPOSITION OF MEMBRANES
Archaeal Membranes
- Contain ether bonds between glycerol and their hydrophobic side chains
- Lipids lack true fatty acid side chains and instead, the side chains are composed of
repeating units of the hydrophobic 5-carbon hydrocarbon isoprene.
- Cytoplasmic membrane can be constructed of either glcerol diethers (have 20-carbon
side chains / the 20-C unit is called a phytanyl group), or diglycerol tetraethers (which
have 40- carbon side chains)
- Forms a lipid monolayer instead of lipid bilayer membrane.
- Lipid monolayer membranes are extremely resistant to hest denaturation and are
therefore widely distributed in hyperthermophiles.
Microbial Taxes
- Prokaryotes often encounter gradients of physical or chemical agents in nature and
have evolved means to respond to these gradients by moving either toward or away
from the agent.
(1) Chemotaxis
- Response to chemicals
- Has been weel studied in swimming bacteria, and much is known at the
genetic level concerning how the chemical state of the environment is
communicated to the flagellar assembly.
- The attractants and repellants are sensed by a series of membrane proteins
called chemoreceptors. These proteins bind the chemicals and begin the
process of sensory transduction to the flagellum
- Can be considered a type of sensory response system, analogous to sensory
responses in the nervous system of animals.
- Bacterial chemotaxis can be demonstrated by immersing a small glass
capillary tube containing an attractant is a suspension of motile bacteria that
does not contain the attactant
- Can also be observed under a microscope
(2) Phototaxis
- A response to light
- It allows it to orient itself most efficiently to recieve light for photosynthesis.
- Cells move up to the gradient from lower to higher intensities
- The attractant is light.
 - Scotophobotaxis
- Observed only microscopically and occurs when a phototrophic
bacterium happens to swim outside the illuminated field of view of the
microscope into darkness
- A mechanisms by which phototrophic purple bacteria avoid entering
darkened habitats when they are moving about in illuminated ones,
and this likely improves their competitive success.
- Rhodospirillum centenum
- Entire colonies of cells show phototaxis and move in unison toward
the light.
- Photoreceptor (senses light)
- Photophosphorylation (light mediated-ATP synthesis)
Other taxes:
- Aerotaxis
- Movement toward or away from oxygen
- Osmotaxis
- Toward or away from conditions of high ionic strength
- Hydrotaxis
- Movement toward water
- Allows gliding cyanobacteria that inhabit dry environments, such as soils, to
glide toward a gradient of increasing hydration.

CHAPTER 4
Nutrition and Culture of Microorganisms
Metabolism
- Chemical reactions
- Catabolic
- Energy releasing
- Breaks molecular structures down, releasing energy
- Anabolism
- Energy requiring
- Uses energy to build larger molecules from smaller ones.
Macronutrients
- Required in large amounts
- Proteins dominate the macromolecular composition of cell, making up 55% of total
cell dry weight.
Micronutrients
- Are required in just trace amounts

Carbon and Nitrogen:

- All cells require carbon
- Most prokaryotes require organic (carbon-containing) compounds as their source of
carbon
- Heterotrophic bacteria assimilate organic compounds and use them to make new
cell material
- Autotrophic microorganims build their cellular structures from carbon dioxide with
energy obtained from light or inorganic chemicals.
- Nitrogen in organic compounds may also be available to microorganisms.
Other Macronutrients: P, S, K, Mg, Ca, Na
- Phosphorus
- Key element in nucleic acids and phospholipids and is typically supplied to a
cell as phosphate
- Sulfur
- Present in amino acids cysteine and methionine and also in several vitamins,
including thiamine, biotin, and lipoic acid.
- Can be supplied to cells i forms of sulfate and sulfide
- Potassium
- Required for the activity of several enzymes
- Magnesium
- Functions to stabilize ribosomes, membranes, and nuceliec acid and is also
required for the activity of many enzymes
- Calcium
- Not required by all cells but can play a key role in helping to stabilize
microbial cell walls, and it plays a key role in the heat stability of endospores
- Sodium
- Required by some, but not all, microorganisms, and its requirement it typically
reflection in the habitat.
Micronutrients: Iron and other trace metals
- Iron
- Major role in cellular respiration
- Play a role as cofactors of enzyme.
- Key component of cytochromes and of iron-sulfur proteins involved in electron
transport reactions
- Under anoxic condition, iron is generally in the ferrous form and soluble
- Under oxic conditions, iron is typically in ferric form as part of insoluble
minerals.
- To obtain ferric, cells must produce iron-binding molecules called
siderophores that function to bind ferric and transport into the cell.
- Major group of siderophores is the hydroxamic acids, organic
molecules that chelate ferric strongly.
- Many lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus do not contain detectable
iron and grow normally in its absence.
- In these organisms, manganese (Mn) often plays a role similar to Iron.
- Growth factors are organic compounds that, trace metals are only required
with small amount.
- Vitamins are the most commonly known growth factors
CULTURE MEDIA
- Are the nutrient solutions used to grow microorganisms in the laboratory .
- Are often made to be selective or differential or both, especially media used in
diagnostic microbiology.
Classes of culture media:
- Defined media
- Prepared b y adding precise amount of highly purified inorganic or organic
chemicals to distilled water
- The exact composition of a defined medium is known.
 - Major importance in any culture medium is the carbon source because all
cells need large amount of carbon to make new cell material.
- Particular carbon source and its concentration depend on the organism to be
cultured
- Complex Media
- Employs digest of microbial, animal or plant products.
- Easisest to prepare and supports the growth of both the chemoorganotrophs.
Escherichia coli, and Leuconostoc mesenteroides.
- Enriched medium
- Often used for the culture of otherwise difficult to grow nutritionally
demanding microorganisms.
- Starts with a complex base and is embellished with additional
nutrients such as serum, blood, or other highly nutritious substances.
- Selective medium
- Contains compounds that inhibit the growth of some microorganisms
but not others.
- Differential medium
- One which an indicator, typically a reactive dye, is added that reveals
whether a particular chemical reaction has occured during growth.
LABORATORY CULTURE
- Inoculation will typically be with a pure culture, a culture containing only a single
kind of microorganism.
- Unwanted organisms is called contaminants.
- A major method for obtaining pure cultures and for assessing the purity of a culture is
the use of solid media, specifically, solid media prepared in the Petri plate, and we
consider this now.
Solid and Liquid Culture Media:
- Liquid culture media
- Sometimes solidified by the addition of a gelling agent.
- Solid media
- Immobilize cells, allowing them to grow and form visible, isolated masses
called colonies.
- Prepared in the same way as liquid media except that before sterilization,
agar, a gelling agent, is added to the medium.
- Microbial Colonies
- Are of various shapes and sizes depending on the organism, the
culture conditions, the nutrient supply, and several other physiological
parameters, and can contain several billion individual cells.
- Permit the microbiologist to visualize the composition and presumptive
purity of the culture.
- Plates that contain more than one colony type are indicative of a
contaminated culture.
Aseptic Technique
- A series of steps to prevent contamination during manipulations of cultures and
sterile culture media.
- Required for success in the microbiology laboratory, and it is one of the first methods
learned by the novice microbiologist.
 - Aseptic transfer of a culture from one tube of medium to another is typically
accomplished with an inoculating loop or needle that has previously been sterilized in
a flame
- Sterilization
- Achieved with moist heat in a large pressurized chamber called autoclave.

CHAPTER 5
Fts Proteins and Cell Division
- Fts proteins, are essential for cell division.
- “Filamentous temperature sensitive”
- Describes the properties of cells that have mutations in the genes that encode Fts
proteins.
- Fts proteins interact to form a cell-division apparatus called divisome.
- ZipA is an anchor that connects the Ftsz ring to the cytoplasmic membrane that
stabilizes it.
- FtsA, a protein related to actin, also helps to connect the FtsZ ring to the cytoplasmic
membrane and has an additional role in recruiting other divisome proteins.
- FtsI is one of several penicillin-binding proteins present in the cell. Penicillin-binding
proteins are so named because their activities are inhibited by the antibiotic penicillin.
- DNA replicates before the FtsZ form.
- FtsZ is facillated by proteins Min protein, specially MinC, MinD, and MinE.
- MinD forms a spiral structure on the inner surface of the cytoplasmic membrane and
oscilllates back and forth from pole to pole
- MinD also required to localize MinC to the cytoplasmic membrane
- MinC and MinD inhibit cell division by preventing the FtsZ ring from forming.
- MinE also oscillates from pole to pole, sweeping the MinC and MinD aside as it
moves along.
- Min proteins ensure that the divisome forms only at the cell center and not at the cell
poles.
- Enzymatic activity of FtsZ also hydrolyzes guanosine triphosphate (GTP) to yield
necessary energy to fuel polymerization and depolymerizatiom of the FtsZ ring.
- FtsZ is akey and universal cell-division protein.

MreB and Determinants of Cell Morphology

- Major shape-determining factor in prokaryotes is a protein called MreB
- MreB forms a simple cytoskeleton in cells of bacteria and probably in Archaea as
well.
- Forms spiral-shaped bands around the inside of the cell.
- Inactivation of the gene encoding MreB in rod-shaped bacteria causes the cells to
become coccoid.
- Coccoid bacteria lack the gene that encodes MreB and thus lack MreB
- MreB plays an important roles in the bacterial cell; particularly to assists in the
segregation of the replicated chromosome such that ine copy is distributed to each
daughter cell. Similar to actin.
Crescentin
- Caulobacter crescentus, a vibrio-shaped especies of Proteobacteria, produces a
shape-determining protein called crescentin.
 - Caulobacter is an aquatic bacterium that undergoes a life cycle in which swimming
cells, called swarmers, eventually form a stalk ans attach to surfaces.
- Caulobacter has been used as a model system for the study of gene expression in
cellular differentiation.
- These proteins may be necessary for the formation of curved cells.

Archaeal Cell morphology and the evolution of cell division and cell shape
- The genomes of most Archaea contain genes that encode MreB like proteins.
- The protein of MreB is structurally related to the eukaryotic protien Actin
- FtsZ is related to the eukaryotic protein tubulin.
- Crestentin is related to keratin proteins that make up intermidiatte filaments in
eukaryotic cells.

Peptidoglycan Synthesis and Cell division

- In most cocci, cell walls grow in opposite directions outward from the FtsZ ring,
whereas the walls of rod-shaped cells grow at several locations along the length of
the cell.
- Beginning at the FtsZ ring, small gaps in the wall are made by enzymes called
autolysins, enzymes that function as lysozome to hydrolyze the B-1,4 glycosidic
bonds that connect N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylmuramic acid in the
peptidoglycan backbone.
- Course essential in peptidoglycan synthesis that new cell wall precursors be spliced
into existing peptidoglycan in a coordinated and consistent manner in order to
prevent a breach in peptidoglycan integrity at the splice point.
- Breach (could cause spontaneous cell lysis, called autolysis)
Biosynthesis of Peptidoglycan
- Synthesis of peptidoglycan during growth requires the controlled cutting of
preexisting peptidoglycan by autolysins with the simultaneous insertion of
peptidoglycan precursors.
- Lipid carrier bactoprenol plays a major role in this process.
- A hydrophobic C55 alcohol
- Transports peptidoglycan precursors across the cytolasmic membrane by
rendering them sufficiently hydrophobic to pass through the membrane
interior.
- Once in the periplasm, bactoprenol interacts with enzymes called
transglycosylases that insert cell wall precursors into the growing point of
the cell wall and catalyze glycosidic bond formation.
Transpeptidation
- The final step in cell wall synthesis
- Forms a peptide cross-links between muramic acid residues in adjacent glycan
chains cross-links form between diaminopimelic acid (DAP) on one peptide and
D-alanine on the adjacent peptide.
- In E. coli protein FstI is the key protein in transpeptidation at the division septum,
while a separate transpeptidase enzyme cross-links peptidoglycan elsewhere in the
growing cell.
- Is medically noteworthy because it is the reaction inhibited by the antibiotic penicillin.
Exponential growth
- the pattern of population increase where the number of cells doubles during a
constant time interval.
- The straight line function reflects the fact that the cells are growing exponentially and
the population is doubling in a constant time interval.
The Microbial Growth Cycle
- Growth curve (describes an entire growth cycle, and includes the lag phase,
exponential phase, stationary phase, death phase)
(1) Lag Phase
- Time requires for the cell to repair its damage
(2) Exponential Phase
- Cells are at the healthiest state
- Exponentially dividing
(3) Stationary
- Cell growth is equals to the cell deaths
- To limit the growth
(4) Death Phase
- When the cell dies.

Continuos Culture: The Chemostat

- Common type of continuos culture device.
- (1) dilution rate, which is the rate at the fresh medium is pumped in and spent
medium is removed
- (2) the concentration of a limiting nutrient, such as a carbon or nitrogen source,
present in the sterile medium entering the chemostat vessel.
- Have also been used for enrichment and isolation of bacteria,

Measuring Microbial Growth

- Is measured by tracking changes in the number of cells or changes in the level of
some cellular component
Microscopic count
- Total count of microbial numbers can be achieved using microscope.
- Quick ans easy way of estimating microbial cell number
Viable Count
- A viable cell is one that is able to divide and form offspring and in most cell-counting
situations.
- Is also called a plate count.
- Viable counting procedure is that each viable cell can grow and divide to yield one
colony.
- Colony numbers are a reflection of cell numbers.
- Can be subject to rather large errors.
Turbidimetric Samples
- Useful method of estimating cell numbers.
- More cells that are present, the more light is scattered, and hence the more turbid the
suspension.
- Turbidity actually measures the cell mass
 - Since cell mas is proportional to the cell number turbidity can be used as a measure
to cell numbers and can also be used to follow an increase in cell numbers of
growing culture.
- Is measured with a spectrophotometer (an instrument that passes light through a cell
suspension and measures the unscattered light that emerges; the more cells that are
present in the cell suspension, the more turbid it will be.
- 480 nm (Blue)
- 540 nm (green)
- 600 nm (orange)
- 660 nm (Red)
- Unit is optical density
Biofilms
- Are common from of bacterial growth in nature
- Can affect humans, bacterial infections are often linked to pathogens that develop in
biofilms during th disease process.
- Also a major problem in industry
EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON GROWTH
- Temperature is the most important factor affecting growth and survival of
microorganism.
Cardinal temperature
- For every microorganism, there is a minimum temperature below which growth is not
possible, an optimum temp. at which growth is most rapid, and a maximum
temperature above which growth is not possible.
Temperature Classes of Organisms
- Mesophiles
- Found in warm-blooded animals and in terrestrial and aquatic environments.
- Escherichia coli

Cold Environments
- Psychrophiles
- Organisms with low temperature optima.
- Optimal growth of 15 degree celsius or lower
- Psychrotolerant (organisms that grow at 0 degree celsius but have optima of
20-40 degree celsius)
- Chlamydomonas nivalis
- Common snow alga
 - Its spores responsible for the brilliant red color of the snow surface
- Grow within the snow as a green pigmented vegetative cell and then
sporulates.
- Fields of snow algae can also be green, orange, brown, or purple.
- Polaromonas
- Isolates from sea ice
- Low growth temp optimu and maxima (4 and 12 degree celsius)
- Psychromonas
- Species of sea ice bacterium
- Grows at -12 degree celsius, the lowest temperature for any known
bacterium.
- Psychrotolerant Microorganisms
- More widely distributed in nature than psychrophiles
- Grow best between 20 to 40 degree celsius
- Although psychrotolerant microorganisms do grow at 0 degree celsius, most
do not grow very well at that temp.
Thermal Environments
- Thermophiles
- Optimum growth exceeds 45 degree celsius
- Thermus aquaticus
- Common hot spring thermophile
- Been isolated from domestic and industrial hot water heaters.
- Hyperthermophiles
- Optimum growth exceeds 80 degree celsius
- Some hyperthermophilic Archaea have growth temperature optima above 100
degree celsius
- No species of Bacteria are known to grow above 95 degree celsius
- Methanopyrus
- Most heat-resistant archaea
- Methanogenic
- Capable of growth of 122 degree celsius
Acidity and Alkalinity
- Acidophiles
- Optimum pH value in the range cirmumneutral (pH 5.5 to 7.9) are called
neutrophils.
- Grow below 5.5 pH.
- Cannot grow at pH level of 7
- Alkaliphiles
- Higher pH optima of 8 for growth
Halophiles and related organisms
- Halophiles
- Grow optimally at high salt concentrations
- Halotolerant
- Tolerate some reduction of the solute of their environments
- Grow best in the absence of added solute
- Extreme Halophile
- Capable of growth in very salty environment
 - Osmophiles
- Able to live in environments high in sugar as a solute
- Xerophiles
- Able to grow in dry environment (lack of water).
OXYGEN AND MICROORGANISMS

CHAPTER 33
AIRBORNE TRANSMISSION OF DISEASES
- Streptococcal diseases
- Streptococci are nonsporulating, homofermentative, aerotolerant, anaerobic
gram-positive cocci
- Streptococcus pyogenes
- Also called group A Streptococcus
- Frequently isolates from the upper-respiratory tract of healthy adults.
- If host defenses are weakened or a new, highly virulent strain is
introduced, acute suppurative infections are possible.
- Is the cause of streptococcal pharyngitis “Strep throat”
- Is characterized by a severe sore throat, enlarged tonsils with
exudate, tender cervical lymph nodes, mild fever, and general
malaise.
- Occasionally causes fulminant (sudden and severe) invasive systemic
infection such as cellulitis, a skin infection in subcutaneous layers, and
necrotizing fasciitis, a rapid and progressive disease resulting in
extensive destruction of subcutaneous tissue, muscle, and fat.
- Necrotizing fasciitis is responsible for the dramatic reports of
“flesh-eating bacteria”.
- Rheumatic fever
- Most serious of these diseases are caused by rheumatic
strains of S. pyogenes
- An autoimmune disease; antibodies directed against
streptococcal antigens also react with heart valve and joint
antigens, causing inflammation and tissue destruction.
- Acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis
- Nonsupporative disease, a painful kidney disease.
- Scarlet fever
- The typical rash result from the action pf the pyrogenic
exotoxins produced by Streptococcus pyogenes.
- There are no available vaccines to prevent S. pyogenes infections.
 - It can be treated by antibiotics.
- Streptococcus pneumoniae
- Causes invasive lung infections that develop as secondary infections
to other respiratory disorders
- Strains that are encapsulated are particularly pathogenic because
they are potentially very invasive.
- Reduced lung infection, called pneumonia, can result from the
accumulation of recruited phagocytic cells and fluid.
- Can spread from the focus of infection as a bacteremia, sometimes
resulting in bone infections, middle ear infections, and endocarditis.
- Effective vaccines are available for common strains of S. pneumoniae.
- Both GAS and Streptococcus pneumoniae can be treated with antibiotics.
- Diphtheria and Pertussis
- Diphtheria was once a major childhood disease, but it is now rarely
encountered because an effective vaccine is available.
- Corynebacterium diphtheriae
- Enters the body, infecting the tissues of the throat and tonsils.
- Spread by airborne droplets
- Throat tissues respond to C. diphtheriae infection by forming a
characteristic lesion called a pseudomembrane, which consists of
damaged host cells and cells of C. diphtheriae.
- Pertussis
- Also known as whooping cough
- Highly infectious respiratory disease now observed in children under
19 years of age.
- Attaches to cells of the upper respiratory tract by producing a specific
adherence factor called filamentous hemagglutinin antigen.
- Grows and produces pertussis exotoxin
- Also produces an endotoxin, which may induce some of the symptoms
of whooping cough.
- A vaccine consisting of proteins derived from B. pertussis is part of the
routinely administered DTaP vaccine.
- This vaccine is normally given to children at appropriate
intervals beginning soon after birth.
- Mycobacterium, Tuberculosis, and Hansen’s Disease
- Tuberculosis
- Caused by the gram-positive, acid-fast bacillus Mycobacterium
tuberculosis.
- Is easily transmitted by the respiratory route; even normal
conversation can spread the organism from person to person.
- Cell-mediated immunity plays a critical role in the prevention of active
disease after infection.
- TB can be a primary infection (initial infection) or postprimary
infection (reinfection)
- Primary infection typically results from the inhalation of droplets
containing viable M. tuberculosis bacteria from an individual with an
active pulmonary infection.
- Inhaled bacteria settle in the lungs and grow.
 - A diagnostic skin test, called the tuberculin test, can be used to
measure this hypersensitivity.
- Tuberculin-positive individual exhibits a reaction characterized by
induration (hardening) and edema (swelling).
- Bacteria are found in the sputum in individuals with active disease,
and areas of destroyed tissue can be seen in X-rays.
- Streptomycin was the first effective antibiotic, but the real revolution in
treatment came with the discovery of isonicotinic acid hydrazide,
called (INH).
- This drug is specific for mycobacteria, is effective, inexpensive,
relatively nontoxic, and readily absorbed when given orally.
- Mycolic acid is a lipid that complexes with peptidoglycan in the
mycobacterial cell wall.
- Following treatment with isoniazid, mycobacteria lose their acid-fast
properties, in keeping with the role of mycolic acid in this staining
property.
- BCG is discouraged.
- Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy)
- Mycobacterium leprae, also known as leprosy. M. leprae is the only
Mycobacterium species that has not been grown on artificial media.
- Lepromatous leprosy, the most serious form of Hansen's disease, is
characterized by folded, bulblike lesions on the body, especially on the
face and extremities.
- Many Hansen’s disease patients exhibit less-pronounced lesions from
which no bacterial cells can be recovered. These individuals have the
tuberculoid form of the disease.
- Tuberculoid leprosy is characterized by a vigorous
delayed-type hypersensitivity response and a good prognosis
for spontaneous recovery.
- Any form of Hansen’s disease is treated using multiple drug therapy
(MDT) protocol.
- Mycobacterium bovis
- A pathogenic for humans as well as other animals
- Dairy cattle
- Enters human via the intestinal tract, typically from the ingestion of
unpasteurized milk. After localized intestinal infection, the organism
eventually spreads to the respiratory tract which initiates classic
symptoms of TB.
- Neisseria meningtidis, Meningitis, and Meningococcemia
- Meningitis
- An inflammation of the meninges, the membraes that line the central
nervous system, especially the spinal cord and brain.
- Can caused viral, bacterial, fungal, or protist infections.
- Caused by Neisseria meningitidis
- A gram-negative, nonsporulating, obligately aerobic,
oxidase-positive, encapsulated diplococcus.
- Meningococcal meningitidis, often occurs in epidemics, usually in
closed populations such as military installations.
 - Is characterized by sudden onset of headache, vomiting, and stiff
neck, and can progress to coma and death in a matter of hours.
- Penicillin G is the drug of choice for the treatment of N. meningitidis
infections.
- Chloramphenol is the accepted alternative agent for treatment of
infections in penicillin-sensitive individuals.
- Haemophilus influenzae
- Primarily infects young children
- Viruses and Respiratory Infections
- Measles (rubeola or 7-day measles)
- Affects susceptible children as an acute, highly infectious, often
epidemic disease.
- Is a paramyxovirus, a negative-stranded RNA virus that enters the
nose and throat by airborne transmission, quickly leading to systemic
viremia.
- Nasal discharge and redness of the eyes.
- As the disease progresses, fever and cough appear and rapidly
intensify, followed by a characteristic rash.
- The serum antibodies and T-cytotoxic lympocytes combine to
eliminate the virus from the system.
- Encephalomyelitis
- Has a mortality rate of nearly 20% and can cause neurological
disorders including a form of epilepsy.
- Mumps
- Caused by paramyxovirus and is also highly infectious
- Is spread by airborne droplets, and the disease is characterized by
inflammation of the salivary glands, leading to swelling of the jaws and
neck.
- Spreads through the bloodstream and may infect other organs,
including the brain, testes, and pancreas.
- Rubella (German measles or 3-day measles)
- Caused by a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus of the
togavirus group.
- Symptoms resemble measles but are generally milder
- Can infect fetus by placental transmission and cause serious fetal
abnormalities including stillbirth, deafness, heart and eye defects, and
brain damage.
- Chicken Pox and Shingles
- Chicken Pox (varicella) is a common childhoos disease caused by
varcilla-zoster virus (VZV), a DNA herpesvirus.
- VZV is highly contagious and transmitted by infectious droplets,
especially when susceptible individuals are in close contact.
- VZV establishes a lifelong latent infection in nerve cells. The virus
occasionally migrates from this reservoir to the skin surface, causing a
painful skin eruption referred to as shingles (zoster).
- Shingles most commonly strikes immunosuppressed
individuals or elderly.
- Colds
- Are the most common infectious diseases
- Viral infections that are transmitted via droplets spread from person to person
in cough, sneezes, and respiratory secretions.
- Short duration
- Cold symptoms include rhinitis (inflammation of the nasal region, especially
the mucous membranes), nasal obstruction, watery nasal discharges, and a
general feeling of malaise, usually without fever.
- Rhinoviruses are the most common causes of colds.
- Coronavirus cause 15% of all colds in adults.
- Influenza
- Is caused by an RNA virus of the orthomyxovirus group
- Influenza A is the most important human pathogen
- The strain of influenza A virus can be identified by a unique set of surface
glycoproteins.
- Glycoproteins are hemagglutinin (HA or H antigen) and neuraminidase
(NA or N antigen).
- HA is important in attachment of virus to host cells,
- Mutations create slightly altered antigens, a phenomenon called antigenic
drift.
- Is transmitted from person to person though the air, primarily in droplets
expelled during coughing ans sneezing.
- The virus infects the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract and
occasionally invades the lungs.
- Symptoms include low-grade fever lasting 3-7 days, chills, fatigue, headache,
and general aching.
- Influenza A (1918)
- “Spanish flu”
- The pathogen apparently stimulated production and release of large
amounts if inflammatory cytokines, resulting in systemic inflammation
and disease in susceptible individuals.
- Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus
- “Swine flu”
- The reassorted virus apparently developed in pigs.
- Influenza A (H5N1)
- “Avian influenza”
- Apparently jumping directly from the avian host to human without the
pig intermediate.
- Spread directly from avian species, usually domestic chickens or
ducks to humans through prolonged contact or the eating of infected
birds.
- Influenza epidemics can be controlled by immunization.
- Treatment of influenza with aspirin on children is not recommended, since it
has been linked to Reye’s syndrome, a rare but occasionally fata
complication involving central nervous system.
Direct-Contact Transmission of Diseases
- Staphylococcus
- Staphylococci commonly infect skin and wounds and may also cause
pneumonia
- They are resistant to drying and tolerate high concentrations of salt when
grown on artificial media.
- Helicobacter pylori and gastric ulcers
- A gram-negative, highly motile, spiral-shaped bacterium related to
Campylobacter
- First identified in human intestinal biopsies
- A pathogen associated with gastritis, ulcers, and gastric ulcers
- Hepatitis Virus
- Is a liver inflammation commonly caused by an infectious agent.
- Sometimes results in acute illness followed by the destruction of functional
liver anatomy and cells, a condition known as cirrhosis.
- Hepatitis due to infection can cause chronic or acute disease, and some
forms lead to liver cancer.
- Hepatitis A virus (HAV)
- Transmitted from person to person or by ingestion of fecally
contaminated water or food.
- Often called “Infectious hepatitis”
- Significant food vehicles are shellfish, usually oysters or clams
harvested from water polluted by human fecal material.
- Hepatitis B virus (HBV)
- Often called “serum hepatitis”
- Is a hepadnavirus
- A mature virus particle containing the viral genome is called a Dane
particle
- Can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer
- Usually transmitted by a parenteral route, such as blood transfusion ir
through shared hypodermic needles contaminated with infected blood.
- May also be transmitted through exchanges of body fluids, as in
sexual intercourse.
- Hepatitis D virus (HDV)
- A defective virus that lacks genes for its own protein coat
- Also transmitted by parenteral routes, but because it is a defective
virus, it cannot replicate and express a complete virus unless the cell
is also infected with HBV
- Replicates independently but uses the protein coat of HBV for
expression.
- Hepatitis C virus (HCV)
- The most common liver disease currently seen in clinical settingd in
the US.
- Hepatitis E virus (HEV)
- Transmit hepatitis by enteric route
- Causes an acute, self-limiting hepatitis that varies in severity from
case to case but is often the cause of fulminant disease in pregnant
women.
 - Hepatitis G virus (HGV)
- Commonly found in the blood of patients with other forms of acute
hepatitis,
- HGV alone causes very mild or is completely asymptomatic.
- Symptoms include fever; jaundice (production and release of excess bilirubin
by the liver due to destruction if liver cells, resulting in yellowing of the skin
and white of the eyes); hepatomegaly (liver enlargement); and cirrhosis
(breakdown of the normal liver tissue architecture)
Sexually transmitted Infections (STI’s / venereal disease)
- Sexually transmitted pathogens are generally found only in body fluids from the
genitourinary tract that are exchanged during sexual activity.
- Gonorrhea
- Caused by Neisseria gonorrhea or often called gonococcus.
- Can be transmitted by intimate person to person contact.
- In female
- Characterized by a mild vaginitis that is difficult to distinguish from
vaginal infections caused by other organisms, and thus, the infection
may easily go unnoticed
- Can lead to a condition known as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
- Can lead to long-term complications such as sterility
- In male
- The organism causes a painful infection of the urethral canal
- Both male and females include damage to heart valves and joint tissues to
immune complex deposition.
- Also causes eye infections in newborns. Infants born of infected mothers
may acquire eye infections during birth.
- Syphilis
- Caused by a spirochete, Treponema pallidum
- Transmitted from person to person by intimate sexual contact
- Is potentially more serious than gonorrhea
- In male
- Initial infection is usually on the penis
- In female
- Most often in the vagina, cervix, or perineal region
- During pregnancy, the organism can be transmitted from an infected
woman to the fetus; disease acquired by the infant is called
congenital syphilis
- Extremely complex disease
- Chlamydia, Herpes, Trichomoniasis and Human Papillomavirus
- Chlamydia
- A number of sexually transmitted diseases can be ascribed to
infection by the obligate intracellular bacterium Chlamydia
trachomatis
- Outnumbers the incidence of gonorrhea
- C. trachomatis also causes a serious eye infection called trachoma.
- May also be transmitted congenitally to the newborn in the birth canal,
causing newborn conjunctivitis and pneumonia.
- Nongonococcal urethritis (NGU)
 - C. trachomatis is one of the most frequently observed sexually
transmitted diseases in males and females
- Is frequently observed as a secondary infection following
gonorrhea
- Lymphogranuloma venereum
- Disease occurs most frequently in male
- Swelling of lymph nodes in and about the groin.
- Herpes
- Herpes simplex virus are responsible for cold sores, and genital
infections
- Herpes simplex 1 virus (HSV-1)
- Infects the epithelial cells around the mouth and lips, causing
cold sores (fever blisters)
- Occasionally infect other body sites, including the anogenital
regions
- Spread via direct contact or through saliva
- Oral herpes caused by HSV-1 is quite common and apparently
has no harmful effects on the host beyond the discomfort of the
oral blisters
- Herpes simplex 2 virus (HSV-2)
- Causes painful blisters on the penis of males or on the cervix,
vulva, vagina of females
- Can also be transmitted to a newborn by contact with herpetic
lesions in the birth canal at birth
- To prevent this, the delivery should be done in
caesarian
- Trichomoniasis
- Nongonococcal urethritis may also be caused by infections with the
protist Trichomonas vaginalis
- Sometimes transmitted by contaminated toilet seats, sauna
benches, and towels.
- Infects vagina in women, the prostate and seminal vesicles of
men, and the urethra of both males and females.
- Can be asymptomatic in males
- In women, it is characterized by a vaginal discharge, vaginitis, and
painful urination.
- Is diagnosed by observation of the motile protist in a wet mount of fluid
discharged from the patient.
- Metronidazole is effective for treating trichomoniasis.
- Human Papillomavirus
- Comprise a family of double-stranded DNA viruses
- Moat HPV is asymptomatic, with some progressing to cause genital
warts.
- Others cause cervical neoplasia (abnormalities in cells of the cervix),
and a few progress to cervical cancers.
- HPV vaccine is currently recommended for females 11-26 years old
- Recommended also for males since they develop HPV infection that
can lead to anal and penile cancers.
 - Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: AIDS and HIV
- HIV-2
- is less virulent thn HIV-1
- Causes a milder AIDS-like disease
- HIV-1
- Is a retrovirus
- Targets macrophages and T cells in the human immune system.
- Leads to the depletion of immune T cells, crippling host immune
defenses.
- AIDS was first suspected of being a disease affecting the immune system
because opportunistic infections, infections usually observed only in persons
with dysfunctional immunity, were prevalent in certain populations.
- Kaposi Sarcoma
- Frequently seen in HIV/AIDS patients
- An atypical cancer of the cells lining the blood vessels and
characterized by purple patches on the surface of the skin, especially
in the extremities.
- Caused by coninfection of HIV and human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8)
- AZT (Azidothymidine)
- Oldest effective anti-HIV drug
- An inhibitor of HIV replication that closely resembles the nucleoside
thymidine, but lacks the correct attachment site for the next base in a
replicating nucleotide chain, resulting in the termination of the growing
DNA chain.
- Nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs)
- Second category of anti-HIV drugs
- Directly inhibit the activity if reverse transcriptase by interacting with
the protein and altering the conformation of the catalytic site.
- Protease inhibitors (PI)
- Are computer designed peptide analogs that inhibit processing of viral
polypeptides by binding to the active site of the processing enzyme
- Inhibits virus maturation
- Enfuvurtide
- A fusion inhibitor composed of 36 amino acid
- Prescribed to HIV-positive individuals who have developed
antiretroviral drug resistance
- Elvitegravir and raltegravir
- Integrase inhibitors
- Members of a new category of anti-HIV drugs
- Will be used as part of HAART therapy.
CHAPTER 34
Zoonosis
- An animal disease transmissible to humans, generally by direct contact, aerosols, or
bites.
- Enzootic (present endemically in certain populations)
- Epizootic (incidence reaching epidemic proportions, often occur periodic or cyclic
basic)
- Rabies Virus
 - Occurs in wild animals as an enzootic disease that can spread as a zoonotic
disease to humans.
- Is a vaccine-preventable infectious disease in humans
- Caused by rhabdovirus (a negative-strand RNA virus that infects cell in the
central nervous system of most warm-blooded animals)
- Enters the body via virus-contaminated saliva through a wound from a bite or
through contamination of mucous membranes
- Proliferates in the brain, especially in the thalamus and hypothalamus
- Leads to fever, excitation, dilation of the pupils, excessive salivation, and
anxiety.
- Virus inclusions called Negri bodies in the cytoplasm of nerve cells confirm
rabies virus infection.
- Prevented largely through immunization.
- Hantavirus
- Cause several severe diseases including hantavirus pulmonary syndrome
(HPS), an acute respiratory and cardiac disease, hemorrhagic fever with
renal syndrome (HFRS), an acute disease characterized by shock and
kidney failure.
- Named for Hantaan, Korea, where the virus was first recognized.
- Related to hemorrhagic fever viruses such as Lassa fever virus and Ebola
virus
- Most commonly transmitted by inhalation of virus-contaminated rodent
excreta.
Anthropod-Transmitted Pathogens
- Rickettsial Pathogens
- Rickettsias are small bacteria that have an obligate intracellular existence in
vertebrates
- Also associated with blood-sucking arthropods such as fleas, lice, or ticks.
- Cause diseases in humans and animals, the most important of which typhus
fever spotted fever rickettsiosis, and ehrlichiosis.
- Typhus Group: Rickettsia prowazekii
- Caused by R. prowazekii
- Transmitted from person to person by common body or head louse
- Humans are the only known mammalian host for typhus.
- The human louse, Pediculus humanus (can carry Rickettsia
prowazekii, the agent that causes typhus)
- Introduced through the skin when a puncture caused by louse bite
becomes contaminated with louse feces, the major source of
rickettsial cells.
- Fever, headache, and general body weakness
- The rash is observed in the armpits and generally all over the body
except for the face, palms of the hand, and sole of the foot.
- Spotted Fever Group: Rickettsia rickettsii
- Commonly called Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF)
- Transmitted to humans by various ticks, most commonly the dog and
the wood ticks.
- Humans acquire the pathogen by getting bitten by an infected tick
 - The rickettsial agent is found in the salivary glands of the tick and in
the female tick’s ovaries.
- Cells of R. rickettsii, grow within the nucleus of the host cell as well as
in host cytoplasm.
- Tetracycline or chloramphenicol generally promotes a prompt
recovery from RMSF if administered early in the course of the
infection.
- Ehrlichiosis and tickborne Anaplamosis
- The Ehrlichia are responsible for two emerging tickborne diseases,
human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME) and human granulocytic
anaplasmosis (HGA)
- Ricketssias that cause HME are Ehrlichia chaffeensis and
Ricketssia sennetsu.
- Ricketssias that cause HGA are Ehrlichia ewingii and Anaplasma
phagocytophilum.
- Other Rickettsial Diseases
- Q fever
- A pneumonia-like infection caused by the obligate intracellular
parasite Coxiella burnetii
Lyme Disease and Borrelia
- Lyme disease
- Is a emerging tickborne disease that affects humans and animals.
- Was named for Old Lyme, Connecticut.
- Caused by infection with a spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, transmitted by
the bite of Ixodes spp. ticks.
- Deer and white-footed field mice are prime mammalian reservoirs of B.
burgdorferi.
- Treatment of early acute Lyme disease can be with doxyxycline, amoxicillin.
Malaria and Plasmodium
- Malaria
- A disease caused by Plasmodium spp., a group of protists that are members
of the alveolate group.
- Plasmodium spp. cause malaria-like diseases in warm-blooded hosts; the
complex protists life cycle includes an arthropod mosquito vector
- Plasmodium vivax, F. falciparum, P. ovale, and P. malariae, cause most
malaria infections to humans
- Humans are only reservoirs for these 4 species.
- Anopheles (female mosquito that only vector that transmits Plasmodium
spp.)
- The disease is associated with wet, low-lying areas where mosquitoes breed
- The term malaria is derived from the Italian words meaning “bad air”.
- West Nile Virus (WNV)
- Causes West Nile fever
- A human viral disease transmitted through a bite of a mosquito
- Member of the flavivirus group.
- Normally causes active disease in some birds and is transmitted to
susceptible host by the bite of an infected mosquito.
- No antiviral drugs are known to be effective in vivo against WNV.
 - Plague and Yersinia
- Pandemic Plague has caused more human deaths than any other infectious
disease except for malaria and tuberculosis.
- Caused by Yersinia pestis, a gram-negative, facultatively aerobic,
rod-shaped bacteria.
- A disease of domestic and wild rodents; rats are the primary disseminating
host in urban communities.
- Fleas are intermediate hosts and vectors, spreading plague between the
mammalian host.
- Often called “burbonic plague”
- Multiple local hemorrhages produce dark splotches on the skin, giving plague
its historical name, the “Black Death”.
- Y. pestis infection is treated with streptomycin or gentamicin given
parenterally.
- Pneumonic plague
- occurs when Y. pestis is either inhaled directly or reaches the lungs via
the blood or lymphatic circulation
- Symptoms usually absent until the last day or two of disease when
large amounts of body sputum are produces.
- Highly contagious and can spread rapidly via the person-to-person
respiratory route if infected individuals are not immediately
quarantined.

- Septicemic plague
- The rapid spread of Y. pestis throughout the body via the bloodstream
without the formation of buboes and usually causes death before the
diagnosis can be made.
Soilborne Pathogen
- Fungal Pathogens
- Most commonly found in nature as free-living saprophytes
- Cause disease through three major mechanisms; inappropriate immune
response; toxin production; and mycoses; or growth of fungus in or on the
body
- Aspergillus spp.
- A common saprophyte often found in nature as a leaf mold, produces
potent allergens, often causing asthma and other hypersensitivity
reactions.
- Second fungal disease-producing mechanism involves the production and
activity of mycotoxins, a large, diverse group of fungal exotoxins.
- Example are the aflatoxins produced by Aspergillus flavus, a
species commonly grows on improperly stored food, such as grain.
- Aflatoxins are highly toxic and carcinogenic. Inducing tumores at high
frequency in some animals.
- Fusarium
- A plant pathogen that is opportunistic pathogen in humans, horizontal
transfer of pathogenicity genes can convert a nonpathogenic strain
into a pathogen.
- May explain the ability og fungi to infect a wide variety of hosts.
 - Trichophyton rubrum
- Superficial mycosis of the foot (athlete’s foot)
- Sporothrix schenckii
- Sporotrichosis, a subcutaneous infection.
- Mycoses
- The growth of a fungus or in body.
- Superficial mycoses
- Fungi colonize the skin, hair, or nails and infects only the
surface layers.
- Subcutaneous mycoses
- Second category of fungal infection
- Involve deeper layers of skin.
- Systemic mycoses
- Most serious category of fungal infections.
- Fungal growth in internal organs of the body are subclassified
as primary and secondary
- Primary (one resulting directly from the fungal pathogen in an
otherwise normal, healthy individual)
- Secondary (is one in a host that harbors a predisposing
condition, such as antibiotic therapy or immunosuppression.

- Tetanus and Clostridium tetani

- Tetanus is caused by an exotoxin produced by Clostridium tetani, and
obligately anaerobic, endospore-forming rod.
- Cells of C. tetani normally gain access to the body through a
soil-contaminated wound, typically a deep puncture.
- The toxin directly affects the release of inhibitory signaling molecules in the
nervous system. These inhibitory signals control the “relaxation” phase of
muscle contraction
 - The absence of inhibitory signaling molecules results in the rigid paralysis of
the voluntary muscles, often called lockjaw because it is observed first in the
muscle of the jaw and face.
- Tetanus is preventable disease.
- Acute symptomatic tetanus is treated with antibiotics, usually penicillin.
CHAPTER 35
WASTEWATER TREATMENT, WATER PURIFICATION, AND WATERBORNE MICROBIAL
DISEASES
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