Lecture 1 Introduction To Microbiology

Burton’s Microbiology
for the Health Sciences
Section I.
Introduction to Microbiology
Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

What Is Microbiology?
• Biology is the study of living organisms.
• Microbiology is the study of microbes, which are extremely small

(microscopic) living organisms and certain nonliving entities.
• Living microbes are known as cellular microbes or

microorganisms; examples include bacteria, archaea, some
algae, protozoa, and some fungi.
• Nonliving microbes are known as acellular microbes or infectious

particles; examples include viroids (composed of circular, single-
stranded RNA), prions (pathogenic agents that are able to
induce abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins, the
word prion derives from "proteinaceous infectious particle), and
viruses.
• Microbes are ubiquitous (i.e., they are found virtually

everywhere).
Acellular and Cellular Microbes

What Is Microbiology? (cont.)
• The microbes that cause

disease are sometimes
referred to as “germs.”
• The scientific term for
disease-causing microbes is
pathogens.
• Microbes that do not cause
disease are called
nonpathogens; the vast
majority of microbes are
nonpathogens.

What Is Microbiology? (cont.)
• Microbes that live on and in our bodies are referred to as

our indigenous microbiota
• Some members of our indigenous microbiota are
opportunistic pathogens
• Opportunistic pathogens are microbes that can cause
disease, but usually do not; they take advantage of an
opportunity not normally available, such as a host with a
weakened immune system, they can be thought of as
microbes that are awaiting the opportunity to cause disease
• Pathogens cause two categories of diseases: infectious
diseases and microbial intoxications

Categories of Diseases Caused by
Pathogens
Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA)

Why Study Microbiology?
• Microbes play significant roles in our lives; they are

essential for life on this planet.
• Photosynthetic algae and bacteria (such as cyanobacteria)
produce much of the oxygen in our atmosphere.
• Microorganisms are involved in the decomposition of
dead organisms and waste products.
• Saprophytes are organisms that live on dead and/or
decaying organic matter.
• The use of microbes to clean up toxic wastes and other
industrial waste products is known as bioremediation.

Microbes as Saprophytes

Why Study Microbiology? (cont.)
• Many microbes play essential roles in various elemental

cycles, such as the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and
phosphorus cycles.
• Algae and bacteria serve as food for tiny animals; they are
important links in food chains.
• Microbes that live in the intestinal tracts of animals aid in
the digestion of food and produce beneficial substances.
• For many years, microorganisms have been used as “cell
models”; the more the scientists learned about microbial
cells, the more they learned about cells in general.

Microbes and Nitrogen Fixation

Microbes and Nitrogen

Microbes and the Food Chain

Why Study Microbiology? (cont.)
• Microbes are used in many industries, such as food,

beverage, chemical, and antibiotic industries and in genetic
engineering.
• In genetic engineering, a gene(s) from one organism is
inserted into a bacterial or yeast cell; the cell that receives
the new gene(s) is then capable of producing the gene
product(s) coded for by the new gene(s).
• The use of living organisms or their derivatives to make or
modify useful products or processes is called biotechnology.

First Microorganisms on Earth
• Fossils of primitive microorganisms date back about 3.5

billion years.
• Candidates for the first microorganisms on Earth are
archaea and cyanobacteria.
• Infectious diseases of humans and animals have existed
for as long as humans and animals have inhabited the
planet.
• Earliest known account of pestilence occurred in Egypt in
about 3180 BC. (pestilence is any infectious, fatal disease that is
widespread)

Pioneers in the Science of Microbiology
Anton van Leeuwenhoek

(1632–1723)
● “Father of Microbiology”
● Not a trained scientist!
● Made many simple

single-lens microscopes
● Observed “animalcules”
(bacteria and protozoa)
(Animalcule ("little animal") is
an old term for a microscopic
animal)

(cont.)
Louis Pasteur (1822–

1895)
• French chemist who made
numerous contributions to
microbiology
• Investigated different
fermentation products
• Developed the
pasteurization process
• Discovered life forms that
could exist without oxygen
(anaerobes)
• Developed several
vaccines, including rabies
and anthrax vaccines

(cont.)
Robert Koch (1843–1910)

• German physician who made
numerous contributions to
microbiology
• Made significant contributions
to the germ theory of disease
• Discovered that Bacillus
anthracis produced spores
• Developed methods of fixing
and staining bacteria
• Developed methods to
cultivate bacteria

Koch’s Postulates
1. A particular microbe must be found in all cases of the

disease and must not be present in healthy animals or
humans.
2. The microbe must be isolated from the diseased animal
or human and grown in pure culture in the laboratory.
3. The same disease must be produced when microbes
from the pure culture are inoculated into healthy
susceptible laboratory animals.
4. The same microbe must be recovered from the
experimentally infected animals and grown again in pure
culture.

Koch’s Postulates
(cont.)

Koch’s Postulates (cont.)
• If an organism fulfills Koch’s Postulates, it has been

proven to be the cause of that particular infectious
disease.
• Koch’s Postulates helped prove the germ theory of
disease.
• Koch gave a tremendous boost to the development of
microbiology by stressing laboratory culture and
identification of microorganisms.
• Circumstances do exist in which Koch’s Postulates cannot
be fulfilled.

Using the Metric System to Express the
Sizes of Microbes
• Metric units are used to express the sizes of microbes.

• The basic unit of length in the metric system is the meter
(m); it is equivalent to 39.4 inches.
• The sizes of bacteria and protozoa are usually expressed
in terms of micrometers (µm). A micrometer is one
millionth of a meter.
• A typical spherical bacterium (coccus) is approximately 1
µm in diameter.
• A typical rod-shaped bacterium (bacillus) is
approximately 1 µm wide  3 µm long.

Representations of Metric Units of
Measure and Numbers

Relative Sizes of Staphylococcus and
Chlamydia Bacteria and Several Viruses

Using the Metric System to Express the
Sizes of Microbes (cont.)
• The sizes of viruses are expressed in terms of

nanometers (nm). A nanometer is equal to one billionth
of a meter.
• Most of the viruses that cause human diseases range in
size from 10 to 300 nm.
• One exception is Ebola virus, a cause of viral
hemorrhagic fever. Ebola viruses can be as long as 1,000
nm (1 µm).
• When using a microscope, the sizes of microorganisms
are measured using an ocular micrometer.

Microscopes
• The human eye, a telescope, a pair of binoculars, a

magnifying glass, and a microscope are various types of
optical instruments.
• A microscope is an optical instrument that is used to
observe tiny objects, objects so small that they cannot
be seen with the unaided human eye.
• Each optical instrument has a limit as to what can be
seen using that instrument; this limit is referred to as the
resolving power or resolution of the instrument.
• The resolving power of the unaided human eye is
approximately 0.2 mm.

Early Microscopes

Simple Microscopes
• A simple microscope is one that contains only one

magnifying lens.
• A magnifying glass could be considered a simple
microscope; when using a magnifying glass, images
appear 3 to 20 times larger than the object’s actual size.
• Leeuwenhoek’s simple microscopes had a maximum
magnifying power of about 300 (about 300 times).

Compound Microscopes
• A compound microscope contains more than one

magnifying lens.
• Because visible light is the source of illumination, a
compound microscope is also referred to as a compound
light microscope.
• Compound light microscopes usually magnify objects
about 1,000 times.
• The resolving power of a compound light microscope is
approximately 0.2 µm (about 1,000 times better than the
resolving power of the unaided human eye).

Compound Microscopes (cont.)
• It is the wavelength of visible light (~0.45 µm) that limits

the size of objects that can be seen.
• Objects cannot be seen if they are smaller than half of
the wavelength of visible light.
• Today’s laboratory microscope contains two magnifying
lens systems:
– The eyepiece or ocular lens (usually 10)
– The objective lens (4, 10, 40, and 100 are the
four most commonly used objective lenses)

A Modern
Compound Light
Microscope

• Total magnification is calculated by multiplying the

magnifying power of the ocular lens by the magnifying
power of the objective lens being used.
– 10 ocular  4 objective = 40 total magnification
– 10 ocular  100 objective = 1,000 total magnification
• Photographs taken through the lens system of the
compound light microscope are called photomicrographs.

• Because objects are observed against a bright

background or “bright field,” the compound light
microscope is sometimes referred to as a brightfield
microscope.
• If the condenser is replaced with what is known as a
darkfield condenser, illuminated objects are seen against
a dark background or “dark field”; the microscope is then
called a darkfield microscope.
• Other types of compound microscopes include
– Phase-contrast microscopes
– Fluorescence microscopes

Darkfield and Fluorescence Micrographs
of Treponema pallidum (the Bacterium
That Causes Syphilis)

Phase-Contrast and Fluorescence
Microscopes
• Phase-contrast microscopes are used to observe

unstained living microorganisms.
– Organisms are more easily seen because the light
refracted by living cells is different from the light
refracted by the surrounding medium.
• Fluorescence microscopes contain a built-in ultraviolet
(UV) light source.
– When the UV light strikes certain dyes and pigments,
these substances emit a longer-wavelength light,
causing them to glow against a dark background.

Electron Microscopes
• Electron microscopes enable us to see extremely small

microbes such as rabies and smallpox viruses.
• Living organisms cannot be observed using an electron
microscopethe processing procedures kill the
organisms.
• An electron beam is used as the source of illumination,
and magnets are used to focus the beam.
• Electron microscopes have a much higher resolving
power than compound light microscopes.
• There are two types of electron microscopes 
transmission and scanning.

Transmission Electron Microscope
• This microscope uses an

electron gun to fire a beam of
electrons through an extremely
thin specimen (<1 µm thick).
• An image of the specimen is
produced on a phosphor-coated
screen.
• Magnification is approximately
1,000 times greater than with
the compound light microscope.
• Resolving power is
approximately 0.2 nm.

A Transmission Electron Micrograph of
Influenza Virus A

Scanning Electron Microscope
• Electrons are bounced off the

surface of a specimen and the
image appears on a monitor.
• This is used to observe the outer
surfaces of specimens.
• Resolving power of this
microscope is about 100 times
less than that of transmission
electron microscope.
• Transmission and scanning
electron micrographs are black-
and-white images.

Scanning Electron Micrograph of S. aureus

Staphylococcus aureus (Blue) and Red
Blood Cells as Seen by Light Microscopy

S. aureus in the Process of Binary Fission,
as Seen by Transmission Electron
Microscopy

Lecture 1 Introduction To Microbiology

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lecture 1 Introduction To Microbiology

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Burton’s Microbiology

for the Health Sciences

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Biology is the study of living organisms.

• Microbiology is the study of microbes, which are extremely small

• Living microbes are known as cellular microbes or

• Nonliving microbes are known as acellular microbes or infectious

• Microbes are ubiquitous (i.e., they are found virtually

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• The microbes that cause

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Microbes that live on and in our bodies are referred to as

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Microbes play significant roles in our lives; they are

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Many microbes play essential roles in various elemental

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Microbes are used in many industries, such as food,

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Fossils of primitive microorganisms date back about 3.5

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

● Not a trained scientist!

● Made many simple

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Louis Pasteur (1822–

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Robert Koch (1843–1910)

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

1. A particular microbe must be found in all cases of the

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• If an organism fulfills Koch’s Postulates, it has been

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Metric units are used to express the sizes of microbes.

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• The sizes of viruses are expressed in terms of

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• The human eye, a telescope, a pair of binoculars, a

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• A simple microscope is one that contains only one

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• A compound microscope contains more than one

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• It is the wavelength of visible light (~0.45 µm) that limits

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Total magnification is calculated by multiplying the

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Because objects are observed against a bright

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Phase-contrast microscopes are used to observe

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer • All Rights Reserved

• Electron microscopes enable us to see extremely small