General Microbiology

Nickolas V. Kapp Ph.D

 How to get a hold of Nick
• Office: 738-4415
• E-mail: Kapp@smccd.net
• FAX: 738-4499
• Office 7224

• Office hours:M,W,F 9 to 11.

TTh By Arrangement
 The micro class
• We will normally have lecture from 9:35 till
10:50.
• See Course Outline
• Attendance and promptness will count
towards your grade
 What if I want to look at my
plates at some other times?
• Open Lab hours are
• Mon and Wed 9 to 12
• Friday 10-2
• Check the notice on the lab door

• Remember you are working with live organisms

and they have their own time schedule. Someone
from your lab group will have to check on your
materials
 Looking at plates during other
classes
• Mostly no
• If you must make some observations during
another lab class
– Don’t bother a lecture in progress
– Find the instructor and ask
– Be prepared for a no
– You are meeting a possible instructor for your
next class
 Materials required for this class.
• Text, Totora, Funke and Case
Microbiology: An Introduction, 10th ed.
• Case and Johnson Laboratory Experiments
in Microbiology 9th ed.
• A lab coat or a large Lab shirt to cover
yourself.
• Safety Glasses
• NO eating in the laboratory
 As you can see

Sometimes there is a blur between

what we do in lab and what we do in
class.
 Evaluation
• See class outline
 Grading Scale
• A 90% and above • Attendance will be
• B 80%90% taken in the first
• C 68%-80% minutes of class.
• D 50%-67% • Each absence will
result in the loss of
• Fail below 50% points from the total
possible.
Extra Credit is possible.
 Participation Credit
• Joining ASM or NCMS (5pt)
• Answer question or ask one 1pt
• Enter microbe of the month 1pt
• Attend a meeting or lecture on
microbiology and hand in a report (10pt)
• Field trip (to be announced) (5pt)
• Max of 15pt
While some of the lecture
material will change
The Exam dates will not.
Nick Kapp Ph.D.

7384415
Kapp@smccd.net
8224
 What is a Microbe
• Smaller than 0.1mm
• Includes bugs, things, germs, viruses,
protozoan, bacteria, animalcules, small
suckers
 Nomenclature
• Carolus Linnaeus (1735)
• Genus species
• By custom once mentioned can be
abbreviated with initial of genus followed
by specific epithet. E. coli
• When two organisms share a common
genus are related.
 Why study Microbiology
• Microbes are related to all life.
– In all environments
– Many beneficial aspects
– Related to life processes (food web, nutrient
cycling)
– Only a minority are pathogenic.
– Most of our problems are caused by microbes
 EID’s
• Emerging infectious diseases
– Weapons of mass destruction
– New evolutionary features
– Response to man encroaching on the
environment

• Can you name an example?

 Microbes in research
• 10 trillion human cells
10x this number
microbes
• Easy to grow
• Biochemistry is
essentially the same
• Simple and easy to
study
 Biotechnology
• Use of biological systems to produce useful
items
• The use of biological information to make
things or improve the human condition
 Diversity of Microbes
• Bacteria-single celled prokaryotes
• Protozoa-eukaryotic, single celled, colonial,
many ways of nutrition
• Fungi- absorb nutrients, single celled
filamentous
• Viruses-acellular entities
• Others- worms, insects
 Bacteria

• Prokaryotes
• Peptidoglycan cell
walls
• Binary fission
• For energy, use
organic chemicals,
inorganic chemicals,
or photosynthesis
Figure 1.1a
 Archaea:
• Prokaryotic
• Lack peptidoglycan
• Live in extreme
environments
• Include:
– Methanogens
– Extreme halophiles
– Extreme thermophiles

Halobacteria not
from book
• Eukaryotes
• Chitin cell walls
Fungi
• Use organic
chemicals for energy
• Molds and
mushrooms are
multicellular
consisting of masses
of mycelia, which are
composed of
filaments called
hyphae
• Yeasts are unicellular Figure 1.1b
 Protozoa

• Eukaryotes
• Absorb or ingest
organic chemicals
• May be motile via
pseudopods, cilia, or
flagella
• Most free some
parasites
Figure 1.1c
 Algae
• Eukaryotes
• Cellulose cell walls
• Use photosynthesis for
energy (primary
producers)
• Produce molecular
oxygen and organic
compounds
• Metabolically diverse Figure 1.1d
 Viruses
• Acellular
• Consist of DNA or
RNA core
• Core is surrounded by
a protein coat
• Coat may be enclosed
in a lipid envelope
• Viruses are replicated
only when they are in
a living host cell Figure 1.1e
 Multicellular Animal Parasites
• Eukaryote
• Multicellular
animals
• Parasitic
flatworms and
round worms are
called helminths.
• Microscopic
stages in life
cycles. Figure fluke
 The Scientific Method
• Make an observation
• Make a hypothesis
• Test the hypothesis
• Draw your conclusions
• repeat
 Requirements for Scientific
methods
• Single variables
• Experimental controls
• How can this be used to discover things?

• Does HIV cause AIDS??? Discuss

 Knowledge of microorganisms:
• Allows humans to
– Prevent food spoilage
– Prevent disease occurrence
– Others?

• Led to aseptic techniques to prevent

contamination in medicine and in
microbiology laboratories.
 Universal precautions set up by
CDC
• Use gloves, gowns, masks and goggles
• Minimize risk of needle sticks
• Disinfections procedure
• Preventative treatment after exposure
• Reduce risk
• Treat all patients the same
• HBV greater risk than HIV
 The Debate Over Spontaneous
Generation
• The hypothesis that living organisms arise from
nonliving matter is called spontaneous
generation. According to spontaneous
generation, a “vital force’ forms life.
• The Alternative hypothesis, that the living
organisms arise from preexisting life, is called
biogenesis.
 Evidence Pro and Con
• 1668: Francisco Redi filled six jars with
decaying meat.

Conditions Results
3 jars covered with fine No maggots
net
3 open jars Maggots appeared

From where did the maggots come?

What was the purpose of the sealed jars?
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
 Evidence Pro and Con
• 1765: Lazzaro Spallanzani boiled nutrient
solutions in flasks.

Conditions Results
Nutrient broth placed in No microbial growth
flask, heated, then sealed
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
 The Theory of Biogenesis
• Pasteur’s S-shaped flask kept microbes out
but let air in.

Figure 1.3
Where is Microbiology currently
being practiced? I.e. jobs
• Put your Choice here
 A timeline of Microbiology
• Fig 1.4
• Some highlights
– 1665 Hooke
– 1673 van Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes
– 1735 Linnaeus Nomenclature
– 1798 Jenner vaccine
– 1857 Pasteur Fermentation
– 1876 Koch germ theory of disease
 The Golden Age of
Microbiology
• 1857-1914
• Beginning with Pasteur’s work,
discoveries included the relationship
between microbes and disease,
immunity, and antimicrobial drugs
 Fermentation and Pasteurization
• Pasteur showed that microbes are responsible for
fermentation.
• Fermentation is the conversation of sugar to
alcohol to make beer and wine.
• Microbial growth is also responsible for spoilage
of food.
• Bacteria that use alcohol and produce acetic acid
spoil wine by turning it to vinegar (acetic acid).
 Fermentation and Pasteurization

• Pasteur demonstrated that

these spoilage bacteria
could be killed by heat that
was not hot enough to
evaporate the alcohol in
wine. This application of a
high heat for a short time is
called pasteurization.
Figure 1.4
 The Germ Theory of Disease

• 1835: Agostino Bassi showed a silkworm disease

was caused by a fungus.
• 1865: Pasteur believed that another silkworm
disease was caused by a protozoan.
• 1840s: Ignaz Semmelwise advocated hand
washing to prevent transmission of puerperal
fever from one OB patient to another.
 The Germ Theory of Disease
• 1860s: Joseph Lister used a chemical disinfectant
to prevent surgical wound infections after
looking at Pasteur’s work showing microbes are
in the air, can spoil food, and cause animal
diseases.
• 1876: Robert Koch provided proof that a
bacterium causes anthrax and provided the
experimental steps, Koch’s postulates, used to
prove that a specific microbe causes a specific
disease.
 The Birth of Modern
Chemotherapy
• Treatment with chemicals is chemotherapy.
• Chemotherapeutic agents used to treat infectious
disease can be synthetic drugs or antibiotics.
• Antibiotics are chemicals produced by bacteria
and fungi that inhibit or kill other microbes.
• Quinine from tree bark was long used to treat
malaria.
• 1910: Paul Ehrlich developed a synthetic arsenic
drug, salvarsan, to treat syphilis.
• 1930s: Sulfonamides were synthesized.
 The Birth of Modern
• 1928: Alexander Chemotherapy
Fleming discovered
the first antibiotic.
• He observed that
Penicillium fungus
made an antibiotic,
penicillin, that killed S.
aureus.
• 1940s: Penicillin was
tested clinically and
mass produced.
Similar to
Figure 1.5
 Modern Developments in
Microbiology
• Bacteriology is the study of bacteria.
• Mycology is the study of fungi.
• Parasitology is the study of protozoa and
parasitic worms.
• Recent advances in genomics, the study of an
organism’s genes, have provided new tools for
classifying microorganisms.
• Proteomics is looking at the gene products
 Selected Novel Prizes in
1901*
Physiology
von Behring
or Medicine
Diphtheria antitoxin
1902 Ross Malaria transmission
1905 Koch TB bacterium
1908 Metchnikoff Phagocytes
1945 Fleming, Chain, Florey Penicillin
1952 Waksman Streptomycin
1969 Delbrück, Hershey, Luria Viral replication
1987 Tonegawa Antibody genetics
1997Prusiner Prions
2003Agre, Mackirron water and ion channels
2005 Marshall, Warren Helicobacter and ulcers
2008 Hausen Papilloma and viruses
* The first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
 Principles of Microscopy
• Metric units (table 3.1)
– Micrometer
– Nanometer
– angstrom
 Compound light microscopy

• Basic parts
– Eyepieces (ocular lens)
– Base
– Condenser
– Iris diaphragm
– Objective lens
– Body tube
– Mechanical stage
– Adjustment knobs
 Magnification
• Calculation:
– Objective power x ocular power = total power
• Parafocial
• Paracentric
• Microscopic measurement
– Micrometer? Why must we calibrate it?
 Modern Developments in
Microbiology
• Diagnostics
• Prevention
• Use as a tool
• Surveys and vigilance
 What you should know?
• What are microbes?
• What types of microbes?
• Some history Highlights
• The Magic Bullet
• Microbes and human Welfare
• Microbes and Human Disease
• The CDC