Welcome To Microbiology: For Today

Welcome to Microbiology
For Today…
Introduction to the course
Explore the history and foundation of

microbiology
Dimensional Analysis
Chapter 1
The Microbial World and You
Chapter 1 The Microbial World and You
What is Microbiology?
Microbes, or microorganisms are minute

living things that are usually unable to be
viewed with the naked eye.
What are some examples of microbes?

Bacteria, fungi, protozoa, algae, viruses
are examples!
Some are pathogenic

“Germ” refers to a rapidly growing cell.
Microbes:
Decompose organic waste
Are producers in the ecosystem by
photosynthesis
Produce industrial chemicals such as
ethyl alcohol and acetone
Produce fermented foods such as vinegar,
cheese, and bread
Knowledge of Microbes allows humans to

Prevent food spoilage
Prevent disease occurrence
Led to aseptic techniques to prevent

contamination in medicine and in
microbiology laboratories.
History of Microbiology
Ancestors of bacteria were the first life on Earth.
The first microbes were observed in 1673.
In 1665, Robert Hooke (Englishman) reported

that living things were composed of little
boxes or cells.
1673-1723, Antoni van

Leeuwenhoek (Dutch)
described live
microorganisms that
he observed in teeth
scrapings, rain water,
and peppercorn
infusions.
Many believed spontaneous generation:

life can arise from non-living matter
In 1668, the Italian physician Francesco

Redi performed an experiment to disprove
spontaneous generation.
Can you think of an experiment that could

disprove spontaneous generation?
Redi filled six jars with decaying meat.
Conditions Results
3 jars covered with No maggots
fine net
3 open jars Maggots appeared
From where did the maggots come?

What was the purpose of the sealed jars?
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
Rudolf Virchow (German) presented

biogenesis: living cells can arise only from
preexisting cells.
So now there are two hypotheses:

The hypothesis that living organisms arise
from nonliving matter is called spontaneous
generation. According to spontaneous
generation, a “vital force’ Forms life.
The Alternative hypothesis, that the living

organisms arise from preexisting life, is
called biogenesis.
1861: Louis Pasteur demonstrated that

microorganisms are present in the air.
Conditions Results
Nutrient broth placed Microbial growth
in flask, heated, not
sealed
Nutrient broth placed No microbial growth
in flask, heated, then
sealed
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
Next experiment, Pasteur’s S-shaped flask kept
microbes out but let air in. These experiments
form the basis of aseptic technique
The Golden Age of Microbiology

1857-1914
Beginning with Pasteur’s work, discoveries

included the relationship between microbes
and disease, immunity, and antimicrobial
drugs
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).
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.
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
handwashing to prevent transmission of
puerperal fever from one OB patient to
another.

• 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.
Koch was a physician and Pasteur’s young
rival
Koch's Postulates
are used to
prove the cause
of an infectious
disease.
Koch's Postulates
are a sequence
of experimental
steps to relate a
specific microbe
to a specific
disease.
Koch's postulates are:
The microorganism
must be found in
abundance in all
organisms suffering
from the disease, but
should not be found in
healthy organisms.
The microorganism
must be isolated from a
diseased organism and
grown in pureculture.
The cultured
microorganism should
cause disease when
introduced into a
healthy organism.
The microorganism
must be reisolated from
the inoculated, diseased
experimental host and
identified as being
identical to the original
specific causative agent.
The use of new methods
have lead to revised
versions of Koch’s
postulates: Fredricks and
Relman[10] have suggested
the following set of Koch’s
postulates for the 21st
century:
A nucleic acid sequence
belonging to a putative
pathogen should be present
in most cases of an
infectious disease.
Tissue-sequence correlates
should be sought at the
cellular level: efforts should
be made to demonstrate
specific in situ hybridization
of microbial sequence to
areas of tissue pathology
and to visible
microorganisms or to areas
where microorganisms are
presumed to be located.
These sequence-based
forms of evidence for
microbial causation should
be reproducible
When sequence detection
predates disease, or
sequence copy number
correlates with severity of
disease or pathology, the
sequence-disease
association is more likely to
be a causal relationship.
The nature of the
microorganism inferred
from the available sequence
should be consistent with
the known biological
characteristics of that group
of organisms.
Fewer, or no, copy
numbers of pathogen-
associated nucleic acid
sequences should occur
in hosts or tissues
without disease.
With resolution of
disease, the copy
number of pathogen-
associated nucleic acid
sequences should
decrease or become
undetectable. With
clinical relapse, the
opposite should occur.
A young milkmaid informed the physician

Edward Jenner that she could not get
smallpox because she had already been
sick from cowpox.
1796: Edward Jenner inoculated a person
with cowpox virus. The person was then
protected from smallpox.
Called vaccination from vacca for cow
The protection is called immunity
What can you say about the cowpox and

smallpox viruses?
Vaccinations
produced from avirulent microbial strains
produced from live viruses
produced from viral particles
Chemotherapy – treatment with chemicals

• 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.
Chemotherapy – treatment with chemicals

• 1910: Paul Ehrlich developed a synthetic
arsenic drug, salvarsan, to treat syphilis.
• 1930s: Sulfonamides were synthesized.
1928: Alexander
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.
Modern Developments
• 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.
Classification of Microbes
Taxonomy
• The science of classifying organisms
• Provides universal names for organisms
• Provides a reference for identifying
organisms
Taxonomy
• Systematics or phylogeny
• The study of the evolutionary history
of organisms
• All Species Inventory (2001-2025)
• To identify all species of life on Earth
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Domain Dumb
Kingdom Kings
Phylum Play
Chess
Class
On
Order
Funny
Family Green
Genus Squares
Species
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Domain Binomal
Nomenclature uses
Kingdom
the Genus and
Phylum Species name to
Class identify each
creature.
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Each name is Latinized
There is a specific way to write each name.
Homo sapiens
The first word is capitalized
Name is in italics
Homo sapiens
H. sapiens
Bacteria (or Eubacteria)
Most abundant on earth
They are nitrogen fixers and recycle carbon
No membrane bound organelles

Archaea
Methanogens
Halophiles
Hyperthermophiles
•Eukaryotic species:
•A group of closely related organisms that breed
among themselves
•Prokaryotic species:
•A population of cells with similar characteristics
•Clone: Population of cells derived from a single cell
•Strain: Genetically different cells within a clone
•Viral species:
•Population of viruses with similar characteristics
that occupies a particular ecological niche
Let’s examine some microbes
Paramecium caudatum
Euglena acus
Peridiniumis - a dinoflagellate
Microbes and Human Disease
• Bacteria were once classified as plants

which gave rise to use of the term flora for
microbes.
• This term has been replaced by microbiota.
• Microbes normally present in and on the
human body are called normal microbiota.
• Normal microbiota prevent growth of

pathogens.
• Normal microbiota produce growth factors
such as folic acid and vitamin K.
• Resistance is the ability of the body to
ward off disease.
• Resistance factors include skin, stomach
acid, and antimicrobial chemicals.
• When a pathogen overcomes the host’s

resistance, disease results.
• Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID): New
diseases and diseases increasing in
incidence
Major Taxonomic Groups of Bacteria

per Bergey’s manual
Gracilicutes – gram-negative cell walls, thin-
skinned
Firmicutes – gram-positive cell walls, thick
skinned
Tenericutes – lack a cell wall & are soft
Mendosicutes – archaea, primitive
procaryotes with unusual cell walls &
nutritional habits
species –a collection of bacterial cells which share an
overall similar pattern of traits in contrast to other
bacteria whose pattern differs significantly
strain or variety – a culture derived from a single

parent that differs in structure or metabolism from
other cultures of that species (biovars, morphovars)
type – a subspecies that can show differences in

antigenic makeup (serotype or serovar), susceptibility
to bacterial viruses (phage type) and in pathogenicity
(pathotype).
species –a collection of bacterial cells which share an
overall similar pattern of traits in contrast to other
bacteria whose pattern differs significantly
strain or variety – a culture derived from a single

parent that differs in structure or metabolism from
other cultures of that species (biovars, morphovars)
type – a subspecies that can show differences in

antigenic makeup (serotype or serovar), susceptibility
to bacterial viruses (phage type) and in pathogenicity
(pathotype).

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Welcome To Microbiology: For Today

Uploaded by

Copyright:

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Welcome to Microbiology

Introduction to the course

Explore the history and foundation of

Microbes, or microorganisms are minute

What are some examples of microbes?

Some are pathogenic

Knowledge of Microbes allows humans to

Led to aseptic techniques to prevent

The first microbes were observed in 1673.

In 1665, Robert Hooke (Englishman) reported

1673-1723, Antoni van

Many believed spontaneous generation:

In 1668, the Italian physician Francesco

Can you think of an experiment that could

Redi filled six jars with decaying meat.

From where did the maggots come?

Rudolf Virchow (German) presented

So now there are two hypotheses:

The Alternative hypothesis, that the living

1861: Louis Pasteur demonstrated that

The Golden Age of Microbiology

Beginning with Pasteur’s work, discoveries

Pasteur showed that microbes are

Pasteur demonstrated that

The Germ Theory of Disease

The Germ Theory of Disease

A young milkmaid informed the physician

What can you say about the cowpox and

Chemotherapy – treatment with chemicals

Chemotherapy – treatment with chemicals

The first word is capitalized

Bacteria (or Eubacteria)

Most abundant on earth

They are nitrogen fixers and recycle carbon

No membrane bound organelles

Let’s examine some microbes

Microbes and Human Disease

• Bacteria were once classified as plants

Microbes and Human Disease

• Normal microbiota prevent growth of

Microbes and Human Disease

• When a pathogen overcomes the host’s

Major Taxonomic Groups of Bacteria

strain or variety – a culture derived from a single

type – a subspecies that can show differences in

strain or variety – a culture derived from a single

type – a subspecies that can show differences in

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