Microbes: Blessing for Human

Health
USEFUL
MICROORGANISM
Beneficial Role???

Food
Medicine
Digestion

Agriculture Food
Industry

Textile
Industry Environment
Decomposition/Decaying process

Figure 1. Typical decay stages followed by the pig carcass in a forest biotope.(1) 
 Decomposition process

Decomposition is a biological process that includes the

physical breakdown and biochemical transformation of
complex organic molecules of dead material into simpler
organic and inorganic molecules (Juma, 1998).
What is Decomposition?
 The term decomposition means “to break down”. It typically corresponds to
the disintegration or rupture of complex organic matter into a simpler
inorganic matter. It is one of the significant and essential processes of the
ecosystem. Hence, decomposition is a metabolic process, taking up raw
materials in the form of complex compounds, processing it and then
converting it into simpler compounds.

 Bacteria, fungi and a few other microorganisms initiate the process of

decomposition and are known as decomposers. They feed on dead
organisms to survive

 The decaying and dead animals and plants serve as the raw materials which,
on the breakdown, produces nutrients, carbon dioxide, and water, etc.
Detritus are the raw materials such as dead animals, plants and their
remains. Microbes then process this detritus which are collectively known
as saprophytes.
 What is the benefits?
• Its enriches the soil and makes essential
substances available to plants in a form that
they can use.
The decomposition helps to recycle
the essential element that are
trapped in tissues of dead organism to
be used by other organism.
ROLES MICROORGANISM IN
DIGESTION
It turns out some bacteria are not as bad as people think. In the PLOS
Biology article “
The Evolution of Mutualism in Gut Microbiota Via Host Epithelial Selection(link i
s external)
,” scientists describe how your body can work with certain bacteria to help keep
you healthy. This shows us that, if nothing else, not all bacteria are bad. 
Bacteria Help You Eat
Around the world, people eat just about
everything: from fruits to milk to bugs. You
may think that your body does all of the
work for you. Your teeth mash up the food,
your stomach digests it, and your intestines
absorb the nutrients. It may seem as straight
forward as walking your dog down the
street, but in reality it’s not. Scientists are
discovering that if it weren’t for the help of
bacteria living in your gut, there are many
things that you wouldn’t be able to digest at
all.
Your gut, also known as your gastrointestinal
tract, is the tube in your body that carries food
from your stomach to your intestines. Your gut
is home to millions of species of bacteria.

In fact, scientists estimate that there are 100

trillion bacterial cells in your body.

That’s roughly ten times as many cells as the

cells that make up your body.
Those bacteria help your body to break
down big food molecules into useable fuel.
The bacteria also produce vitamins and
help protect the body from diseases.

The whole population of bacteria in our

bodies is called the human microbiota.

The relationship between you and your gut

bacteria is symbiotic. This means that both
you and the bacteria benefit. Your bacteria
receive a safe home and plenty to eat, and
in return they help you break down food to
get the nutrients that you need to survive
and grow.
Bacteria growing in the gut of a lab mouse, as seen through a
microscope. The lining, or epithelium, of the gut has been
altered to look blue. The small green cells are bacteria that
have also been altered to make them green.
• The role of bacteria, protozoa and fungi in rumen
digestion of plant cell wall material is well studied.

• Literature evidence is presented suggesting a

substantial contribution of entodiniomorph
protozoa to fiber digestion in the rumen.

• Interactions between various bacteria degrading

plant cell walls to volatile fatty acids, methane and
CO2 are described, as well as stoichiometry of
fermentation.
ONE OF THE MAINCOMPONENT OF PLANT
IS CELLULOSE

Cellulose is hard to digest by the animal….

How Animals Digest This Cellulose????

Cellulose can be digest by enzyme named cellulase.

How they can get cellulase?

Herbivores depend on bacteria that live in
their stomach to digest cellulose

This bacteria secretes cellulase into the

stomach
Certain kinds of bacteria live in intestines of human and other microorganism

They help in digestion and destroy harmful microorganism.

FOOD
DIGESTION
 BACTERIA THAT HELP IN
DIGESTION….

Bacteria in the Digestive System

 Your large intestine is
not just made up of cells. It is also
an ecosystem, home to trillions of bacteria known as the
"gut flora"
 Most of these bacteria are helpful. Friendly bacteria live
mostly in the large intestine and part of the small intestine
The acidic environment of the stomach does not allow
bacterial growth.
Gut bacteria have several roles in
the body.
Gut bacteria have several roles in the body. For example,
intestinal bacteria:
• Produce vitamin B12 and vitamin K.
• Control the growth of harmful bacteria.
• Break down poisons in the large intestine.
• Break down some substances in food that cannot be digested,
such as fiber and some starches and sugars. Bacteria
produce enzymes that digest carbohydrates in plant cell walls.
Most of the nutritional value of plant material would be wasted
without these bacteria. These help us digest plant foods like
spinach.
Sender R, et al. Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body. PLoS
Biol. 2016;14(8):e1002533.
Examples

 Several bacterial groups have been recognized

for their probiotic, or beneficial, effects. These
include species of bacteria in the genus 
 Lactobacilli, 
 Bifidobacteria, and 
 Roseburia, along with specific species such as 
 Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and 
 Akkermansia mucinophila.
Riviere A, et al. Bifidobacteria and Butyrate-Producing Colon Bacteria: Importance and Strategies
for Their Stimulation in the Human Gut. Front Microbiol. 2016;7:979
Bacteria that present other then Intestine and that
help us in digestion

1.Yogurt-
a food produced
by bacterial fermentation of milk. The
bacteria used to make yogurt are known
as yogurt cultures. Fermentation of sugars
in the milk by these bacteria
produces lactic acid, which acts on milk
protein to give yogurt its texture and
characteristic tart flavor.
2 Yakult
 Is a fermented dairy drink that
includes yoghurt-like probiotic
cultures."
 Yakult is sold in 31 countries and
regions, excluding Japan. It is a
fermented dairy drink that includes
yoghurt-like probiotic cultures. It
contains more than eight billion
‘friendly’ bacteria called
Lactobacillus casei Shirota in each
serving. These bacteria help to
improve the digestive system and
boost the immune system.
APPLICATIONS OF BACTERIA IN INDUSTRY AND
BIOTECHNOLOGY

• They are used in manufacture of foods and production of

antibiotics, probiotics, drugs, vaccines, starter cultures,
insecticides, enzymes, fuels and solvents. 

• In the foods industry, lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus,

Lactococcus and Streptococcus are used in the manufacture of
dairy products such as cheeses, including cottage cheese and
cream cheese, cultured butter, sour cream, buttermilk, yogurt
and kefir.

• Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and acetic acid bacteria are used in
pickling processes such as olives, cucumber pickles and
sauerkraut.
Bacteria are used in the production of

Milk
Yogurt
Cheese
Vinegar
Soy sauce
Chocolate
Certain vitamin B
Citric acids
And Production of bread
 Genetically enginereed

• Some bacteria have been genetically

engineered

• Why?
• To produce certain vaccines that are
used to prevent
infectious disease.

• Produce insulin which used to treat

diabetics
 Thermus aquaticus, the thermophilic bacterium that is the source of taq
polymerase. L wet mount; R electron micrograph. T.D. Brock. Life at
High Temperatures.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a mainstay of the biotechnology

industry because it allows duplication of genes starting with a single
molecule of DNA, is based on the use of the DNA polymerase enzyme
derived from Thermus aquaticus.
Microbes are cultivated in
fermenters under
controlled conditions.
Then, in their turn, the
microbes produce useful
substances.
 AGRICULTUR
•
E
Bacteria play important roles to promote the plant
growth..
• Fixation of atmospheric Nitrogen into nitrogenous
salts with the help of micro-organisms

• Two types
1.Symbiotic
2.Non-symbiotic
Non Symbiotic

o Fixation carried out by free living micro-

organisms
o Aerobic, anaerobic and blue green algae
o Bacteria: special type (nitrogen fixing bacteria)
types -
o Free living aerobic : Azotobacter,

Beijerenckia
o Free living anaerobic : Clostridium

o Free living photosynthetic : Chlorobium,

Rhodopseudomonas
o Free living

chemosynthetic :Desulfovibro,Thiobacillus
Cont…

o Free living fungi: yeasts and Pillularia

o Blue green algae:

unicellular – Gloeothece, Synechococcus

o Filamentous (non heterocystous) -Oscillatoria
o Filamentous (heterocystous) – Tolypothrix,

 Nostoc, Anabaena
Symbiosis

 Fixation of free nitrogen by micro- organisms in

soil living symbiotically inside the plants
‘Symbiosis’ – coined by by DeBary

Three types
1. Nodule formation in leguminous plants
2. Nodule formation in non-leguminous plants
3. Non nodulation
Remaining Point

 Microbes In Waste Water treatment

 Nitrogen fixation Chemistry
 Antibiotics Details
 Microbes role in Vaccine Development
 Biosurfactant
 Biopolymer
 Bioremediation of Xenobiotics
 Microbes in medicine/Antibiotics/Vaccine

• Antibiotics
• Vaccine
References

 1. Dekeirsschieter, J., Stefanuto, P. H., Brasseur, C., Haubruge, E., & Focant, J. F.
(2012). Enhanced characterization of the smell of death by comprehensive two-
dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC-
TOFMS). PLoS One, 7(6), e39005.
 2Cruise, A., Watson, D. W., & Schal, C. (2018). Ecological succession of adult
necrophilous insects on neonate Sus scrofa domesticus in central North
Carolina. PLoS One, 13(4), e0195785.
 Backhed F, et al. Defining a healthy human gut microbiome: current concepts,
future directions, and clinical applications. Cell Host Microbe. 2012;12(5):611-
622.

 Zhang K, et al. The intestinal epithelium as guardian of gut barrier integrity. Cell
Microbiol. 2015;17(11):1561-1569.

 Donaldson GP, et al. Gut biogeography of the bacterial microbiota. Nat Rev

Microbiol. 2016;14(1):20-32.