- Microbiology is a branch of science that deals with organisms that are visible only under microscope and the scientific study of microscopic organisms.
- The word microbiology derives from three Greek words – micros (small), Bio (life) and logos (study).
- The hidden world of microorganisms exists everywhere in the universe.
- Microorganisms are the first living creatures on the planet and constitute the largest biomass component on the earth.
- Various activities of these microorganisms help to maintain the entire ecosystem on the planet.
- It is crystal clear that there are more microbes in our body than our own cells.
- Microbes are harmful as well as useful.
- Despite of its bad effects microbes play major role in our lives.
- A microbiologist plays a key role in the identification and study of microscopic organisms by using various tools like microscope, culture techniques, genetics etc.
- Microorganisms normally present inside and outside of our body, these microbes are known as normal flora or resident bacteria.
- Normal flora plays a key role as a first line defense against transient bacteria (foreign bacteria that may cause infectious diseases) by preventing them from colonizing on skin.
- Various microorganism play key role in the production of food and beverages like cheese, sausage, beer etc.
- In the other side pathogenic microorganisms are very dangerous and pathogens are the main reason of every infectious disease.
HISTORY OF MICROBIOLOGY
The
important discoveries lead o the development of microbiology tabulated as
follows.
CONTRIBUTOR
|
MAJOR DISCOVERIES
AND YEAR
|
Antony van Leeuwenhoek
|
·
The
first person who observed and defined microorganisms.
·
From
pond water he discovered Spirogyra
and so many flagellated protozoa (1674).
·
Discovered
and differentiated erythrocytes of human beings, fish, swine and birds
(1675).
·
Observed
spermatozoa of human beings, swine, dogs etc. as per his view this is his one
of the great discovery (1677).
·
Found
and described nematodes from pond water (1680).
·
Carried
out micro dissections of various insects and observed the specimens though
his microscope. This leads to huge number of discoveries about the structure
of insect body parts which include structural identification of mouth parts
and sting of bees, compound eye of fleas etc. (between 1680 to 1701).
·
Observed
Bacillus and Micrococcus from dental tartar, bacteria and parasitic protozoa
from feces (1683).
|
Francesco Redi
|
·
Theory
of spontaneous generation of life published through the experiments over the generation
of maggots on decaying meat – life generated spontaneously from non living
things(1688).
|
John Needham
|
·
Experiments
over the theory of spontaneous generation and he concluded that spontaneous
generation of life is right (1748).
|
Lazzaro Spallanzani
|
·
Through
his experiments he proved that life always generated from living things
(biogenesis concept – life from life) and spontaneous generation of life is
absolutely a wrong concept (1765- 1776).
|
Edward Jenner
|
·
Discovered
vaccine for small pox (1798).
|
Louis Pasteur.
|
·
Discovered
that microorganisms are responsible for lactic acid fermentation (1857).
·
Experiments
conducted on the subject of spontaneous generation of life. Through his
experiments on swan neck flasks he proved that spontaneous generation of life
will not happen and only biogenesis is the only possible way of generation of
life (1861).
·
Introduced
Pasteurization (1864).
·
Developed
vaccine against anthrax (1881).
·
Developed
vaccine against rabies (1885).
|
Joseph Lister
|
·
Introduced
antiseptic surgery technique (1867).
|
Friedrich Miescher
|
·
Discovered
nucleic acids (1869).
|
Charles Chamberland
|
·
Invent
autoclave (1879).
|
Robert Koch
|
·
Discovered
the causative agent of anthrax – Bacillus
antracis (1876–1877).
·
Introduced
bacterial pure culture technique (1881).
·
Published
the famous Koch’s postulates about infectious disease (1884).
·
Identified
infectious organism behind tuberculosis– Mycobacterium tuberculosis. He won Nobel Prize for this discovery (1882).
|
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran
|
·
Discovered
the cause of malaria - Plasmodium
and that of African sleeping sickness or trypanosomiasis – Trypanosoma (1880).
|
Hans Christian Gram
|
·
Developed
Grams staining technique for the staining of bacteria (1882).
|
Elie Metchnikoff
|
·
Introduced
and explained Phagocytosis (1884).
|
Theodor Escherich
|
·
Discovered
the causative agent of common diarrhea – Escherichia
coli (1885)
|
Richard Petri
|
·
Developed
petriplates (1887).
|
Martinus Beijerinck
|
·
Isolated
nitrogen fixing bacteria from plant root nodules (1889)
|
Emil von Behring
|
·
Developed
antitoxins for diphtheria and tetanus (1890).
|
Dmitri
Ivanovsky
|
·
Provided
scientific firm evidence of the role of non bacterial infectious agent (virus)
behind the tobacco mosaic disease (1892).
|
Kitasato and Yersin
|
·
Discovered
the sausative agent of plague – Yersinia
pestis (1894).
|
Van Ermengem
|
·
Discovered
the causative agent of botulism - Clostridium botulinum (1896)
|
Masaki Ogata
|
·
Found
that fleas transmit bubonic plague (1897).
|
Kiyoshi Shiga
|
·
Isolated
the bacterium causing bacterial dysentery - later named as Shigella (1898).
|
Ronald Ross
|
·
Discovered
that mosquitoes play a key role in the transmission of malaria (1898).
|
Schaudinn and Hoffmann
|
·
Discovered
the causative agent of syphilis - Treponema pallidum (1905)
|
August von Wassermann
|
·
Developed
complement fixation test for the diagnosis of syphilis (1906).
|
Howard Taylor Ricketts
|
·
Discovered
that Rocky Mountain spotted fever is transmitted through ticks and the
causative agent is a microbe - Rickettsia rickettsii (1909).
|
D’Herelle and Twort
|
·
Discovered
bacterial viruses (1915–1917).
|
Frederick
Griffith
|
·
Discovered
bacterial transformation – Alteration of genetic material of a cell by the
uptake and incorporation of exogenous genetic material (1928).
|
Alexander Fleming
|
·
Discovered
antibacterial properties of lysozyme (1922).
·
Discovered
penicillin (1929).
|
Ernst Ruska
|
·
Developed
first transmission electron microscope (1933).
|
Édouard Chatton
|
·
Divided all living
organisms into two empires Prokaryotes
and Eukaryotes (1937).
|
George Beadle and Edward Tatum
|
·
Developed
the concept that all genes are act through the production of enzymes - The one
gene-one enzyme hypothesis (1941).
|
Oswald
Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn
McCarty
|
·
Experimentally
demonstrated that DNA carries information during transformation (1944).
|
S. A. Waksman and Albert Schatz
|
·
Discovered
Streptomycin (1944).
|
Joshua
Lederberg and Edward Tatum
|
·
Describe
the transfer of genetic material between bacterial cells through cell to cell
contact – Bacterial conjugation (1946).
|
John Franklin Enders,
Thomas H. Weller and Frederick Chapman Robbins
|
·
Developed
technique for growing polio virus in human tissue culture (1949).
|
Alfred
Hershey and Martha Chase
|
·
Conduct
series experiments (Harshey and Chase experiments) and proved that DNA is the
genetic material. Through their experiments they show that when
bacteriophages infect bacteria it inject its DNA in to host bacterial cell
(1952).
|
Joshua Lederberg and
Norton Zinder
|
·
Discovered
transduction – DNA transfer between two bacteria through virus (1952).
|
Francis
Crick and James D. Watson
|
·
Proposed
the double helix structure of DNA (1953).
|
Frank
Macfarlane Burnet
|
·
Proposed
the clonal selection theory – Explains the mechanism of antibody specificity
(1957).
|
François
Jacob and Elie Wollman
|
·
Proposed
the term episome – Autonomously replicating extra chromosomal agent (1958).
|
Francois
Jacob and Jacques Monod
|
·
Proposed
operon concept of gene regulation (1961).
|
Prof. Har Gobind Khorana
|
·
elucidation
of genetic code (1968).
|
Werner
Arber, Daniel Nathans, and Hamilton O. Smith
|
·
Discovered
and charecterized restriction endonucleases – cuts DNA at or near specific
recognition nucleotide sequences (1970).
|
Kohler and Milstein
|
·
Technique
for the production of monoclonal antibodies developed (1975).
|
| Carl Woese and George E. Fox |
·
Discovered
the third kingdom – Archaea (1977).
|
Frederick Sanger, Walter
Gilbert and Paul Berg
|
·
Developed
technique for the sequencing of DNA (1977).
|
Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier
|
·
Isolated
and identified human immunodeficiency virus – HIV (1983- 1984).
|
Kary Banks Mullis
|
·
Developed
polymerase chain reaction (1983).
|
SCOPE OF MICROBIOLOGY
- Microorganism comprises three kingdoms among the five kingdoms (Monera, Protista and Fungi).
- There are five major groups of microorganisms – bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae and protozoa.
- Scope of microbiology extend to their form, structure, reproduction, physiology, metabolism classification and most important their economic importance – interactions with the environment and with living things.
- Microbiology is one of the largest and most complex branch of science as it contains many diverse of biological disciplines.
- The basic and applied disciplines of microbiology tabulated below.
DISCIPLINE
|
DISCRIPTION
|
Bacteriology
|
Include
the study of bacteria – smallest single celled prokaryotes.
|
Phycology
|
Scientific
and detailed study of algae
|
Mycology
|
Include
the study of fungi – microscopic eukaryotes and higher forms.
|
Protozoology
|
Study
of protozoan – single celled eukaryotes.
|
Virology
|
Include
study of viruses and disease caused by them.
|
Microbial Ecology
|
Include
the study of interaction between microbes and the environment.
|
Microbial Morphology
|
Detailed
structural study of microorganisms.
|
Microbial Systematics
|
Include
the identification, classification and naming of microorganisms.
|
Microbial Physiology
|
Study
of microbial metabolism.
|
Microbial Biochemistry
|
Study
of enzymes produced by microbes and their chemical reactions.
|
Molecular Microbiology
|
Study
of microbial genome and protein synthesis.
|
Microbial Genetics
|
Hereditary
study of microorganisms.
|
Medical Microbiology
|
Include
the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.
|
Industrial Microbiology
|
Study
of industrial applications of microorganisms – Production of vitamins,
enzymes, vaccines etc.
|
Agricultural Microbiology
|
Include
the study of interactions between microbes and crops – control plant diseases
caused by microbes and increase the product yield.
|
Food Microbiology
|
Study
of interaction between microbes and various eatables – bio processing of food,
food borne diseases and preventive measures etc.
|
Diary Microbiology
|
Study
of the production and quality control of various diary products.
|
Aquatic Microbiology
|
Study
of various interactions of microbes in aquatic ecosystem.
|
Aero Microbiology
|
Study
of aerospora and transmission of infectious organisms through air.
|
Geochemical Microbiology
|
Include
the study of microbial role in various geological processes.
|
Epidemiology and Public Health
Microbiology
|
Include
the study of monitoring and preventing the spread of infectious diseases in a
community.
|
Immunology
|
Include
the study of immune system, antigen- antibody reactions etc.
|
Biotechnology
|
Study
of production of various valuable bio products by molecular and genetic level
modification of microorganisms.
|
Exo Microbiology
|
Study
of the presence and activities of microbes in outer space.
|
all the best
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