The History and Scope of
Microbiology
Chapter 1
Dr. J. Marco Vinicio Ramírez Mares
What is Microbiology?
Study of Micro-organisms: Organisms that EXIST as Single
Cells or cell clusters and must be viewed individually with the
aid of a Microscope
1. EXIST (Webster definition)To continue to be, have life; live
HALLMARKS OF LIFE
1. METABOLISM (nutrient uptake, biomass, waste output)
2. DIFFERENTIATION (Bacillus spp. )
3. REPRODUCTION (binary fission)
4. COMMUNICATION (Pseudomonas aeruginosa)
5. EVOLUTION (antibiotic resistance, pathogens)
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms
usually less than 1mm in diameter which
requires some form of magnification
( Microscope) to be seen clearly
Examples:
Viruses
Bacteria
Fungi
Algae
Protozoa's
Some organisms studies by microbiologists
CAN be visualized without the aid of
amplification [bread molds (fungus) and
filamentous algae]
These organisms are included in the discipline of
microbiology because of similarities in properties
and techniques used to study them
Techniques necessary to isolate and culture
microorganisms:
Isolation
Sterilization
Culture in artificial media
Microbiology may be interested in specific types
of organisms:
Virology - viruses
Bacteriology - bacteria
Phycology - algae
Mycology - fungi
Protozoology - protozoa
Microbiologists may have a more applied focus:
Medical microbiology, including immunology
Food and Dairy microbiology
Public Health microbiology (Epidemiology)
Industrial microbiology
Agricultural microbiology
Microbiologists may be interested in various
characteristics or activities of microorganisms:
Microbial morphology
Microbial cytology
Microbial physiology
Microbial ecology
Microbial genetics and molecular biology
Microbial taxonomy
II. Historical Perspectives
Zacharias Janssen y Hans Martens habrían
inventado el microscopio en 1590
ROBERT HOOKE
One of the most
important discoveries of
biology occurred in
1665, with the help of a
crude microscope,
when Robert Hooke
stated that life’s
smallest structural units
were cells.
ANTONY VAN LEEUWENHOEK
First to observe living
microbes
His single-lens
magnified 50-300X
magnification
Between 1674-1723
he wrote series of
papers describing his
observations of
bacteria, algae,
protozoa, and fungi
(Animalcules)
ANTONY VAN LEEUWENHOEK
III. Spontaneous Generation
SPONTANEOUS GENERATION
Early belief that some forms of life
could arise from “vital forces”
present in nonliving or decomposing
matter, abiogenesis. (Ex: maggots
from meat or mushrooms from rotting
wood)
In other words, organisms can arise
form non-living matter.
The alternative hypothesis that living organisms can
arise only from preexisting life forms is called
“Biogenesis”
The Pros and Cons
Francisco Redi 1626–1697 (ca. 1668)
Pier Antonio Micheli 1679–1737 had the
same observation with his experiment on
fungal spores. The fungal spores he
placed on melon produced the same type
of fungi. It convinced him that the fungi
did not arise from spontaneous
generation.
LOUIS JABLOT
In 1711 Jablot conducted an experiment
in which he divided a hay infusion that
had been boiled into two containers: a
heated container that was closed to
the air and a heated container that
was freely open to the air. Only the
open vessel developed
microorganisms. This further
helped to disprove abiogenesis.
The Pros and Cons
Louis Jablot (1711)
The Pros and Cons
1745 -John Needham boiled nutrient broth
into covered flasks
Conditions Results
Nutrient broth heated All showed growth
then placed in sealed
flasks
From where did the microbes come?
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
The Pros and Cons
Air allowed to enter flask but only after passing
through a heated tube or sterile wool
Franz Schultze and Theodor Schwann (1830s)
LOUIS PASTEUR (1822 - 1895)
Disproved spontaneous
generation of microbes
by preventing “dust
particles” from reaching
the sterile broth
In 1861 completes
experiments that lays to
rest spontaneous
generation.
Showed microbes caused
fermentation and
spoilage
PASTEUR’S EXPERIMENT
trapped airborne organisms in cotton; he also
heated the necks of flasks, drawing them out into
long curves, sterilized the media, and left the flasks
open to the air.
In this way Pasteur disproved the theory of
spontaneous generation
IV. Role of Micoorganisms in
Disease
Demonstrations that
micoorganisms cause disease
Oliver Holmes (1773 - 1843)
showed that sepsis could be transmitted by hands of
medical student and may cause disease
M. J. Berkeley (ca. 1845)
demonstrated that the Great Potato Blight of Ireland was
caused by a Fungus (Phytophthora infestans)
Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)
showed that the pébrine disease of silkworms was caused by
a protozoan parasite (Nosema bombycis)
Antiseptics and Hand Washing
Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician
introduced hand washing as a means of
preventing transfer of puerpueral sepsis in
obstetrical patients (1847)
1860s - Joseph Lister used, carbolic acid,
a chemical antiseptic to prevent surgical
wound infections
Germ Theory of Disease
Developed a method to identify the etiologic agent .
1876 - Robert Koch
provided proof that a
bacterium (Bacillus
anthracis) causes anthrax
using experimental steps
now called the Koch’s
Postulates
He was the first to use
agar as solid culture
medium in bacteriology.
Koch’s Postulates
1. The microbe must always be present in
every case of the disease
2. It must be isolated in pure culture on
artificial media
3. When inoculated into healthy animal host
it should produce the same disease
4. It must be isolated from the diseased
animal again
Developed pure culture methods. Identified cause of
anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) , TB (Mycobacterium
tubercullosis) , & cholera (Vibrio cholera).
Infection and Disease
Infection the entry of a microbe into the host.
Disease infection followed by the appearance
of signs and symptoms.
Pathogen an infectious or disease agent.
Saprobe a microbe that lives on dead or
decaying organic matter.
Opportunistic pathogen
is a microbe that cause disease in
immunocompromised hosts or when the normal
microbiota is altered.
Vaccination
Edward Jenner (ca. 1798): Develop the first
Vaccine and used a vaccination procedure
to protect individuals from smallpox
(viruela), but in 1774 the farmer
Benjamin Jesty had the idea.
Louis Pasteur
developed other vaccines including those for
chicken cholera, anthrax, and rabies
Vaccination
Inoculation of healthy
individuals with weakened (or
attenuated) forms of
microorganisms, that would
otherwise cause disease, to
provide protection, or active
immunity from disease upon
later exposure.
JOHN TYNDALL (1820 – 1893)
In 1876 discovered that there were two different types
of bacteria.
a) Heat sensitive or heat labile forms (vegetative cells)
easily destroyed by boiling
b) Heat resistant types known as an endospore
Tyndall demonstrated that alternate process of heating
& cooling if repeated five times, can kill all the
endospores.
This is known as Sterilization process or
Tyndallization
FERDINAND COHN
In 1876, a German botanist,
Ferdinand Cohn, also discovered
“heat-resistant forms of bacteria”.
This bacteria are now termed
endospores.( Bacillus species and
Clostridium species)
ALEXANDER FLEMING
In 1928 Fleming observed that the
growth of the bacterium
staphyloccus aureus was inhibited in
the areas surrounding the colony of
a mold that had contaminated a
Petri plate. The mold was identified
as Penicillium notatum, and its
active compound was named
penicillin.
Fleming compartió el Premio Nobel de
Medicina en 1945 junto a Ernst Boris
Chain y Howard Walter Florey.
Walther Hesse (1846-1911): Used Agar as
a solidifying agent to harden media. Agar
is extracted from seaweeds red algae.
Rechard Petri (1852-1921): Used agar
dish to provide a large area to grow.
Christian Gram (1853-1935): Staining
method that demonstrate bacteria and
distinguish between Gram positive and
Gram negative bacteria.
Taxonomy
The three-domain system is a biological
classification introduced by Carl Woese
et al. in 1990
“Taxonomy is the science that studies
organisms in order to arrange them into
Principles of taxonomy
groups; those organisms with similar
properties are grouped together and
separated from those that are different.”
“Taxonomy can be viewed as three
separate but interrelated areas:
Identification--the process of
characterizing organisms
Classification--the process of
arranging organisms into similar or
related groups, primarily to provide
easy identification and study
Nomenclature--the system of
assigning names to organisms.”
Taxonomy: identification We’ll spend quite a bit of time in lab on methods of
bacterial identification.
In practical terms, bacterial identification usually is
done for reasons of health, either in the course of
treating infectious disease or to prevent disease
e.g., to identify fecally contaminated water.
e.g., to identify organisms associated with
food spoilage or contamination.
e.g., to identify pathogens in the clinical
microbiology laboratory.
It is important to keep in mind that the appropriate
tests to employ will depend on the organisms likely
present plus time, skills of the tester, and budgetary
concerns.
In the clinic, patient symptoms help to define what
organisms of interest are likely present.
Taxonomy: classification The goal of classification is to determine
genetic similarity, though in the past genetic
similarity had to be inferred based on
phenotypic similarity.
As a consequence of the sequencing of
organism genomes, the science of classification
is very much in flux (classifications are
changing often) as phenotype-based
classification is augmented by genotype-based
classification.
All is not happy even with genotype-based
classification, however, since horizontal gene
transfer greatly complicates estimations of
genetic similarity, with different parts of
genomes displaying different levels of genetic
similarity between organisms.
Taxonomy
The study of phylogenetic relationships between organisms
(The sorting of all living things based on their related or differentiating features)
KINDOM the highest level in classification
PHYLUM related classes
CLASS related orders
ORDER related families
FAMILY related genera
GENUS closely related species
SPECIES organisms sharing a set of biological traits and
reproducing only with their exact kind
Further classifications especially with bacteria:
Strain—organisms within a species varying in a given quality
Type—organisms within a species varying immunologically
Scientific names
Staphylococcus aureus
describes clustered arrangement of cells
and golden yellow color of colonies
Escherichia coli
Honors the discoverer, Theodor Escherich
and describes its habitat, the colon.
After the first use, scientific names may be
abbreviated with the first letter of the
genus and full species epithet. (Ex: E. coli)
The main applications of
fungi, bacteria, and
viruses for obtaining new
or improved products.
