Chapter 1 The Microbial
World and You
• List some ways in which microbes affect your live
• Use scientific nomenclature : Genus and a specific epithet.
• List the three domains.
• Explain the importance of observations made by van
Leeuwenhoek.
• Compare spontaneous generation and biogenesis.
Describe experiments that helped to prove biogenesis.
• Highlight the major achievements of Pasteur and Koch.
• Identify the important work of Semmelweis and Lister.
• Identify the contributions to microbiology made by Jenner,
Ehrlich and Fleming.
• Define bacteriology, mycology, parasitology, immunology,
and virology.
• Explain the importance of recombinant DNA technology.
• List two examples of biotechnology that use recombinant
DNA . 06/10/25
• Define normal microbiota and resistance.
• Define and describe several infectious diseases.
Introduction: Definitions
• Microorganisms
• Organisms that are distinct form
macro organisms
• Diverse group
• Exist as single cells (unicellular) or
in cell clusters (multicellular)
• Microbiology
• The basic science of
understanding microbial life
• The applications of science to
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human needs.
Introduction: The importance of
Microbiology
• Microorganisms are excellent
models for understanding cell
function in higher organisms,
including humans.
• Because microorganisms are
central to the very functioning of
the biosphere, the science of
microbiology is the foundation of
all the biological sciences 06/10/25
Introduction: Examples for Microorganisms
Examples of single microbial cell
Purple bacteria Cyanobacteria
First phototroph on earth First oxygen evloving phototroph
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Microorganisms Can Appear in Masses:
Bloom of Purple Bacteria
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Microorganisms in Culture
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Microbes help us by
• decomposing organic waste
• performing photosynthesis
• producing ethanol, acetone, vinegar, cheese,
bread, . . .
• producing insulin and many other drugs
•. . .
Microbes harm us by??
• 06/10/25
•
Naming and
Classifying
Microorganisms
• Carolus Linnaeus established
the system of scientific
nomenclature in 1735.
• Each organism has two names
Binomial nomenclature: Genus +
specific epithet (species)
• Italicized (or underlined), genus
capitalized, “latinized”, used worldwide.
• May be descriptive or honor a scientist.
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Examples
• Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus)
• Escherichia coli (E. coli)
1857 –
• Streptococcus pneumoniae 1911
(S. pneumoniae)
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Types of Microorganisms
• Bacteria
• Archaea
• Fungi
• Protozoa
• Algae
• Viruses
• Multicellular animal parasites
• Prions
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Bacterium / Bacteria
• Prokaryotic
• Peptidoglycan cell wall
• Reproduction by binary fission
Gain energy from
use of
• organic chemicals
• inorganic chemicals
or 06/10/25
Archaea
• Prokaryotic
• No peptidoglycan
• Live in extreme
environments
• Include
• Methanogens
• Extreme halophiles
• Extreme thermophiles 06/10/25
Figure
4.5b
Fungus/Fungi
• Eukaryotic
• Chitin cell walls
• 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.
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Protozoa
n/
Protozoa
• Eukaryotes
• Absorb or ingest organic
chemicals
• May be motile via
pseudopods, cilia, 06/10/25
or flagella
Viruses
• Are acellular
• Have either DNA or
RNA in core
• Core is surrounded
by a protein coat.
• Coat may be enclosed in a lipid
envelope.
• Viruses only replicate within a living
host cell. 06/10/25
Multicellular
Animal Parasites
• Eukaryotes
• Multicellular animals
• Helminths are
parasitic flatworms
and round worms
• Microscopic
stages in life cycles 06/10/25
Three Domain Classification
• Bacteria
• Archaea
• Eukarya
• Protista
• Fungi
• Plants
• Animals
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Microbiology History
The Beginnings
• Ancestors of bacteria
were the first life on
Earth
• 1665: Cell theory –
Compar
Robert Hooke e to Fig
1.2
1673: First
microbes observed –
06/10/25
Anton van
Van Leeuwenhoek’s Microscope
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Van
Leeuwenhoek’s
drawing on
various
organisms
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Blood Smear Viewed through
van Leeuwenhoek’s Microscope
Erythrocytes Leukocyte
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The Transition Period:
Debate over Spontaneous
Generation
• Aristotles’s doctrine of
spontaneous generation.
Hypothesis that living organisms
arise from nonliving matter; a “vital
force” forms life
• Biogenesis: Hypothesis that the
living organisms arise from06/10/25
preexisting life
1668:Francesco Redi
• the beginnings of experimental
science
• filled jars with decaying meat
Conditions Results
Jars covered with fine net No maggots
Open jars Maggots appeared
From where did the maggots come?
What was the purpose of the sealed jars?
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Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
1745: John Needham
• Objections
• Put boiled nutrient broth into covered flasks
Conditions Results
Nutrient broth heated, then Microbial growth
placed in sealed flask
From where did the microbes come?
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
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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?
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1861: Louis Pasteur
• demonstrated that microorganisms are present
in the air
Conditions Results
Nutrient broth placed in Microbial growth
flask, heated, not sealed
Nutrient broth placed in No microbial growth
flask, heated, then sealed
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
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Confirmation of Biogenesis
Pasteur’s S-shaped (swan-neck )
flask kept microbes out but let air
in
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Figure
1.3
Pasteur’s Swan Neck Experiment
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History: Pasteur’s Conclusions
• The bended neck allowed air to enter
the bottle and the liquid but trapped
any particulates including
microorganisms.
• No microbial growth as long as the
liquid broth did not come in contact
with the microbes.
• Hence air alone was not sufficient to
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generate life.
The Golden Age of
Microbiology(1857-1914)
Microbiology established
as a science
Louis Pasteur
Spontaneous generation disproved
Wine fermentation (yeasts and
bacteria)
Pasteurization 06/10/25
The Golden Age of
Microbiology
• 1857-1914
• Beginning with Pasteur’s work,
discoveries included the
relationship between microbes
and disease, immunity, and
antimicrobial drugs
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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).
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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.
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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
handwashing to prevent transmission of
puerperal fever from one OB patient to
another.
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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.
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Pre-Pasteur:
• Ignaz Semmelweis (1840s)
– hand disinfection and
puerperal fever
Based on Pateur’s and
Semmelweis’ findings:
Joseph Lister (1860s) –
antiseptic surgery
(phenol)
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Robert Koch
• Work on anthrax proves the
germ theory of disease
• Procedures become Koch's
postulates (see Ch 14)
• Development of pure culture
technique
Nobel Prize in 1905
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Nobelprize.org
History: Microorganisms Cause
Disease
• Robert Koch developed a set of
postulates (Figure 1.12) to prove that a
specific microorganism causes a specific
disease.
• B. anthracis causes anthrax
• M. tuberculosis causes tuberculosis
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Koch’s Postulates
•The suspected pathogenic organism should be
present in all cases of the disease and absent from
healthy animals.
•The suspected organism should be grown in pure
culture—that is, a culture containing a single kind
of microorganism.
•Cells from a pure culture of the suspected
organism should cause disease in a healthy animal.
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•The organism should be re-isolated and shown to
Before the Golden Age Period: The
Birth of Vaccination
• Jenner and
smallpox
vaccination (1796)
~ 100 years later: Pasteur shows how
vaccinations work. (Creation of avirulent
strains of bacteria during extended
laboratory cultivation)
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The Birth of Modern
Chemotherapy
• 1910: Paul Ehrlich developed a
synthetic arsenic drug, salvarsan, to
treat syphilis
• 1930s: Synthesis of
sulfonamides
• 1928: Alexander Fleming
and the discovery of the
first antibiotic
Fig 1.5 06/10/25
The Birth of Modern Chemotherapy
• 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.
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Figure 1.5
Fig 1.5
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enicillin purification and clinical trials not until 1940
Modern Developments in
Microbiology
• Bacteriology – Mycology –
Parasitology – Virology –
Immunology
• Microbial genetics and molecular
biology lead to Recombinant
DNA Technology (genetic
engineering). 06/10/25
Prokaryotic model system: E. coli
Modern Era of Microbiology
• Applied microbiology : agricultural,
soil, marine
• Basic microbiology : microbial
systems, biochemistry, genetics
• Molecular microbiology :
biotechnology, genomics
• In the middle to latter part of the 20th
century, basic and applied
microbiology worked hand in hand to
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usher in the current era of molecular
Modern medical microbiology
• Bacteriology – the science of bacteria, the
causative agents of a member of infectious
diseases.
• Virology – the science of viruses, non-cellular living
systems, capable of causing infectious diseases in
man.
• Immunology – the science which concerned with
mechanisms of body protection against pathogenic
microorganisms and foreign cells and substances.
• Mycology – the study of fungi pathogenic for man.
• Protozoology – which deals with 06/10/25 pathogenic
unicellular animal organisms.
Landmarks in Microbiology
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Microbes and Human Welfare
• Microbial Ecology
• Bacteria recycle carbon, nutrients, sulfur,
and phosphorus that can be used by plants
and animals.
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opyright © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Bioremediation
• Bacteria degrade
organic matter in
sewage.
• Bacteria degrade or
detoxify pollutants
such as oil and
mercury
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opyright © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Biological Insecticides
• Microbes that are pathogenic to insects are
alternatives to chemical pesticides to prevent
insect damage to agricultural crops and
disease transmission.
• Bacillus thuringiensis infections are fatal in
many insects but harmless to other animals
including humans and to plants.
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opyright © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Modern Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering
• Biotechnology, the use of microbes to produce foods
and chemicals, is centuries old.
• Genetic engineering is a new technique for
biotechnology. Through genetic engineering, bacteria
and fungi can produce a variety of proteins including
vaccines and enzymes.
• Missing or defective genes in human cells can be
replaced in gene therapy.
• Genetically modified bacteria are used to protect crops
from insects and freezing.
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opyright © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Microbes and Human Disease
– Again many Challenges –
• Normal microbiota (flora) in and on the
human body
• Pathogens overcome the host’s resistance
infectious disease
• Antimicrobial resistance
• Bioterrorism
• (Re-)emerging infectious diseases (EID):
WNE, avian influenza, SARS, BSE,
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HIV/AIDS . . .
West Nile Encephalitis
Caused by West Nile virus
First diagnosed in the West Nile
region of Uganda
in 1937
Appeared in New York City in 1999
Avian influenza A
• Influenza A virus (H5N1)
• Primarily in waterfowl and poultry
• Sustained human-to-human transmission has
not occurred yet
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MRSA
• Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
• 1950s: Penicillin resistance developed
• 1980s: Methicillin resistance
• 1990s: MRSA resistance to vancomycin
reported
• VISA: Vancomycin-intermediate-resistant S. aureus
• VRSA: Vancomycin-resistant S. aureus
Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy
Caused by a prion
Also causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
(CJD). New variant CJD in humans is 06/10/25
related to beef consumption
Escherichia coli O157:H7
• Toxin-producing
strain of E. coli
• First seen in 1982
• Leading cause of
diarrhea worldwide
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Figure
25.12
Acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome (AIDS)
• Caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
• First identified in 1981
• Worldwide epidemic infecting 30 million people;
14,000 new infections every day
• Sexually transmitted infection affecting males and
females
• HIV/AIDS in the U.S.: 30% are female, and 75% are
African American
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Any Question????
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