Microbial Biotechnology: Bacteria Features

• Chapter five focuses on microbial biotechnology
• Microbial biotechnology studies the use of microbes, such as bacteria, in industrial processes

Features of Bacteria Useful for Biotechnology

• Bacteria have features that make them useful for biotechnology
• Bacteria are relatively easy to grow in large quantities
• Bacteria do not form multicellular tissues, but associate to form chains or layers
• Bacterial cells are smaller, ranging 1 to 5 micrometers, than eukaryotic cells
• Bacteria are easily modified

Importance of Microbial Biotechnology

• Microbial biotechnology is important in creating products used on a daily basis
• Bacteria also play a role in the development and production of antibiotics
• Microbes help to produce biofuels

Metagenomics, Goals, and Findings

• Metagenomics helps discover the many enzymes and metabolic processes that bacteria can perform
• It helps to discover new genes and proteins with unique properties that may have biotechnological applications
• It helps to understand the human microbiome and a specific project to identify microorganisms

Human Microbiome Project

• Involved 200 scientists
• Involved 80 institutions
• Findings of this revealed different aspects of where humans have been in our body and how there's some uniqueness depending on a given area.
• How does this data help us to provide better care?

Bacterial Transformation

• Bacterial transformation is an essential step in recombinant DNA cloning
• Transformation is the ability of bacteria to take in DNA from the environment
• Electroporation involves applying a brief electrical shock to introduce recombinant DNA

Structure of Microbes

• Microbes are abundant microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae, and protozoa
• Microbes can be broadly classified into two categories: eukaryotes and prokaryotes
• Eukaryotic cells contain a nucleus and various membrane-bound organelles
• Prokaryotic cells lack a nucleus and most membrane-bound organelles
• Bacteria and archaea are single-celled prokaryotes and are distinctly different from eukaryotes and from each other
• Bacterial cells are smaller, ranging 1 to 5 micrometers than eukaryotic cells, and have a simpler structure

Yeast

• Yeast is a single-celled eukaryotic microbe that belongs to the Kingdom Fungi
• Scientists can generate yeast-producing recombinant human antibodies

Tools in Biotechnology

• Microbes such as bacteria in their natural state or altered serve as tools
• Microbial enzymes have been used for applications from food production and in molecular biology research, DNA polymerases, and restriction enzymes

Microbial Enzymes

• These have been used for quite a long time such as heat-stable enzymes that are essential for PCR that were even essential for our current medical advances.
• One is DNA polymerase.
• Enzymes that were being discovered helped the research towards what we know now about the medical field and more for that reason they have been essential.

Transformation Role to Combating Bioterrorism.

• Transformation - the ability of DNA to take in bacteria from the environment - is an essential step
• DNA cloning involves having specific things that allow to get introduced in the bacterial cells so that bacteria can replicate recombinant plasmids.