Overview of Microbiology (F) PDF

1/3/2025 1 OVERVIEW OF MICROBIOLOGY Course Title: Microbiology (F) Course Code: BTH-414 (2+1) Course Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Afsheen Aman Affiliation: KIBGE Department of Biotechnology...

1/3/2025 1 OVERVIEW OF MICROBIOLOGY Course Title: Microbiology (F) Course Code: BTH-414 (2+1) Course Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Afsheen Aman Affiliation: KIBGE Department of Biotechnology University of Karachi 1 Lecture Outline 2  Golden age of Microbiology  Study of Microbiology  Fields of Microbiology  Basic aspects of Microbiology  Applied aspects of Microbiology  Microbes in function  Industrial uses of Microbiology  Future of Microbiology 2 1  1/3/2025 Learning outcomes 3 After this lecture, Students will be able to;  Describe Golden age of Microbiology  Know the Study and Fields of Microbiology  Explain the Basic and Applied aspects of Microbiology  Elucidate the Microbes in function  Describe the Industrial uses of Microbiology  Evaluate the Future of Microbiology 3 Golden age of Microbiology 4 4 2  1/3/2025 Study of Microbiology 5 Microbiology may be interested in specific types of organisms:  Virology - Study of viruses  Bacteriology - Study of bacteria  Phycology - Study of algae  Mycology - Study of fungi  Protozoology - Study of protozoa 5 Fields of Microbiology 6 Microbiology has both basic and applied aspects. Basic aspects are concerned with biology of microorganisms themselves and includes fields like Bacteriology, Mycology, Phycology, Protozoology, Microbial cytology and physiology, Microbial genetics, Molecular biology, Microbial ecology & Microbial Taxonomy. Applied aspects are concerned with practical problems. Such as; Disease study, Water and wastewater treatment, Food spoilage and food production, Industrial uses of microbes. Medical microbiology, Immunology, Food Microbiology, Industrial microbiology, Agricultural microbiology are also widely studied Fields of microbiology. 6 3  1/3/2025 Basic Aspects of Microbiology 7 7 Applied Aspects of Microbiology 8 8 4  1/3/2025 Understanding some aspects of Microbiology 9  How Do Genes Work?  What Are the Basic Chemical Reactions of Life?  Microbialgenetics  Biochemistry ◼ Began with Pasteur’s work on  Molecular biology fermentation and Buchner’s discovery of enzymes in yeast  Recombinant DNA extract ◼ Kluyver and van Niel – microbes technology used as model systems for biochemical reactions  Gene therapy ◼ Practical applications ◼ Design of herbicides and pesticides ◼ Diagnosis of illnesses and monitoring of patients’ responses to treatment ◼ Treatment of metabolic diseases ◼ Drug design 9 Understanding some aspects of Microbiology 10  Recombinant DNA Technology  What Role Do Microorganisms Play in the Environment?  Genes in microbes, plants, and animals manipulated for  Bioremediation uses living practical applications bacteria, fungi, and algae to  Production of human blood- clotting factor by E. coli to aid detoxify polluted hemophiliacs environments  Gene Therapy  Recycling of chemicals such as carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur  Inserting a missing gene or repairing a defective one in humans by inserting desired gene into host cells 10 5  1/3/2025 Understanding some aspects of Microbiology 11  How Do We Defend Against  What Will the Future Hold? Disease?  Serology ◼ The study of blood serum  Microbiology is built on asking ◼ Von Behring and Kitasato – and answering questions existence in the blood of  The more questions we chemicals and cells that fight answer, the more questions we infection have  Immunology ◼ The study of the body’s defense against specific pathogens  Chemotherapy ◼ Fleming discovered penicillin ◼ Domagk discovered sulfa drugs 11 Microbes in Function 12  Microbes are microscopic organisms. They are used in many large- scale industrial processes. They produce chemicals such as ethanol, which is used as a fuel, solvent and for many other purposes, as well as glycerol, a common metabolite in food and medicine, and a number of other chemicals.  Microbes are also used in a process called bioleaching, in which bacteria leach metals such as iron and manganese from soil and sewage. Bioleaching can change sediment structure, as well as create the potential to control water flow in aquifers and produce biomaterials of commercial value.  Microbes, especially fungi, are useful as bio-fertilizers, by making nutrients more available to plants and increasing crop growth and yield. Microbes are useful in medicine as well. Recombinant DNA technology alters bacteria to create medications such as synthetic insulin for diabetic patients. 12 6  1/3/2025 Industrial uses of Microbes 13 13 Industrial uses of Microbes 14 14 7  1/3/2025 The Future of Microbiology 15  Today is perhaps the best time in history to study microbiology! The development of new experimental techniques and ability to sequence organisms without actually culturing them in the laboratory first has revealed diversity and complexity in the microbial world not previously known.  With the widespread availability of antibiotics and vaccines in the last half of the 20th century, infectious diseases were thought to be under control. The emergence of antibiotic resistance and the rapid evolution of bacterial and viral pathogens have made medical microbiology an urgent and exciting field of science. 15 Exciting frontiers 16  It’s an exciting time for microbiology because the tools available to study microbes have improved a lot recently. Molecular biology (the study of nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA) has improved so much that microbiologists are now using molecular tools in many branches of the field.  These tools include DNA and RNA sequencing and manipulation, which have allowed microbiologists to understand the function of enzymes and the evolution of microorganisms, and have allowed them to manipulate microbial genomes (the genetic material of organisms).  Recent surveys of oceans, for instance, have revealed many times more species of bacteria and archaea than expected, with untold new metabolic pathways. 16 8  1/3/2025 17  A popular focus of microbiome research is on the microbes that inhabit the human body. The collection of microbes that naturally live in and on the body are present in everyone and potentially play a huge role in human health and disease.  Microbiologists think this is the case because these microbes are present in numbers greater than ten times those of the cells of the human body. They account for up to 2-1/2 pounds of the adult body weight and express around 100 times more genes than we do. 17 18  A rapidly increasing field in microbiology is the study of all the microorganisms and their genes and products from a specific environment, called microbiome research. This exciting new frontier of microbiology is possible because of advances in sequencing technology and has opened our eyes to the unseen diversity of microbial life on earth.  Research into the microbes of the human body and all their genes is called human microbiome research and has found links between it and everything from weight gain to cancer to depression 18 9  1/3/2025 Remaining challenges 19  Microbiology is still a young science, so there are many frontiers yet to explore. For instance, it appears that scientists have described only the tip of the iceberg for the variety of microbial life on earth. In particular, the variety of viruses that infect humans are not all known. Plus, the many varieties of viruses on earth are hard to even estimate.  The study of cures for viral diseases is still a major challenge, with viruses like HIV and influenza remaining a significant challenge. Viruses like polio and measles that have been essentially eradicated in developed countries still kill and disfigure children around the world in developing countries.  Pakistani is still not polio free, only after more than $2 billion was spent mounting a massive vaccination campaign. However, infectious diseases like pneumonia are still the number-one cause of childhood death around the world because vaccines are hard to deliver in under developing countries. 19 Remaining challenges 20  Research is ongoing into protection from diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. Vaccination has not proven effective for these diseases that hide from the immune system. Other strategies against malaria include infecting mosquitos (the insects that infect humans with the disease) with bacteria that kill the malaria parasite, but research is ongoing.  Vaccines are effective for prevention of infectious disease, but it’s antibiotics that are used to effectively treat active infections. After the golden age of antibiotic discovery came a long period of reliance on antibiotics by modern medicine. They were so effective in treating most infections that doctors became complacent about their use.  Mankind is now entering the antibiotic resistance phase where most, if not all, of the antibiotics now used are becoming useless against the rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. This has become such a serious problem that, the World Health Organization declared antibiotic resistance a global health crisis. 20 10  1/3/2025 References 21 https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Microbiology/ 21 11