Everything about Bacteriology totally explained
Microbiology is the study of
microorganisms, which are
unicellular or cell-cluster
microscopic organisms. This includes
eukaryotes such as
fungi and
protists, and
prokaryotes such as
bacteria and certain algae.
Viruses, though not strictly classed as living organisms, are also studied. Microbiology is a broad term which includes
virology,
mycology,
parasitology and other branches. A
microbiologist is a specialist in microbiology.
Microbiology is actively researched, and the field is advancing continually. We have probably only studied about one percent of all of the microbe species on Earth. Although microbes were first observed over three hundred years ago, the field of microbiology can be said to be in its infancy relative to older biological disciplines such as
zoology and
botany.
History
Pre-microbiology
The existence of
microorganisms was hypothesized for many centuries before their actual discovery in the 17th century. The first theories on microorganisms was made by
Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro in a book titled
On Agriculture in which he warns against locating a homestead in the vicinity of swamps:
This passage seems to indicate that the ancients were aware of the possibility that diseases could be spread by yet unseen organisms.
In
The Canon of Medicine (1020),
Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) stated that bodily
secretion is contaminated by foul foreign earthly bodies before being infected. He also hypothesized on the contagious nature of
tuberculosis and other
infectious diseases, and used
quarantine as a means of limiting the spread of contagious diseases.
When the
Black Death bubonic plague reached
al-Andalus in the 14th century, Ibn Khatima hypothesized that infectious diseases are caused by "
minute bodies" which enter the human body and cause disease.
The field of
bacteriology (later a subdiscipline of microbiology) is generally considered to have been founded by
Ferdinand Cohn (1828–
1898), a botanist whose studies on
algae and
photosynthetic bacteria led him to describe several bacteria including
Bacillus and
Beggiatoa. Cohn was also the first to formulate a scheme for the
taxonomic classification of bacteria.
Louis Pasteur (
1822–
1895) and
Robert Koch (
1843–
1910) were contemporaries of Cohn’s and are often considered to be the founders of
medical microbiology. Pasteur is most famous for his series of experiments designed to disprove the then widely held
theory of spontaneous generation, thereby solidifying microbiology’s identity as a biological science. Pasteur also designed methods for food preservation (
pasteurization) and vaccines against several diseases such as
anthrax, fowl cholera and
rabies. While his work on the
Tobacco Mosaic Virus established the basic principles of virology, it was his development of
enrichment culturing that had the most immediate impact on microbiology by allowing for the cultivation of a wide range of microbes with wildly different physiologies. Winogradsky was the first to develop the concept of
chemolithotrophy and to thereby reveal the essential role played by microorganisms in geochemical processes. He was responsible for the first isolation and description of both
nitrifying and
nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
A variety of
biopolymers, such as
polysaccharides,
polyesters, and
polyamides, are produced by microorganisms. Microorganisms are used for the biotechnological production of biopolymers with tailored properties suitable for high-value medical application such as tissue engineering and drug delivery. Microorganisms are used for the biosynthesis of
xanthan,
alginate,
cellulose,
cyanophycin, poly(gamma-glutamic acid),
levan,
hyaluronic acid, organic acids,
oligosaccharides and
polysaccharide, and polyhydroxyalkanoates.
Microorganisms are beneficial for
microbial biodegradation or
bioremediation of domestic, agricultural and industrial wastes and subsurface
pollution in soils, sediments and marine environments. The ability of each microorganism to degrade
toxic waste depends on the nature of each
contaminant. Since most sites are typically comprised of multiple pollutant types, the most effective approach to
microbial biodegradation is to use a mixture of bacterial species and strains, each specific to the
biodegradation of one or more types of contaminants.
There are also various claims concerning the contributions to human and animal health by consuming
probiotics (bacteria potentially beneficial to the digestive system) and/or
prebiotics (substances consumed to promote the growth of probiotic microorganisms).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bacteriology'.
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