Microbiology- Introduction, Scope & Applied Areas

• Microbiology is the study of
–living organism of microscopic size (bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa) and
–infectious agent at borderline of life (virus)
• Louis Pasteur coined the term (Father of Microbiology)

Scope of microbiology
• Microbes are attractive models for studying fundamental life process
• Nitrogen fixing microbes- can synthesize many proteins e.g. Cyanobacteria
• Can produce Vit. K and prevent colonization of other pathogenic bacteria inside body e.g. E. coli
• Commercial preparation of antibiotics e.g. penicilline from Penicillium chrysogenum, Macrolides from Streptomyces venezuela
• Commercial preparation of alcoholic beverages like beer, wine, from Saccharomyces
• Commercial preparation of food products like bread (Saccharomyces), cheese (Arthrobacter), sausage (Aspergillus) etc
• Commercial preparation of enzymes like Lipase from Candida, Pectinase from Aspergillus etc
• Other chemicals like citric acid, gluconic acid etc from Aspergillus

Applied areas of microbiology
• Medical Microbiology: Study of causative agents of infectious diseases in human beings
• Pharmacuetical Microbiology: Study of microbes responsible for the production of pharma. substances like antibiotics, enzymes, vaccines, vitamins etc
• Industrial Microbiology: Study of industrially useful microbes in the production of alcohol, amino acids, vitamins antibiotics, enzymes, vaccines, etc
• Food Microbiology: Study of interaction of microbes and food in relation to food processing, spoilage, food borne diseases, their prevention, and preservation of food products
• Aquatic Microbiology: Study of microbes and their activities in fresh and marine water. Also includes water purification
• Agricultural Microbiology: Study of relationship of microbes and crops. Also includes soil fertility, plant and animal diseases

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