MICROPARA

• Microbiology


  The study of microbes
• Microbes


  • Minute living things that individually are too small to be seen with the unaided eye
  • Can be observed with the use of various types of microscopes
• Types of microorganisms


  • Bacteria
  • Fungi (yeasts and molds)
  • Protozoa
  • Microscopic algae
  • Viruses
• Prevent food spoilage


  Knowledge of microbes allows humans to
• Prevent disease occurrence


  Knowledge of microbes allows humans to
• Aseptic techniques


  Lead to prevention of contamination in medicine and in microbiology laboratories
• Indigenous microbiota


  The microbes that live on and in the human body
• Indigenous microbiota


  • Inhibit the growth of pathogens in areas of the body where they live by occupying space, depleting the food supply, and secreting materials
  • Some are known as opportunistic pathogens - they do not cause us any problems but have the potential to cause infections should there be any opportunity
• Microbes are essential for life on this planet; they contribute more oxygen to our atmosphere than do plants
• Decomposition


  The process by which substances are broken down into simpler forms of matter
• Saprophyte


  An organism that lives on dead or decaying organic matter
• Microbes capable of decomposing industrial wastes

  • Bacillus subtilis
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Bioremediation


  The use of genetically engineered microbes to clean up pollutants
• Microbial ecology


  The study of the relationships between microbes and the environment
• Microbes serve as important links in food chains
• Biotechnology


  The use of living organisms or their derivatives to make or modify useful products or processes
• Antibiotic


  A substance produced by a microbe that is effective in killing or inhibiting the growth of other microbes
• Genetic engineering


  The process of inserting a gene or genes from one organism (e.g., from a bacterium, a human, an animal, or a plant) into a bacterial or yeast cell
• Infectious disease


  A disease that results when a pathogen colonizes the body and subsequently causes disease
• Microbial intoxication


  A disease that results when a person ingests a toxin (poisonous substance) that has been produced by a microbe
• Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago and, for the first 800 million to 1 billion years of Earth's existence, there was no life on this planet
• Fossils of primitive microbes (as many as 11 different types) found in ancient sandstone formations in northwestern Australia date back to about 3.5 billion years ago
• Animals made their appearance on Earth between 900 and 650 million years ago
• Candidates for the first microbes on Earth

  • Archaea
  • Cyanobacteria
• The earliest known account of a "pestilence" occurred in Egypt


  3180 BC
• The Greek army was decimated by an epidemic of what is thought to have been bubonic plague


  Around 1900 BC
• The Ebers papyrus, describing epidemic fevers, was discovered in a tomb in Thebes, Egypt


  1500 BC
• A disease thought to be smallpox occurred in China


  Around 1122 BC
• Epidemics of plague occurred in Rome

  790, 710, and 640 BC
• Epidemics of plague occurred in Greece

  Around 430 BC
• There are early accounts of rabies, anthrax, dysentery, smallpox, botulism, measles, typhoid fever, typhus fever, diphtheria, and syphilis
• Syphilis made its first appearance in Europe in 1493
• Many people believe that syphilis was carried to Europe by Native Americans who were brought to Portugal by Christopher Columbus
• The name "syphilis" was not given to the disease until 1530
• The first microbes were observed

  1673
• In 1665, Robert Hooke (Englishman) reported that living things were composed of little boxes or cells
• Cell theory


  • All living things are made up of cells
  • A cell is the smallest unit in a living thing
  • All cells come from other cells
• In 1632-1723, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (Dutch) described live microorganisms that he observed in teeth scrapings, rain water, and peppercorn infusions
• Many believed spontaneous generation
• In 1668, the Italian physician Francesco Redi performed an experiment to disprove spontaneous generation