MICROPARA PREFI

• Microbiology


  The study of microbes
• 2 Major categories of microbes

  • Acellular microbes (infectious particles)
  • Cellular microbes (microorganisms)
• Acellular microbes


  Viruses and prions
• Cellular microbes


  Bacteria, archaea, some algae, all protozoa, and some fungi
• We have 10 times as many microbes as the total number of cells that make up our bodies
• It has been estimated that perhaps as many as 500 to 1,000 different species of microbes live on and in us
• Indigenous microflora (or indigenous microbiota)


  The microbes that live on and in the human body
• Pathogens


  Microbes that cause disease
• Nonpathogens


  Microbes that do not cause disease
• Opportunistic pathogens


  Microbes that usually do not cause problems but have the potential to cause infections if they gain access to a part of the anatomy where they do not belong
• Categories of microbes


  • Algae
  • Bacteria
  • Fungi
  • Protozoa
  • Viruses
• Opportunistic pathogens do not cause disease under ordinary conditions, but have the potential to cause disease should the opportunity present itself
• Examples of diseases caused by opportunistic pathogens

  • Infections
  • Intoxications
• Microbes are essential for life on this planet as we know it
• Some microbes produce oxygen by the process of photosynthesis
• Many microbes are involved in the decomposition of dead organisms and the waste products of living organisms
• Decomposers or saprophytes


  Microbes involved in the decomposition of dead organisms and the waste products of living organisms
• Elemental cycles microbes are involved in

  • Carbon
  • Nitrogen
  • Oxygen
  • Sulfur
  • Phosphorus
• Microscopic organisms in the ocean, collectively referred to as plankton, serve as the starting point of many food chains
• Types of plankton


  • Phytoplankton (tiny marine plants and algae)
  • Zooplankton (tiny marine animals)
• Products requiring microbial participation in the manufacturing process

  • Foods
  • Alcoholic beverages
  • Chemicals
  • Antibiotics
• Candidates for the first microbes on Earth are archaea and cyanobacteria
• Examples of early infectious diseases

  • Tuberculosis
  • Syphilis
  • Schistosomiasis
  • Dracunculiasis (guinea worm infection)
  • Tapeworm infections
• There are early accounts of rabies, anthrax, dysentery, smallpox, ergotism, botulism, measles, typhoid fever, typhus fever, diphtheria, and syphilis
• Microbiologist


  A scientist who studies microbes
• Career fields within microbiology

  • Bacteriologist
  • Phycologists or Algologist
  • Protozoologist
  • Mycologist
  • Virologist
• Clinical microbiology or diagnostic microbiology


  A branch of medical microbiology concerned with the laboratory diagnosis of infectious diseases of humans
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek


  The first person to see live bacteria and protozoa, referred to as the "Father of Microbiology", the "Father of Bacteriology", and the "Father of Protozoology"
• Leeuwenhoek was not a trained scientist, but a fabric merchant, surveyor, wine assayer, and minor city official in Delft, Holland
• Leeuwenhoek ground tiny glass lenses, which he mounted in small metal frames, thus creating what today are known as single-lens microscopes or simple microscopes
• Louis Pasteur and John Tyndall finally disproved the theory of spontaneous generation and proved that life can only arise from preexisting life
• Theory of biogenesis


  The theory that life can only arise from preexisting life, first proposed by Rudolf Virchow in 1858
• The theory of biogenesis does not speculate on the origin of life
• Louis Pasteur


  A French chemist who made numerous contributions to the newly emerging field of microbiology, considered by many to be the foundation of the science of microbiology and a cornerstone of modern medicine
• Pasteur discovered what occurs during alcoholic fermentation and demonstrated that different types of microbes produce different fermentation products
• Pasteur dealt the fatal blow to the theory of spontaneous generation
• Pasteur discovered forms of life that could exist in the absence of oxygen, introducing the terms "aerobes" (organisms that require oxygen) and "anaerobes" (organisms that do not require oxygen)
• Microbiology


  Newly emerging field of study
• Pasteur's contributions are considered by many people to be the foundation of the science of microbiology and a cornerstone of modern medicine
• Pasteur's discovery of alcoholic fermentation

  1. Discovered why wine becomes contaminated

  2. Discovered that different microbes produce different fermentation products

  3. Yeasts convert glucose to ethyl alcohol

  4. Acetobacter converts glucose to acetic acid