INTRODUCTION TO MICROBIOLOGY (SCIENCE) Extraterrestrial Origin of Life Hypothesis
● Extraterrestrial matter delivered to the surface of the
Microbiology surface of the Earth may well have provided a
● the study of microscopic organisms, such as significant, perhaps even dominant, source of
bacteria, viruses, archaeabacteria, fungi and prebiotic organic molecules available at the time of
protozoa. This discipline includes fundamental the origin of life some 3.7 BYA or more ago.
research on the biochemistry, physiology, cell Primordial Soup / “Organic Soup” Hypothesis (Oparin
biology, ecology, evolution and clinical aspects of Theory)
microorganisms, including the host response to ● This theory states that life evolved from organic
these agents chemicals (H20, CH4, NH3) in the primitive seas at
the time when Earth was devoid of free oxygen. The
Microorganisms first primitive prokaryotic cells were formed by a
● or Microbes, are minute living organisms, that series of chance actions.
individually are usually too small to be seen with Hydrothermal/Deep Sea Vents Hypothesis
unaided eye. ● Hydrothermal vents are geochemically reactive
● the words germ and microbes bring to mind a group habitats that harbor rich microbial communities.
of tiny creatures that do not quite fit into any of the There are striking parallels between the chemistry
categories in that old question, “Is It animal, of the H-CO2 redox couple reaction that is present
vegetable, or mineral? in hydrothermal systems and the core energy
● Germ actually comes from the Latin word germen, metabolic reactions of some modern prokaryotic
meaning to sprout from, or germinate. autotrophs.
● Present everywhere, from our own body, deepest
ocean (piezophiles), extreme environments A Brief History of Microbiology
(archaeabacteria), to even outer space. ● In 1665, after observing a thin slice of cork through
a crude microscope, Englishman Robert Hooke
WHY STUDY MICROBIOLOGY? reported that life’s smallest structural units were
National Microbiome Initiative (NMI) “little boxes” or “cells”.
● Help maintain the balance of life on in our ● Hooke’s discovery marked the beginning of the cell
environment theory – the theory that all living things are
● Used for many commercial applications. They are composed of cells.
used in the synthesis of such chemical products as
vitamins, organic acids, enzymes, alcohols, and ● Meanwhile, Anton van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutchman
many drugs. who earned a living selling clothes and buttons, was
● Relationship to human health (pathogenic and spending his spare time grinding lenses and
symbiotic) constructing simples microscopes of remarkable
quality.
THE FIRST LIFE FORMS ON EARTH ● The first to observe live microorganisms through the
● 13.7 BYA / 13,700 MYA = The creation of our magnifying lenses of the more than 400
universe microscopes he constructed. Between 1673 and
● 4.6 BYA/4600 MYA = The planet forms from 1723, he wrote about the “animalcules” he saw
material revolving around the young sun. through his simple, single lens microscope.
● 3.9 – 2.5 BYA/3900 – 2500 MYA = Cells resembling ● Observed rainwater, feces, and material scraped
prokaryotes appear. These first organisms are from teeth.
CHEMOAUTOTROPHS: they use CO2 as a carbon
source and oxidize inorganic materials to extract
energy.
● 3.5 BYA/ 3500 MYA = Prokaryotes evolved to
become EUBACTERIA and ARCHAEABACTERIA
● 3 BYA/ 3000 MYA = The very first
photosynthesizing cyanobacteria evolved; use
water as reducing agent, thereby producing oxygen
as waste
● 1.8 BYA / 1800 MYA = the very first unicellular
eukaryotes evolved
TYPES OF MICROORGANISMS
● BACTERIA
● ARCHAEA OR ARCHAEABACTERIA
● FUNGI
● PROTOZOA
● ALGAE
● VIRUSES
BACTERIA Algae
● are relatively simple, single celled (unicellular) ● Photosynthetic eukaryotes with a wide variety of
organisms. shapes and both sexual and asexual reproductive
● Under the DOMAIN: PROKARYOTA OR forms.
PROKARYOTES; because their genetic material is ● CELL WALL: Made up of carbohydrate called
not enclosed in a special nuclear membrane cellulose
● Bacterial cells generally appear in one of several ● Abundant in freshwater and saltwater, in soil, and in
shapes. Ex. Bacillus (rodlike), coccus (spherical or association with plants.
ovoid), spiralis (corkscrew or curved)
Viruses
● Individual bacteria may form pairs, chains, clusters, ● Much smaller and simpler in structure. Lacking the
or other groupings; such formations are usually structures and metabolic machinery found in a cell.
characteristic of a particular genus or species of ● Comes from the Latin root word means “poison”
bacteria. ● Infectious particle consisting of little more than
● Bacterial cell are enclosed in cell walls that are genes packaged in a protein coat.
largely composed of a carbohydrate and protein
complex called PEPTIDOGLYCAN. ● Most biologist studying viruses today would
● Reproduce by dividing into two equal cells; BINARY probably agree that they are not alive but exist in a
FISSION. shady area between life-forms and chemicals.
● Obtain nutrition: organic chemicals from dead and ● VIRUS: a kind of borrowed life.
living organisms and some are photosynthetic
(photoautotrophs). CLASSIFIED AS:
● Many bacteria can “swim” by using moving 1.) DOUBLE STRANDED DNA (dsDNA)
appendages called flagella or cilia an extension to Ex. Adenovirus = Cause Respiratory Disease in humans.
its plasma membrane 2.) SINGLE-STRANDED DNA (ssDNA)
Ex. Parvovirus = Causes rashes (mild rash)
ARCHAEA 3.) DOUBLE-STRANDED RNA (dsRNA)
● Like bacteria, archaea consist of prokaryotic cells, Ex. Reovirus = Colorado tick fever virus
but if they have cell walls, the walls lack 4.) SINGLE-STRANDED RNA (ssRNA)
peptidoglycan. Ex. Coronaviruses = Severe acute respiratory syndrome
● NOT KNOWN TO CAUSE DISEASE IN HUMANS (SARS), MERSCoV
● Archaea, often found in extreme environments, are 5.) SINGLE-STRANDED RNA (ssRNA); Serve as Template
divided into three main groups. for mRNA synthesis
○ methanogens produce methane as a Ex. Rhabdovirus = Rabies virus
waste product from respiration 6.) SINGLE-STRANDED RNA (ssRNA); Serve as Template
○ extreme halophiles (halo = salt; philic = for DNA synthesis.
loving) live in extremely salty environments Ex. Retrovirus = HIV/AIDS ( Human Immunodeficiency
such as the Great Salt Lake and the Dead virus); RNA tumor viruses (leukemia)
Sea
○ extreme thermophiles (therm = heat) live in The Debate over Spontaneous Generation
hot sulfurous water, such as hot springs at ● Until the second half of the nineteenth century,
Yellowstone National Park. many scientists and philosophers believed that
some forms of life could arise spontaneously from
FUNGI nonliving matter; they called this hypothetical
● Fungi (singular: fungus) are eukaryotes organisms process spontaneous generation.
whose cells have a distinct nucleus containing the
cell’s genetic material (DNA), surrounded by a ● Toads, snakes, mice could be born of moist soil
special envelope called the nuclear membrane. ● Flies could emerge from manure; and that maggots
● MAYBE UNICELLULAR OR MULTICELLULAR (which we now know today are the larvae of flies)
● Cell Walls: composed of substance called chitin could arise from decaying corpse
● UNICELLULAR FORM: YEAST; larger than bacteria ● Physician Francesco Redi set out in 1668, to
MULTICELLULAR OR MASSES: MOLDS; which antagonize and demonstrate that maggots did not
are composed of long filaments (hyphae), that arise spontaneously. .
branch and intertwine.
REPRODUCTION: ASEXUAL OR SEXUAL
● OBTAIN NOURISHMENT: absorbing organic
material from their environment whether soil,
seawater, freshwater, or an animal or plant host.
● Pneumocystis jirovecii = a fungus with great
medical importance, particularly among
immunocompromised patients.
Protozoa
● UNICELLULAR EUKARYOTIC MICROBES
● LOCOMOTORY MECHANISM: PSEUDOPODS,
FLAGELLA, OR CILIA.
● Protozoa have a variety of shapes and live either as
free entities or as parasites.
● Some: Photosynthetic such as Euglena
● REPRODUCTION: SEXUALLY OR ASEXUALLY
John Needham
● In 1745, strengthened the case for spontaneous PASTEURIZATION
generation. ● Louis Pasteur’s solution to the spoilage problem
● Needham claimed that microbes developed was to heat the beer and wine just enough to kill
spontaneously from the fluids. most of the bacteria that caused spoilage.
● that even after he heated chicken broth and corn
broth before pouring them into covered flasks, the THE GERM THEORY OF DISEASE
cooled solutions were soon teeming with ● The discovery the lead the scientist to an idea that
microorganisms. microorganisms might cause disease
● Twenty years later, Lazzaro Spallanzani suggested
that microorganisms from the air probably entered ● The first proof that bacteria actually cause disease
Needham’s solutions after they were boiled. came from Robert Koch in 1876, a German
physician.
The Theory of Biogenesis ● Koch’s discovered rod-shaped bacteria now known
● In 1858 Rudolf Virchow challenged the case for as Bacillus anthracis , the one that cause anthrax, a
spontaneous generation with the concept of disease that was destroying cattle and sheep in
biogenesis, hypothesizing that living cells arise Europe.
only from preexisting living cells. ● Koch established Koch’s postulates, a sequence of
● But could offer no scientific proof experimental steps for directly relating a specific
● But later resolved by the French scientist Louis microbe the specific disease.
Pasteur
VACCINATION
Louis Pasteur ● a harmless derivatives of a specific disease that
● demonstrated that microorganisms are present in train your immune system to create antibodies. Just
the air and can contaminate sterile solutions, but as it does when your exposed to the disease.
that air itself does not create microbes. ● The protection from disease provided by
vaccination is called immunity.
The First Golden Age of Microbiology ● It was first practiced by Edward Jenner, a young
● The period from 1857 to 1914 has been British physician, embarked on an experiment to
appropriately named the FIRST GOLDEN AGE OF find way to protect people from smallpox. But later
MICROBIOLOGY found out that during the Ancient China (1500s),
physician had immunized patients from smallpox by
removing scales from drying pustules of a person
suffering from a mild case of smallpox, grinding the
scales to fine powder, and inserting the powder into
the nose of the person to be protected.
The Second Golden Age of Microbiology
● Began in the 1940s
● Chemotherapy ( The term also commonly refers to
chemical treatment of noninfectious diseases, such
as cancer) - Treatment of disease using chemical
substances.
● Antibiotics – Chemicals produced naturally by
bacteria and fungi that act against other
microorganisms.
● Synthetic drugs – Chemotherapeutic agents
prepared from chemicals in the laboratory
The success of chemotherapy
● is based on the fact that some chemicals are more
poisonous to microorganisms than to the hosts
infected by the microbes.
Paul Ehrlich
● was the imaginative thinker who fired the first shot
in the chemotherapy revolution.
● A Medical student speculated about “magic bullet”
that could hunt down and destroy a pathogen
without harming the infected host.
● 1910, Found a chemotherapeutic agent called
salvarsan, an arsenic derivative effective against
syphilis. “salvation from syphilis “
● In addition, sulfonamides (sulfa drugs) were
synthesized at about the same time.
A Fortunate Accident—Antibiotics
● The first antibiotic was discovered by accident by
FERMENTATION Alexander Fleming, a Scottish physician and
● Louis Pasteur found that microorganisms called bacteriologist, almost tossed out some culture
yeasts convert the sugars to alcohol in the absence plates that had been contaminated by mold.
of air. Fortunately, he noticed the curious pattern of growth
on the plates—a clear area where bacterial growth
had been inhibited encircled the mold
● Penicillium chrysogenum = the known mold MYCOLOGY
● the study of fungi, includes medical, agricultural,
and ecological branches. Fungal infection rates
have been rising during the past decade,
accounting for 10% of hospital acquired infections.
PARASITOLOGY
● the study of protozoa and parasitic worms.
IMMUNOLOGY
● is the study of immunity. Knowledge about the
immune system has accumulated steadily and
expanded rapidly.
● A major advance in immunology occurred in 1933,
When Rebecca Lancefield, proposed that
streptococci be classified according to serotypes
(variants within a species) based on certain
components in the cell walls of the bacteria.
● In 1960, interferons, substances generated by the
body’s own immune system, were discovered
VIROLOGY
● The study of viruses, virology, originated during the
First Golden Age of Microbiology. In 1892, Dmitri
● The Second Golden Age of Microbiology began in Iwanowski reported that the organism that caused
the 1940s, when the enormous usefulness of mosaic disease of tobacco was so small that it
penicillin became apparent and the drug came into passed through filters fine enough to stop all known
common use. bacteria.
● In 1935, Wendell Stanley demonstrated that the
organism, called tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), was
fundamentally different from other microbes and so
simple and homogeneous that it could be
crystallized like a chemical compound
MOLECULAR GENETICS
● studies the mechanisms by which microorganisms
inherit traits, and molecular biology looks at how
genetic information is carried in molecules of DNA.
● 1940s, George W. Beadle and Edward L. Tatum
demonstrated the relationship between genes and
enzymes.
● Oswald Avery, established that DNA as a
hereditary material
● Joshua Lederberg and Edward L. Tatum,
discovered the genetic material could be transferred
from one bacterium to another by a process called
conjugation.
● In the 1950s, James Watson and Francis Crick
proposed a model for the structure and replication
of DNA.
● In the early 1960s, François Jacob and Jacques
Monod discovered messenger RNA (ribonucleic
acid), a chemical involved in protein synthesis, and
later they made the first major discoveries about the
regulation of gene function in bacteria
The Third Golden Age of Microbiology
● New DNA-sequencing tools and computers allow
investigators to study all the DNA in an organism,
helping them to identify genes and their functions.
● Genomics, the study of all of an organism’s genes,
scientists are able to classify bacteria and fungi
according to their genetic relationships with other
bacteria, fungi, and protozoa.
● Microorganisms can now be genetically
modified to manufacture large amounts of human
hormones and other urgently needed medical
BACTERIOLOGY substances.
● The study of bacteria, began with van
Leeuwenhoek’s first examination of tooth scrapings. Paul Berg showed that fragments of human or animal DNA
● Heide Schulz discovered a bacterium large enough (genes) that code for important proteins can be attached to
to be seen with the unaided eye (0.2 mm wide). bacterial DNA. The resulting hybrid was the first example of
● Thiomargarita namibiensis , lives in mud on the recombinant DNA. Recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology
African coast. inserts recombinant DNA into bacteria (or other microbes) to
make large quantities of a desired protein.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE
● An infectious disease is a disease in which
pathogens invade a susceptible host, such as a
human or an animal. In the process, the pathogen
carries out at least part of its life cycle inside the
host, and disease frequently results
● DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) – an
insecticide used to eradicate mosquito, a carrier of
malaria. Malaria is far from eliminated; since 1986,
local outbreaks have been identified in New Jersey,
California, Florida, New York, and Texas, and the
disease infects over 200 million people worldwide
Emerging Infectious Diseases
● recent outbreaks point to the fact that infectious
diseases are not disappearing, but rather seem to
be reemerging and increasing.
● Some of the factors that have contributed to the
development of EIDs are evolutionary changes in
existing organisms.
● Some EIDs are the result of increased human
exposure to new, unusual infectious agents in areas
that are undergoing ecologic changes such as
deforestation and construction (HIV, Venezuelan
hemorrhagic virus)
● Some EIDs are due to changes in the pathogen’s
ecology.
● EX. EBOLA VIRUS, Vibrio cholerae,
