General Microbiology

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 Microbiology
The term ‘Microbiology’ first originated from the Greek words “mikros” and “bios“, meaning

small and life. It is essentially a branch of science that focuses on the study of microscopic

organisms.

Microbiology has numerous sub-fields and these

include phycology (algae), virology (virus), mycology (fungi), bacteriology (bacteria),

protozoology (protozoans), and medical microbiology (pathogenic microorganisms).

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Microbiology
Usually, there are three distinct classes of Micro-Organisms:

➢ First type is a unicellular microscopic organism that contains just a single cell.

➢The second type of micro-organism is multi-cellular and finally,

➢The last type is known as a-cellular, meaning lack of cells.

The counts of microscopic organisms or microbes on earth are huge. These microbes are only visible under a
microscope.

Microbiology is the study of all these micro-organisms.

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 Microbiology
Is the study of the structure, bodily functions and physiological processes of microorganisms. It deals not
only with the structural diversity and classification of microorganisms but also covers the whole range of
microbial life.

The study of microbiology expands its scope to both prokaryotic (no true nucleus and no membrane
bound organelles) and eukaryotic (have true nucleus and membrane bound organelles) organisms.

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 The History and Scope of Microbiology

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Life in a Time Before Microbiology
Illness and disease were thought to have a supernatural cause.
Many people thought it was due to the wrath of God or evil
spirits. The possibility of illness and disease being linked to
unseen organisms was postulated, but not widely believed until
the invention of the microscope and a series of experiments in
the 17th century.

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Miasmatic Theory
Galen of Pergamon 129 AD – 200 AD was a pioneer in the fields of
medicine, anatomy and philosophy. Galen created the Miasmatic
Theory that postulates that disease is caused by "bad air" or "mal’aria",
known as “miasmatic odors.” It was thought that these miasmatic odors
arose from decaying organic matter and was the cause of diseases like
cholera, chlamydia and the Bubonic Plague.

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 Hippocrates ​460 - 370 BC
Hippocrates was a Greek philosopher that lived 460–370 BC. He is considered the “father of Western

Medicine”. Hippocrates believed that illness and disease were caused by an imbalance among four vital

"humors" within us.

The idea was that if a person had either too much or too little of one of the humors, the result was illness or

disease.

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History of Microbiology
Starts from the 16th century even before the invention of the microscope.

1546 Prior to the invention of the microscope, the study of microbiology was pioneered
by Girolamo Fracastoro when he proposed the theory of contagious diseases.

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 During the 16th Century

DEVELOPMENT OF MICROSCOPE

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ROBERT HOOKE
The very first microscope was invented by Robert Hooke

One of the most important discoveries of biology occurred in 1665, with the help
of a crude microscope, when Robert Hooke stated that life’s smallest structural
units were cells.

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 1674 Using a microscope, Anton van Leeuwenhoek witnessed a live cell.
1632 - 1723

➢ As a draper (merchant who sells cloth and dry

goods), he used lenses to examine cloth. This
probably led to his interest in lens making.

➢ His single-lens magnified 50-300X

magnification.

➢ As he looked at things with his microscopes, he

discovered “micro” organisms - organisms so
tiny that they were invisible to the naked eye.

➢ He called these tiny living organisms

“ animalcules ” . He first described bacteria,
protozoans and many cells of the human body.
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 During the 17th Century

SPONTANEOUS GENERATION

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 Spontaneous Generation
Early belief that some forms of life could arise from “vital
forces” present in nonliving or decomposing matter,
abiogenesis. in other words, organisms can arise form non-
living matter.

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Supported by:
➢John Needham (1713-1781) – Boiled mutton broth, then sealed
and still observed growth after a period of time

➢Lazarro Spallanzani (1729-1799) No growth in sealed flask after

boiling – proposed that air was needed for growth of organisms

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Spontaneous Generation
John Needham & Lazzaro Spallanzani

The Question:
What causes tiny living things to appear in decaying broth?

Needham’s Hypothesis: Spontaneous generation.

Spallazani’s Hypothesis: Microbes come from the air. Boiling will kill them.

Needham >

1713 - 1781

Spallazani >

1729 - 1799

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 During the 18th Century

DISPROVED SPONTANEOUS GENERATION

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 Disproved by:
1. Francesco Redi (1626-1697) – maggot unable to grown on meat if meat was covered

with gauze

2. Schwann, Friedrich Schroder and von Dusch (1830s) – Air allowed to enter flask but

only after passing through a heated tube or sterile wool

3. John Tyndall (1820-1893) – Omission of dust no growth. Demonstrated heat resistant

forms of bacteria (endospores)

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Francesco Redi - Experiments on Flies
First to formally challenge the accepted belief of spontaneous generation.

Redi's Question: Where do maggots come from?

Hypothesis: Maggots come from flies.

Experiment: Redi put meat into three separate jars.

Jar-1
• Left open
• Maggots developed
• Flies were observed laying eggs on the meat in the
open jar

Jar-2
• Covered with netting Francesco Redi, Italian
physician, naturalist & poet,
• Maggots appeared on the netting
1626 – 1697.
• Flies were observed laying eggs on the netting

Jar-3
• Sealed
• No maggots developed

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 Germ Theory of Disease
John Tyndall and the Discovery of Endospores

➢Discovered that some bacteria existed in two forms:

1. heat-stable form (endospore)
2. heat-sensitive form (vegetative cell)
➢Need prolonged or intermittent heating to destroy the heat-
stable endospores. 1820 - 1893

➢His research resulted in a method of sterilizing liquid by

heating it to boiling point on successive days, referred to as
Tyndallization.
➢Tyndallization is useful for sterilization of growth media in
science classes and other situations where autoclaves not
available for pressure sterilization.
Variations in endospore
morphology: (1, 4) central
endospore; (2, 3, 5)
terminal endospore; (6) lateral
endospore

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 4. Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)
➢Disproved spontaneous generation of
microbes by preventing “dust particles” from
reaching the sterile broth

➢In 1861 completes experiments that lays to

rest spontaneous generation.

➢Showed microbes caused fermentation and

spoilage
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PASTEUR’S EXPERIMENT

trapped airborne organisms in cotton; he also heated the necks of flasks, drawing them out into
long curves, sterilized the media, and left the flasks open to the air.
In this way Pasteur disproved the theory of spontaneous generation

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Louis Pasteur & Industrial Microbiology Pasteur’s
Observations:

- Q: What is fermentation? 1. Blobs were alive because

they divide and make more of themselves.

- What causes fermentation?
Some scientists thought that air caused fermentation
Others thought that microbes caused fermentation.
- Q: What is pasteurization?
2. Put grape juice + yeast in open and in air-tight
containers. Fermentation occurred in both. This means
that yeast are facultative anaerobes.
3. Took two flasks of sterile grape juice and introduced
bacteria into one and yeast into another.

Are these non-living blobs or

living microbes?

< yeast + grapes = yummy wine ☺ (ethanol)

bacteria + grapes = spoiled wine  (lactic acid) >

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 Role of
Microorganisms in
Disease

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 Demonstrations that microorganisms cause disease

➢Oliver Holmes (1773 - 1843)

showed that sepsis could be transmitted by hands of medical student
and may cause disease

➢ M. J. Berkeley (ca. 1845)

demonstrated that the Great Potato Blight of Ireland was caused by a
Fungus

➢ Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)

showed that the pébrine disease of silkworms was caused by a
protozoan parasite

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Edward Jenner1796 – First vaccine (smallpox)
➢Edward Jenner (ca. 1798): Develop the first Vaccine and used a vaccination procedure to protect individuals from smallpox

➢Called procedure vaccination

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 Golden Age Of
Microbiology
1857-1910 (about 50 years)

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 GOLDEN AGE OF MICROBIOLOGY
➢The period from 1857 to 1910 is often named the Golden Age of Microbiology. Beginning with

Pasteur’s work, discoveries included the relationship between microbes and disease, immunity, and

antimicrobial drugs.

➢Scientific development of microbiology was introduced by Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Joseph lister and

Paul ehrlich

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 Louis Pasteur( 1822-1895)
“He is also known as Father of Microbiology”

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 Important Contributions Of Louis Pasteur
1. Development of methods and techniques of bacteriology.
2. Proved that microbes arose only from their like.
3. He disproved the spontaneous generation theory of microbe of Pouchet by
demonstrating the ubiquity of microbes in the air by his experiments performed in
the swan-necked flasks.
4. Introduction of sterilization techniques and development of steam sterilizer autoclave
and hot-air oven.
5. Studies on anthrax, chicken pox, cholera and hydrophobia.
6. During studies on rabies he suggested that the causative agent of rabies was too small
to be seen by microscope.
7. He introduced attenuated live vaccine for prophylactic use.
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 Important Contributions Of Louis Pasteur
8. He demonstrated the protective role of anthrax vaccine in a public experiment in
1881 in sheep, goats and cows with a virulent anthrax bacillus culture.
9. All the vaccinated animals survived while an equal number of unvaccinated control
animals died.
10. He coined the term vaccine.
11. He obtained the fixed virus of rabies in intra-cerebral passage in rabbits.
12. The Pasteur Institute, Paris, was built by public contribution for the preparation of
vaccines and for the investigation of infectious diseases.

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 LOUIS PASTEUR

➢In 1864 Pasteur established the relationship between microbes and disease in preventing wine from

spoiling by using the process termed pasteurization. This process kills bacteria in the alcohol by heat, thus

preventing the formation of acetic acid (vinegar).

➢His discover of pasteurization, lead Pasteur to introduce the “germ theory of disease” in 1864. Pasteur

stated that diseases are caused by the growth of microbes in the body and not by sins, bad character, or

poverty, etc.

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 Robert Koch(1843-1910)
He is also known as Father of Bacteriology.

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CONTRIBUTIONS OF ROBERT KOCH
1. Introduced methods for isolation of pure strains of bacteria and improved bacteriological
techniques.

2. Introduced methods of obtaining bacteria in pure cultures using solid media.

3. Introduced staining techniques.

4. Discovered anthrax bacillus(1876), tubercle bacillus(1882) and cholera vibrio (1883).

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➢Robert Koch (1843 - 1910),
▪In 1876 Robert Koch proved the “germ theory of disease” by
showing that bacteria actually caused disease.
▪Using criteria developed by his teacher, Jacob Henle (1809-1895),
established the relationship between Bacillus anthracis and anthrax.
▪His criteria became known as Koch’s Postulates and are still used to
establish the link between a particular microorganism and a particular
disease:
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 Koch’s Postulates
1. The causative (etiological) agent must be present in all affected organisms but absent in
healthy individuals.

2. The agent must be capable of being isolated and cultured in pure form.

3. When the cultured agent is introduced to a healthy organism, the same disease must
occur.

4. The same causative agent must be isolated again from the affected host.

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 Development of Culture Media
Why?
◦ To enable the isolation of pure cultures (only one type of organism)

Especially important during Koch’s period

Gelatin not useful as solidifying agent (melts at >28 ºC and some bacteria hydrolyze it with enzymes)

Fannie Hesse ( 1846-1911): the wife of one of Koch’s assistants, proposed using Agar as a solidifying
agent to harden media. Agar is extracted from seaweeds red algae.
◦ Not digested by most bacteria

◦ Melts at 100 ºC
◦ Used today - ~2% in solid media

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Richard Petri ( 1852-1921), another of Koch’s assistants, developed the
Petri dish

Christian Gram ( 1853-1935): Staining method that demonstrate bacteria and

distinguish between Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria.

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