Introduction to

Microbiology
AAAT, PharmD
At the end of the lesson…
● Describe the world-changing scientific contributions of the pioneers of
microbiology.
● Differentiate prokaryotic from eukaryotic organisms
● List four steps in the scientific method of investigation
● Discuss the significance of Pasteur’s fermentation experiments to our world
today.
Microorganisms
● These are too small to be seen with the unaided eye.
● Some are good others are bad.
● They are involved in our daily lives and our environment.
● Importance:
○ Decomposition of Organic waste
○ Producers in the ecosystem by photosynthesis
○ Production of industrial chemicals such as ethyl alcohol and acetone
○ Production of fermented foods such as vinegar, cheese, and bread.
Microorganisms
How about Germs?

● Germs is not a scientific term but the term germs are the microorganisms
that causes diseases.

Pathogens - Disease-causing microorganisms

Non Pathogens - Do not cause disease

Why do we need to study microbiology?
Microorganisms cause 2 categories of diseases:
1. Infectious Disease - Pathogen colonizes the body and subsequently
causes disease.

1. Microbial Intoxication - Ingestion of toxin (poisonous substances)

produced by microorganisms.
Knowledge of Microorganisms
● Allows human to:
○ Prevent Spoilage
○ Prevent Disease to occur
● Led to Aseptic technique to prevent contamination in
medicines and in microbiology labs.
Naming and Classifying Microorganisms
● Linnaeus established the system of scientific nomenclature.
● Each organism has TWO names:
○ Genus
○ Specific epithet
● Scientific names - are italicized or underlined.
○ GENUS is CAPITALIZED and the specific epithet is lower case.
○ Are Latinized and used worldwide.
○ May be descriptive or honor a scientist
Naming and Classifying Microorganisms
● Example:
○ Staphylococcus aureus - Describe the clustered arrangement of the cells (staphylo-) and
the golden color of the colonies
○ Escherichia coli - Discovered by Theodor Escherich and describes the bacterium’s habitat
(the large intestine or colon)
● Scientific names may also be abbreviated with the first letter of the genus
and the specific epithet.
○ S. aureus - Skin
○ E. coli - Large Intestine
The Early years of Microbiology
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

● Began making and using simple microscopes

● Often made a new microscope for each specimen
● Examined water and visualized tiny animals, fungi, algae, and single-celled
protozoa; “animalcules”
● By end of 19th century, these organisms were called microorganisms.
How Can Microbes Be Classified?
● Carolus Linnaeus developed a taxonomic system for naming plants and
animals and grouping similar organisms together.
● Leeuwenhoek’s microorganisms can be grouped into six categories:
a. Bacteria
b. Archaea
c. Fungi
d. Protozoa
e. Algae
f. Small multicellular animals
Bacteria and Archaea
● Prokaryotes
● Unicellular and lack nuclei
● Much smaller than eukaryotes
● Found everywhere there is sufficient moisture; some isolated in extreme
environments
● Reproduce asexually
● Bacterial cell walls contain peptidoglycan; though some lack cell walls
● Archaeal cell walls are composed of polymers rather than peptidoglycan.
Fungi
● Eukaryotic (have membrane-bound nucleus)
● Obtain food from other organisms
● Possess cell walls

Fungi Include:

1. Molds — multicellular; grow as long filaments; reproduce by sexual andasexual

spores.
2. Yeasts — unicellular; reproduce asexually by budding; some produce sexual spores.
Protozoa
● Single-celled eukaryotes
● Similar to animals in nutrient needs and cellular structure
● Live freely in water; some live in animal hosts
● Asexual (mostly) and sexual reproduction
● Most are capable of locomotion by:
○ Pseudopods — cell extensions that flow in direction of travel
○ Cilia — numerous short protrusions that propel organisms through its environment
○ Flagella — extensions of a cell that are fewer, longer, and more whip-like than cilia
Figure 1.6 Locomotive structures of protozoa.
Nucleus Pseudopods

Cilia

Flagellum
Algae
● Unicellular or multicellular
● Photosynthetic
● Simple reproductive structure
● Categorized based on pigmentation and composition of cell wall
Brief History of Microbiology
The First microbes were observed in 1673.
1665 - Robert Hooke reported that living things were composed of
“Little boxes or cells”
1858 - Rudolf Virchow said cells arise from preexisting cells.
Cell theory - All living things are composed of cells and come from
preexisting cells.
The Golden Age of Microbiology
 The Golden Age of Microbiology
Scientists searched for answers to four questions:
• Is spontaneous generation of microbial life possible?
• What causes fermentation?
• What causes disease?
• How can we prevent infection and disease?
Does Microbial Life Spontaneously Generate?
● Some philosophers and scientists of the past thought
living things arose from three processes:
○ Asexual reproduction
○ Sexual reproduction
○ Nonliving matter
● Aristotle proposed spontaneous generation
○ Living things can arise from nonliving matter
Spontaneous Generation
The hypothesis that living organisms arise from nonliving matter is called
Spontaneous Generation. According to spontaneous generation, a vital force
create life.

The alternative hypothesis that the living organisms arise from preexisting life is
called Biogenesis.
Does Microbial Life Spontaneously Generate?
Redi’s Experiments (1665)

● When decaying meat was kept isolated

from flies, maggots never developed
● Meat exposed to flies was soon infested
● As a result, scientists began to doubt
Aristotle’s theory.
Redi's experiment simply but effectively demonstrates that
life is necessary to produce life.
 Does Microbial Life Spontaneously Generate?
Needham’s Experiment

● Scientists agreed large animals could

not arise spontaneously, but believed
microbes could.
● Needham’s experiments with beef gravy
and infusions of plant material
reinforced this idea.
 Does Microbial Life Spontaneously Generate?
Spallanzani’s Experiments

● Needham failed to heat vials sufficiently to kill

all microbes or had not sealed them tightly
enough
● Microorganisms exist in air and can
contaminate experiments
● Spontaneous generation of microorganisms
does not occur; all living things arise from
other living things

*Critics said sealed vials did not allow enough air for
organisms to survive and that prolonged heating
destroyed “Life Force”
 Does Microbial Life Spontaneously Generate?
Pasteur’s Experiments
● When the “swan-necked” flasks remained
upright, no microbial growth appeared.

● When the flask was tilted, dust from the bend

in the neck seeped back into the flask and
made the infusion cloudy with microbes
within a day.
Pasteur's experiments with "swan-necked flasks."

Steam escapes Dust from

from open end Air moves in air settles
of flask. and out of flask. in bend.

Months
Boil infusion. Infusion sits; Infusion remains
no microbes appear. sterile indefinitely.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
● French Chemist who have
contributed significantly in the
field of Microbiology.
○ Fermentation process
○ Disproved Theory of
Spontaneous Generation
○ Pasteurization
○ Silkworm Disease
○ Germ theory of disease
○ Changes in Hospital
practices
○ Vaccines
Fermentation and Pasteurization
● Pasteur showed that microbes are responsible for fermentation.
● Fermentation is the conversion of sugar to alcohol to make beer and
wine.
● Microbial growth is also responsible for spoilage of food.
● Bacteria that use alcohol and produce acetic acid spoil wine by turning it
to acetic acid.
● Pasteur also demonstrated that these spoilage bacteria could be killed by
heat that was not hot enough to evaporate the alcohol in wine.
○ This application of high heat for a short period of time is called PASTEURIZATION.
Does Microbial Life Spontaneously Generate?
The Scientific Method
● Observation leads to question
● Question generates hypothesis
● Hypothesis is tested through experiment(s)
● Results prove or disprove hypothesis
○ Accepted hypothesis leads to theory/law
○ Disproved hypothesis is rejected or modified
What causes Fermentation?
● Spoiled wine threatened livelihood of many grape growers
● Some believed air caused fermentation; others insisted
living organisms caused fermentation
● Wine makers funded research of methods to promote
production of alcohol and prevent spoilage during
fermentation
● The debate over the cause of fermentation reactions was
also linked to the debate over spontaneous generation
What causes Fermentation?
• Pasteur's Experiments
• Led to the development of pasteurization
• Process of heating liquids just enough to kill most
bacteria
• Began the field of industrial microbiology
• Intentional use of microbes for manufacturing
products
What causes Fermentation?
• Buchner's Experiments
• Demonstrated fermentation does not require living cells
• Showed enzymes promote chemical reactions
• Buchner's work began the field of biochemistry
What causes Disease?
• Pasteur developed the germ theory of disease
• Robert Koch studied causative agents of disease
(etiology)
• Anthrax
• Examined colonies of microorganisms
What causes Disease?
• Koch's Experiments
• Simple staining techniques
• First photomicrograph of bacteria
• First photograph of bacteria in diseased tissue
• Techniques for estimating bacterial number in a solution
• Use of steam to sterilize growth media
• Use of Petri dishes
• Laboratory techniques to transfer bacteria
• Bacteria as distinct species
Bacterial colonies on a solid surface (agar).

Bacterium 6 Bacterium 7
Bacterium 5 Bacterium 8
Bacterium 4 Bacterium 9
Bacterium 3 Bacterium 10
Bacterium 2 Bacterium 11
Bacterium 1 Bacterium 12
What causes Disease?
• Koch's Postulates
• Suspected causative agent must be found in every case
of the disease and be absent from healthy hosts
• Agent must be isolated and grown outside the host
• When agent is introduced to a healthy, susceptible host,
the host must get the disease
• Same agent must be found in the diseased
experimental host
Other Notable Scientists of the "Golden Age of Microbiology" and the Agents of Disease They Discovered
What causes Disease?
• Gram's Stain
• The most widely used staining technique
• One of the first steps to identify a bacterium
Figure 1.17 Results of Gram staining.
Gram-positive Gram-negative
How Can We Prevent Infection and Disease?
• Semmelweis and handwashing
• Lister's antiseptic technique
• Nightingale and nursing
• Snow — infection control and epidemiology
• Jenner's vaccine — field of immunology
• Ehrlich's "magic bullets" — field of chemotherapy
Some of the many scientific disciplines and applications that arose from the pioneering work of scientists just before and
around the time of the Golden Age of Microbiology.
BIOLOGISTS MODERN DISCIPLINES
Bacteriology (bacteria)
Pre-1857
Protozoology (protozoa)
Leeuwenhoek Mycology (fungi)
Parasitology (protozoa and
animals)
Phycology (algae)
Linnaeus Taxonomy

Semmelweis Infection control

Snow Epidemiology
The Golden Age of
Microbiology (1857–1907)
Industrial microbiology
Pasteur
Pasteurization Food and beverage technology
Microbial metabolism
Buchner Genetics
Genetic engineering
Koch Koch’s postulates Etiology

Ivanovsky Virology

Beijerinck Environmental microbiology

Winogradsky Ecological microbiology
Gram Microbial morphology

Lister Antiseptic medical techniques

Nightingale Hospital microbiology
Jenner Serology
von Behring Immunology
Kitasato
Ehrlich Chemotherapy

Fleming Pharmaceutical microbiology

The Modern Age of Microbiology
What are the Basic Chemical Reactions of Life?
• Biochemistry
• Began with Pasteur's work on fermentation and Buchner's
discovery of enzymes in yeast extract
• Kluyver and van Niel — microbes used as model systems for
biochemical reactions
• Practical applications:
• Design of herbicides and pesticides
• Diagnosis of illnesses and monitoring of patients' responses
to treatment
• Treatment of metabolic diseases
• Drug design
How do Genes Work?
• How Do Genes Work?
• Microbial genetics
• Molecular biology
• Recombinant DNA technology
• Gene therapy
How do Genes Work?
• Microbial Genetics
• Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty determined genes are
contained in molecules of DNA
• Beadle and Tatum established that a gene's activity is
related to protein function
• Translation of genetic information into protein explained
• Rates and mechanisms of genetic mutation investigated
• Identify methods cells use to control genetic expression
How do Genes Work?
• Molecular Biology
• Explanation of cell function at the molecular level
• Pauling proposed that gene sequences could:
• Provide understanding of evolutionary relationships and
processes
• Establish taxonomic categories to reflect these relationships
• Identify existence of microbes that have never been cultured
• Woese and Fox determined cells can be categorized as bacteria,
archaea, or eukaryotes
• Cat scratch disease caused by unculturable organism
How do Genes Work?
• Recombinant DNA Technology
• Genes in microbes, plants, and animals manipulated for
practical applications
• Production of human blood-clotting factor by E. coli to aid
hemophiliacs
• Gene Therapy
• Inserting a missing gene or repairing a defective one in
humans by inserting desired gene into host cells
What Role Do Microorganisms Play in the Environment?
• Bioremediation uses living bacteria, fungi, and algae to
detoxify polluted environments
• Recycling of chemicals such as carbon, nitrogen, and
sulfur
How Do We Defend Against Disease?
• Serology
• The study of blood serum
• Von Behring and Kitasato — existence in the blood of
chemicals and cells that fight infection
• Immunology
• The study of the body's defenses against specific
pathogens
• Chemotherapy
• Fleming discovered penicillin
• Domagk discovered sulfa drugs
The effects of penicillin on a bacterial "lawn" in a Petri dish.

Fungus colony
(Penicillium)
Zone of inhibition

Bacteria
(Staphylococcus)
What Will the Future Hold?
• Microbiology is built on asking and answering questions
• The more questions we answer, the more questions we
have