CBSE AFFILIATION NO: 1930859 SCHOOL CODE: 55771 SUBJECT CODE: 044

BIOLOGY INVESTIGATORY PROJECTS

MICROBES IN HUMAN WELFARE
Academic Session 2023 – 2024

SUBMITTED BY

OVIYASHRI S S

(REGISTER NO : ____________________)

SUBMITTED TO

Mrs.S.SUJITHRA M.sc., M.A., M.Ed

(PGT BIOLOGY)
SRI CHAITANYA TECHNO SCHOOL
SALEM – 636 004
TAMILNADU

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 CERTIFIC
ATE
This is to certify that.__________________________________________,

Reg No______________ a student of class 12 (Science) has successfully

completed his/her project work under the guidance of subject teacher Mrs.

SUJITHRA S(PGT Biology) during the year 2023-24 from SRI

CHAITANYA TECHNO SCHOOL in partial fulfilment of BIOLOGY

practical examination conducted by CBSE.

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

_________________
PRINCIPAL

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The success and final outcome of this project required a lot of

guidance and assistance from many people and I am extremely
fortunate to have got this all along with the completion of my
project work. Whatever I have done is only due to such guidance
and assistance and I would not forget to thank them.

I would like to express my gratitude to the honourable principal

Dr.DHANASEKARAN S, for helping me to completing project. I
respect and thank Biology teacher Mrs.SUJITHRA S, for giving
me an opportunity to do this project work and providing me with
all support and guidance, which made me, complete the project on
time.

Last but not least I would like to thank all my friends who
supported me all the way and my parents who helped me
financially and encouraged me throughout the completion of the
project.

_____________________
Student Signature

(With name)
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S.No INDEX Page no

1 Objective

2 Abstract

3 Introduction

4 Use in food

5 Use in water treatment

6 Use in energy

7 Use in production of chemicals

8 Importance in Ecology

9 Conclusion

10 Bibliography

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 OBJECTIVE
To study about Microbes in Human Welfare

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 MICROBES IN HUMAN WELFARE

ABSTRACT
A microorganism is a microscopic living organism, which may
be single celled or multicellular. Microorganism was discovered in
1674 by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, using a microscope of his own
design. They are very diverse and include all the Bacteria and
archaea and almost all the protozoa. They also include some fungi,
algae, and certain animals, such as rotifers. Microbes are present
everywhere – in soil, water, air, inside our bodies and that of other
animals and plants and even in Hot springs and Oceans. Some are
even observed in vacuum under certain test conditions.
Microorganisms are crucial to nutrient recycling in ecosystems as
they act as decomposers. As some microorganisms can fix nitrogen,
they are a vital part of the nitrogen cycle. Microorganisms are also
exploited in biotechnology, both in traditional food and beverage
preparation, and in modern technologies based on genetic
engineering. Microbes are vital to humans and the environment as
they participate in the carbon and nitrogen cycle as well as fulfilling
other vital role in virtually all ecosystem such as recycling other
organism’s dead remains and waste products through decomposition.

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USES IN FOOD
Microorganisms are used in brewing, wine making, baking,
pickling and other food-making processes. They are also used to
control the fermentation process in the production of cultured dairy
products such as yogurt and cheese. The cultures also provide flavour
and aroma, and inhibit undesirable organisms.

CHEESE MAKING PROCESS

Milk is often pasteurized to destroy pathogenic microorganisms and
to eliminate spoilage and effects induced by bacteria. The milk is
then inoculated with fermenting microorganisms and rennet, which
promote curdling.
The fermenting microorganisms carry out the anaerobic conversion
of lactose to lactic.. In the presence of lactic acid, rennet, or both, the
milk protein casein clumps together and precipitates out of solution;
this is the process known as curdling, or coagulation. Coagulated
casein assumes a solid or gel like structure (the curd), which traps
most of the fat, bacteria, calcium, phosphate, and other particulates.
The remaining liquid (the whey) contains water, proteins resistant to
acidic and enzymatic denaturation (e.g., antibodies), carbohydrates
(lactose), and minerals.

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 Enzymes released by the bacterial cells also influence flavour
development during ripening. The curd is then gently heated, causing
it to shrink. The degree of shrinkage determines the moisture content
and the final consistency of the cheese. Whey is removed by draining
or dipping.
Most cheese is ripened for varying amounts of time in order to
bring about the chemical changes necessary for transforming fresh
curd into a distinctive aged cheese. The ripening of cheese is
influenced by the interaction of bacteria, enzymes, and physical
conditions in the curing room. The speed of the reactions is
determined by temperature and humidity conditions in the room as
well as by the moisture content of the cheese.

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 Wine Making Process

The process of winemaking involves numerous stages starting

with the grapes being harvested, taken into a winery and then
prepared for fermentation. At this stage, red wine is created during
the fermentation of the pulp (or "must") and skins of the red or black
grapes, which gives the wine its colour. White wine, on the other
hand, does not include the grape skins in the fermentation process;
only the juices are extracted. To start primary fermentation, a process
that typically takes between one to two weeks, yeast is added which
converts the sugars in the grape juice into alcohol and carbon
dioxide, which then evaporates into the atmosphere.

The produced liquid, which is known as "free wine," is then

pumped into tanks and the skins are pressed in order to extract the
remaining wine and juice. This wine, known as the "press wine," can
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be added to the free wine to bring more character and longevity to the
wine. Secondary fermentation is the next step, which is the bacterial
fermentation involving the conversion of malic acid to lactic acid.
This decreases the amount of acid in the wine and softens the taste.
The wine can then be transferred to oak barrels for maturation, with
further adjustments to taste and colour being made prior to filtering
and bottling.
Curd Making Process
Curds are a dairy product obtained by coagulating milk in a
process called curdling. The coagulation can be caused by adding
rennet or any edible acidic substance such as lemon juice or vinegar,
and then allowing it to sit. The increased acidity causes the milk
proteins to tangle into solid masses. Lactobacillus is a genus of
bacteria which can convert sugars into lactic acid by means of
fermentation. Milk contains a sugar called lactose, a disaccharide
(compound sugar) made by the glycosidic bonding between glucose
and galactose (monosaccharide). When pasteurized milk is heated to
a temperature of 30-40 °C, or even at room temperature or
refrigerator temperature, and a small amount of old curd or whey
added to it, the lactobacillus in that curd or whey sample starts to
grow. These convert the lactose into lactic acid, which imparts the
sour taste to curd. Raw milk naturally contains lactobacillus. And in
this way Curd is made.
Uses in Water Treatment
Microbes play a Major role in treating million of Gallons of
wastewater everyday across the globe. Water pollution is due to
presence of particulate matter or presence of inorganic or organic
Compounds or because of too many or non native microorganisms.
Sewage Treatment consists of three stages called Primary, Secondary
and Tertiary Treatment.

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 Primary treatment

In the primary sedimentation stage, sewage flows through large

tanks, commonly called “pre-settling basins”, “primary sedimentation
tanks” or “primary clarifiers". The tanks are used to settle sludge
while grease and oils rise to the surface and are skimmed off.
Primary settling tanks are usually equipped with mechanically driven
scrapers that continually drive the collected sludge towards a hopper
in the base of the tank where it is pumped to sludge treatment
facilities.
Lactobacillus Bacteria

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 grease and oil from the floating material can sometimes be
recovered for saponification (soap making).
Secondary Treatment
Secondary treatment is designed to substantially degrade the
biological content of the sewage which are derived from human
waste, food waste, soaps and detergent. The majority of municipal
plants treat the settled sewage liquor using aerobic biological
processes. To be effective, the biota requires both oxygen and food to
live. The bacteria and protozoa consume biodegradable soluble
organic contaminants (e.g. sugars, fats, organic short-chain carbon
molecules, etc.) and bind much of the less soluble fractions into floc.
Secondary treatment systems are classified as fixed-film or
suspended-growth systems.
Tertiary Treatment
The purpose of tertiary treatment is to provide a final treatment
stage to further improve the effluent quality before it is discharged to
the receiving environment (sea, river, lake, wet lands, ground, etc.).
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More than one tertiary treatment process may be used at any
treatment plant. If disinfection is practised, it is always the final
process. It is also called “effluent polishing.”
Uses in Energy
Microorganisms are used in fermentation to produce ethanol,
and in biogas reactors to produce methane. Scientist are researching
the use of algae to produce liquid fuels and bacteria to convert
various form of agricultural and urban waste into usable fuels.
Algae Fuel
Algae fuel or algal bio fuel is an alternative to liquid fossil fuels
that uses algae as its source of energy-rich oils. Several companies
and government agencies are funding efforts to reduce capital and
operating costs and make algae fuel production commercially viable.
Like fossil fuel, algae fuel releases CO2 when burnt, but unlike fossil
fuel, algae fuel and other bio fuels only release CO2 recently
removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis as the algae or plant
grew. The energy crisis and the world food crisis have ignited interest
in alga culture (farming algae) for making biodiesel and other bio
fuels using land unsuitable for agriculture. Among algal fuels'
attractive characteristics are that they can be grown with minimal
impact on fresh water resources can be produced using saline and
wastewater, have a high flash point and are biodegradable and
relatively harmless to the environment if spilled.
Cellulosic ethanol
Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel produced from wood, grasses, or
the non-edible parts of plants. It is a type of biofuel produced from
lignocellulose, a structural material that comprises much of the mass
of plants. Lignocellulose is composed mainly of cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin. Corn stover, switchgrass, miscanthus,
woodchips and the by products of lawn and tree maintenance are
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some of the more popular cellulosic materials for ethanol production.
Production of ethanol from lignocellulose has the advantage of
abundant and diverse raw material compared to sources like corn and
cane sugars, but requires a greater amount of processing to make the
sugar monomers available to the microorganisms that are typically
used to produce ethanol by fermentation.The main advantage of
Cellulosic ethanol is that it reduces greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)
by 85% over reformulated gasoline.
Biogas
Biogas, naturally occurring gas that is generated by the
breakdown of organic matter by anaerobic bacteria and is used in
energy production. Biogas is primarily composed of methane gas,
carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon
monoxide. Biogas differs from natural gas in that it is a renewable
energy source produced biologically through anaerobic digestion
rather than a fossil fuel produced by geological processes. Biogas
occurs naturally in compost heaps, as swamp gas, and as a result of
enteric fermentation in cattle and other ruminants. Biogas produced
in anaerobic digesters can be burned to generate heat or used in
combustion engines to produce electricity. Organic material used to
produce biogas industrially includes animal waste, such as manure
and sewage, and municipal solid waste (MSW) harnessed from
landfills.

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 Animal and plant wastes can be used to produce biogas. They
are processed in anaerobic digesters as a liquid or as a slurry mixed
with water. Anaerobic digesters are generally composed of a
feedstock source holder, a digestion tank, a biogas recovery unit, and
heat exchangers to maintain the temperature necessary for bacterial
digestion. Heat is usually required in digesters to maintain a constant
temperature of about 35 °C (95 °F) for bacteria to decompose the
organic material into gas. The use of biogas is a green technology
with environmental benefits. Biogas technology enables the effective
use of accumulated animal waste from food production and of
municipal solid waste from urbanization. The conversion of animal
waste into biogas reduces production of the greenhouse gas methane,
as efficient combustion replaces methane with carbon dioxide.
Uses in Production of Chemicals
Use in production of chemicals, enzymes ,antibiotics etc. Many
microbes are used for commercial and industrial production of
chemicals, enzymes and other bioactive molecules. Examples of
organic acid produced include Acetic acid : Produced by the
bacterium Acetobacter aceti and other acetic acid bacteria (AAB)
Acetic acid bacteria (AAB) are bacteria that derive their energy from
the oxidation of ethanol to acetic acid during fermentation. They are
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Gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacteria. They are not to be
confused with the genus Acetobacterium, which are anaerobic
homoacetogenic facultative autotrophs and can reduce carbon
dioxide to produce acetic acid, for example, Acetobacterium woodii .
Butyric acid (butanoic acid): Produced by the bacterium Clostridium
butyricum.
Clostridium butyricum is a strictly anaerobic endospore-forming
Gram-positive butyric acid producing bacillus subsisting by means of
fermentation using an intracellularly accumulated amylopectin-like
α-polyglucan (granulose) as a substrate. It is uncommonly reported as
a human pathogen and widely used as a probiotic in Asia
(particularly Japan). C. butyricum is a soil inhabitant in various parts
of the world, has been cultured from the stool of healthy children and
adults, and is common in soured milk and cheeses. Lactic acid :
Lactobacillus and others commonly called as lactic acid bacteria
(LAB) The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) comprise a clade of Gram-
positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally non-sporulating, non-
respiring rod or cocci that are associated by their common metabolic
and physiological characteristics.
These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and lactic
products, produce lactic acid as the major metabolic end-product of
carbohydrate fermentation. This trait has, throughout history, linked
LAB with food fermentations, as acidification inhibits the growth of
spoilage agents. Proteinaceous bacteriocins are produced by several
LAB strains and provide an additional hurdle for spoilage and
pathogenic microorganisms. Furthermore, lactic acid and other
metabolic products contribute to the organoleptic and textural profile
of a food item. The industrial importance of the LAB is further
evinced by their generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status, due to
their ubiquitous appearance in food and their contribution to the
healthy microflora of human mucosal surfaces.

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 Citric acid : Produced by the fungus Aspergillus
niger .Aspergillus niger is a fungus and one of the most common
species of the genus Aspergillus. It is ubiquitous in soil and is
commonly reported from indoor environments, where its black
colonies can be confused with those of Stachybotrys (species of
which have also been called "black mould"). Antibiotics are chemical
substances, which are produced by some microbes and can kill or
retard the growth of other (disease-causing) microbes. You are
familiar with the commonly used antibiotic Penicillin. Alexander
Fleming while working on Staphylococci bacteria, once observed a
mould growing in one of his unwashed culture plates around which
Staphylococci could not grow. He found out that it was due to a
chemical produced by the mould and he named it Penicillin after the
mould Penicillium notatum. However, its full potential as an
effective antibiotic was established much later by Ernest Chain and
Howard Florey. This antibiotic was extensively used to treat
American soldiers wounded in World War II. Fleming, Chain and
Florey were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945, for this discovery.
Microbes are used for preparation of bioactive molecules and
enzymes. Streptokinase produced by the bacterium Streptococcus and
modified by genetic engineering is used as a clot buster for removing
clots from the blood vessels of patients who have undergone
myocardial infarctions leading to heart attack. Cyclosporin A is a
bioactive molecule used as an immunosuppressive agent in organ
transplantation Stains produced by the yeast Monascus purpureus is
commercialised as blood cholesterol lowering agents which acts by
competitively inhibiting the enzyme responsible for synthesis of
cholesterol.
Importance in Ecology
One of the most important roles of microbes is breaking up the
complex substances in decaying plants and animals so that they can
be used again by living plants. This involves microbes as catalysts in
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a number of natural cycles, among the most prominent being the
nitrogen, and sulfur cycles.
Proteins are the basic stuff of organic tissues, and nitrogen is an
essential element of all proteins. The availability of nitrogen in forms
that plants can use is a basic determinant of the fertility of soils; the
role of microbes in facilitating the nitrogen cycle is therefore of great
importance. When a plant or animal dies, microbes break up the
complex proteins, polypeptides, and nucleic acids in their bodies and
produce ammonium, ions, nitrates, and nitrites that plants then use to
build their body tissues.
Both bacteria and blue-green algae can fix nitrogen directly
from the atmosphere, but this is less vital to plant development than
the symbiotic relationship between the bacteria genus Rhizobium and
leguminous plants and certain trees and shrubs. In return for
secretions from their host that encourage their growth and
multiplication, Rhizobia fix nitrogen in nodules of the host plant’s
roots, providing nitrogen in a form usable by the plant.
Microbes also participate in the sulfur cycle, mostly by breaking
up the naturally abundant sulfur compounds in the soil so that this
vital element is available to plants. Sulfur cycle, is the circulation of
sulfur in various forms through nature. Sulfur occurs in all living
matter as a component of certain amino acids. It is abundant in the
soil in proteins and, through a series of microbial transformations,
ends up as sulfates usable by plants.
Sulfur-containing proteins are degraded into their constituent
amino acids by the action of a variety of soil organisms. The sulfur of
the amino acids is converted to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) by another
series of soil microbes. In the presence of oxygen, H2S is converted
to sulfur and then to sulfate by sulfur bacteria. Eventually the sulfate
becomes H2S.

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CONCLUSIONS
Microbes are a very important component of life on earth. Not
all microbes are pathogenic. Many microbes are very useful to
human beings. We use microbes and microbially derived products
almost every day. Microbes are essential in processes like Wine
making and Cheese making. Bacteria called lactic acid bacteria
(LAB) grow in milk to convert it into curd. The dough, which is used
to make bread, is fermented by yeast called Saccharomyces
cerevisiae. Certain dishes such as idli and dosa, are made from dough
fermented by microbes. Bacteria and fungi are used to impart
particular texture, taste and flavour to cheese.
Many microbes are used for commercial and industrial
production of chemicals, enzymes and other bioactive
molecules .Antibiotics like penicillins produced by useful microbes
are used to kill disease-causing harmful microbes. For more than a
hundred years, microbes are being used to treat sewage (waste water)
by the process of activated sludge formation and this helps in
recycling of water in nature. Microorganisms are used in
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fermentation to produce ethanol, and in biogas reactors to produce
methane Methanogens produce methane (biogas) while degrading
plant waste. Biogas produced by microbes is used as a source of
energy in rural areas. It is clear from the diverse uses human beings
have put microbes to that they play an important role in the welfare
of human society.

Bibliography
 Biological Science: Third Edition By, N. P. O. Green
(Author), G. W. Stout (Author), D. J. Taylor (Author), R. Soper
(Editor)
 Exploring Biology By, Ella Thea Smith
 NCERT Text Book
 Tell Me Why
 Encyclopaedia Britannica

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