Introduction to

Environmental Microbiology

Course: Companion Site for Environmental Microbiology Instructor: Maier

Chapter 1 - Lecture Objectives:

Understand course objectives and how to obtain the grade you want Recall some of the names of your classmates and your instructor Locate course materials on the web Define Environmental Microbiology and articulate its relevance to the human race

Introduction to Environmental Microbiology Environmental Microbiology definition The study of microbial fate and activity in air, water and soil, and the resulting impact on human health and welfare. Compare with:

Microbial Ecology definition

The science that explores interrelationships between organisms and their living and abiotic environment

Driving force behind Environmental Microbiology: How can we harness the understanding of environmental microbes to benefit society?

Important Events Leading to Environmental Microbiology

A Historical Perspective

A) Ancient History
1676 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek - 1st microscope animalcules

1830-1900 Louis Pasteur - rejected theory of spontaneous generation - demonstrated presence of microbes in air 1856-1953 Sergei Winogradski - Father of Soil Microbiology - nitrification, autotrophy 1843-1910 Robert Koch Nobel Prize - pure culture technique - Kochs postulates: a specific organism causes a specific process (e.g., disease)

B) 20th Century
1928 Griffith - bacterial genetics - transformation 1952 Selman Waksman - Principles of Soil Microbiology - Discovery of streptomycin (Nobel Prize) 1953 Watson and Crick - Structure of DNA (Nobel Prize) 1985 Kary Mullis - Polymerase Chain Reaction (Nobel Prize)
"Beginning with a single molecule of the genetic material DNA, the PCR can generate 100 billion similar molecules in an afternoon. The reaction is easy to execute. It requires no more than a test tube, a few simple reagents and a source of heat. The DNA sample that one wishes to copy can be pure, or it can be a minute part of an extremely complex mixture of biological materials. The DNA may come from a hospital tissue specimen, from a single human hair, from a drop of dried blood at the scene of a crime, from the tissues of a mummified brain or from a 40,000-year-old wooly mammoth frozen in a glacier."

C) The Next Millenium

Bioinformatics

Modern Environmental Microbiology

Soil microbiology Aquatic microbiology Hazardous waste/bioremediation Water quality Food safety Aeromicrobiology Occupational health/infection control Diagnostic microbiology Biotechnology Industrial microbiology