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Microbiology - Lecture 1
References:
Brock, Biology of Microorganisms Ch 1
Tortora, Microbiology an Introduction Ch 1
Each lecture will be accompanied by an audiorecording.
Underlined words are illustrated in separate slides that are hyper-
linked just point to underlined words
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Microbiology
1. Microbiology is the study of microscopic life, including:
Bacteria
Viruses
Fungi - moulds
Some algae
Some parasites (worms, trypanosomes, malaria etc)

2. Cells of macroorganisms such as plants and animals cannot
survive alone, exist as part of multicellular structures
Organs and tissues in animals, structures such as stems and leaves in
plants, etc

3. Most microorganisms can survive, grow and replicate as single
cells
Q. What type of microbe is: influenza, tinea, red tide, giardia?
Q. Why is it important to know what type of microbe it is?
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Why study microbiology?
1. All living cells on Earth have much in common,
studying biochemical and genetic functions in bacterial cells has
given insight into the physical and chemical basis of life

2. Microbes play a large role in human health, both as causes of
disease and as producers of medicines such as penicillin


3. Microbes play a large role in agriculture, and are used in industry
to produce foods such as wine, bread, cheese etc and to produce
proteins such as insulin


4. Microbial cells can be grown rapidly to high densities, this allows
for genetic and biochemical studies and industrial uses

Q. Why does the mould Penicillium produce penicillin?
Q. Why do we need Biotechnology to produce insulin?
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Microbes in agriculture
1. Legume plants (eg lentils, peas) have bacteria present in their root
nodules that convert nitrogen from the atmosphere (N
2
) into fixed
nitrogen the plants can use for growth (NH
3
) Nitrogen cycling

2. Cows and sheep have bacteria in the rumen of their stomachs that
digests cellulose from grass


3. Microorganisms also take part in other nutrient cycling, e.g. of
carbon and sulfur, convert these elements into forms that can be
taken up by plants Carbon dioxide sink


4. Some microorganisms will break down pollutants, such as oil,
pesticides and solvents Bioremediation
Q. How do ruminants contribute to global warming?
Q. How do we win $25 million using microbes?*
*http://www.virginearth.com/
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Microorganisms as founders of
higher life
1. The oxygen present in the atmosphere is due to microbial activity
by photosynthetic cyanobacteria that first existed more than 3.5
billion years ago Stromatolites

2. Microorganisms existed for billions of years before plants and
animals, because of this there is a much larger evolutionary
diversity of microorganisms compared with plants and animals


3. Some microorganisms can live in extreme environments, together
they have the capacity to metabolise a huge range of chemicals
Extremophiles

4. They form relationships with other higher organisms such as
animals, these can be beneficial or harmful
Q. Why do microbes cope better with global warming?
Q. Why are you really an alien?
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Microbial environments
1. Microbes live in populations of cells in a particular
environment, usually several populations of microbes
interact in a microbial community Biofilms

2. Microbial ecology is the study of microorganisms in their natural
environment

3. Major microbial ecosystems include aquatic environments,
terrestrial environments and in and on plants and animals

4. Estimated that the total number of bacterial cells on Earth is 5 X
10
30



5. Most of these exist underground
Q. If many bacteria multiply ever 20 minutes why are
we not covered in slime?
Q. How far underground?
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Prokaryotes vs Eukaryotes
1. Eukaryote cells are generally larger and more complex than
prokaryote cells

2. Eukaryote cells have membrane-bound organelles, including a
nucleus, mitochondria, chloroplasts (in photosynthetic cells only)

3. Prokaryote cells are usually
1-5 m wide, eukaryote cells
range from around 2 m
to several hundred m
Source: Wikipedia -
Bacteria
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Prokaryote vs Eukaryote cells
Plant and bacterial cells have a cell wall, while animal cells have an
internal cytoskeleton


Wikipedia - Prokaryote Wikipedia - Eukaryote
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Viruses
1. Viruses are a class of microorganism, but they are not cells

2. Viruses only replicate once they have infected another cell

3. They have no ribosomes and so rely on the host cell for protein
production

4. Viruses have very small genomes

5000 to 670,000 bases

Can consist of DNA or RNA, can be
single or double-stranded
Fig. 1.1e
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DNA arrangements in cells
1. Most prokaryotes have a single, circular chromosome, and a
single copy of each gene, arranged in a nucleoid rather than a
nucleus

2. Many prokaryotes also have extrachromosomal circular DNA
called plasmids, contain genes with particular properties, e.g.
antibiotic resistance

3. In eukaryotes DNA is arranged in multiple linear chromosomes

4. E. coli bacteria have 4.68 million base pairs of DNA, containing
4,300 genes

5. Human cells have 3 billion base pairs of DNA, containing 18,000
to 30,000 genes
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The three domains of life
1. By sequencing the ribosomal RNA from different cells, a
evolutionary tree of life has been established

2. From these results it can be seen that Archaea, whilst being
prokaryotes, are more closely related to eukaryotes than bacteria

Wikipedia Three domains
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Mitochondria and chloroplasts
1. It is believed that the mitochondria and chloroplast organelles of
eukaryote cells were once free-living cells

2. Evidence for this includes: these organelles have their own circular
genome, and their own ribosomes

3. Through a process of endosymbiosis they came to be a permanent part
of eukaryote cells, they produce energy used by the cell

4. Ribosomal RNA sequencing has shown that these organelles evolved
from bacteria

5. Some simple eukaryotes lack mitochondria/chloroplasts, cannot exist
alone and live as parasites of other organisms (e.g. giardia)
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Foundations of microbiology
1. The existence of organisms too small to be seen by eye
had long been suspected, discovered with the invention
of the microscope

2. Robert Hooke first used microscopes to
describe cells when he published a picture
of mould in 1655.
Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to draw
bacteria in 1683.

Fig. 1.2
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Foundations of microbiology
1. Before the existence of microorganisms, some believed that food
spoilage occurred because organisms spontaneously generated from
non-living material

2. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) opposed this theory, observed that
microorganisms present on spoiled food were similar to microbes present
in the air

3. Pasteur hypothesised that if he could sterilise food it would remain sterile
unless contaminated

4. Some argued that the process of boiling changed the property of the air
and prevented spontaneous generation

5. Pasteur used swan-necked flasks to show that when air without particles
entered the broth remained sterile
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Pasteurs experiment
Fig. 1.3
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Koch - the first medical microbiologist
1. Robert Koch (1843-1910) developed the germ theory of disease

2. First studied anthrax, caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis

3. Mostly occurs in cattle, Koch observed that Bacillus microbes were
always present in the blood of cattle with anthrax

4. He demonstrated that a small amount of blood from a mouse infected
with anthrax could transfer the disease when injected into a healthy
mouse

5. He showed that the bacteria could be grown in culture for many
generations, when injected it would still cause anthrax

6. He developed criteria, known as Kochs Postulates, for proving that a
specific microorganism causes a particular disease
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Fig 14-3
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Kochs experiments
1. Koch and subsequent microbiologists used these postulates to discover
the causes of many human and animal diseases

2. This led to the development of treatments for the prevention and cure of
many infectious diseases

3. Koch developed methods of obtaining pure microbial cultures that are still
used now

He observed that bacteria grew on potato slices in colonies, and that each
colony had specific characteristics, such as colour

He concluded that each bacterial colony represented a pure culture

4. This allowed the causative organisms of many diseases to be identified
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Kochs experiments
1. At the time of Kochs experiments, up to 14% of all human deaths were
due to tuberculosis

2. The causative organism, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, was difficult to
identify as it has a waxy cell wall that is difficult to stain, and is difficult to
grow in culture

Koch developed a staining procedure for M. tuberculosis present in tissues

He cultured the bacteria on media containing coagulated serum

He used guinea pigs as a model of M. tuberculosis infection

3. For this work, he was awarded the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine
in 1905
End of audio
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Microorganisms and biotechnology
Foreign DNA, e.g.
human insulin gene
plasmid
AGG
CCT
AGG
CTT
DNA cut with
restriction
enzymes
The complementary
pieces of DNA joined
with enzymes
Plasmid containing
foreign gene introduced
into bacteria
Foreign protein
expressed and
purified from bacteria
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Stromatolites
Stromatolites growing in Shark Bay, Australia. Photo taken in March 2005. Source and creator:
Photograph taken by Paul Harrison (Reading, UK)
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Plaque a biofilm of teeth
Source: Dental plaque - Wikipedia
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