A Brief History of Microbiology

1. Microbiology
An
introduction
Presented by
D. Mona
Othman
Albureikan
Lecture (1,2)

2. Chapter 1
The Microbial World and You
1- What is Microbiology?
• Micro - too small to be seen with the naked
eye
• Bio - life
• ology - study of
2- Microbes, also called microorganisms, are
organisms that are too small to be seen with the
unaided eye.
Germ refers to a rapidly growing cell
3- microorganisms are found almost
everywhere.

3. 1-1 List several ways in which microbes affect
our lives.
• A few are pathogenic (disease-causing).
• Marine and freshwater microorganisms form the
basis of the food chain in oceans, lakes, and rivers.
• Soil microbes help break down wastes and
incorporate nitrogen gas from the air into organic
compounds.
• Are producers in the ecosystem by photosynthesis,
a food- and oxygen-generating process that is
critical to life on Earth.
• Humans and many other animals depend on the
microbes for digestion and the synthesis of some
vitamins that their bodies require, including some B
v. for metabolism and v. K for blood clotting.

4. • Microorganisms are used in the synthesis of
industrial chemical products as vitamins, organic
acids, enzymes, alcohols, and many
drugs.(commercial applications).
• The food industry also uses microbes in
producing vinegar, green olives, soy sauce,
buttermilk, cheese, yogurt, and bread.
• Enzymes from microbes can now be manipulated
to cause the microbes to produce substances
they normally do not synthesize , used in
manufacturing (e.g., cellulase) and disease
treatment (e.g., insulin).

5. Types of Microorganisms
Three-Domain
 Bacteria
 Archaea
 Fungi
 Protozoa
 Algae
 Viruses
 Multicellular
animal parasites

6. 1-3 A Brief History of Microbiology
The First Observations
I. Robert Hooke observed that cork was composed of little boxes"; he
introduced the term cell (1665). Using his improved version of a
compound microscope.
2. Hooke's observations laid the groundwork for development of the
cell theory, the concept that all living things are composed of cells.

7. The First Observations
3. Anton van Leeuwenhoek, using a simple microscope,
was the first to observe microorganisms (1673).
Van Leeuwenhoek using his microscope Microscope replica Drawings of bacteria

8. The Debate over Spontaneous Generation
4. Until the mid-1880s, many people believed in spontaneous
generation, the idea that living organisms could arise from
nonliving matter.
5. Francesco Redi demonstrated that maggots appear on
decaying meat only when flies are able to lay eggs on the meat
(1668).

9. The Debate over Spontaneous Generation
6. John Needham claimed that microorganisms could arise
spontaneously from heated nutrient broth (1745).
7. Lazzaro Spallanzani showed that nutrient fluids heated after
being sealed in a flask did not develop microbial growth (1765).

10. The Theory of Biogenesis
8. Rudolf Virchow introduced the concept of biogenesis: living cells
can arise only from preexisting living cells (1858).
9. Louis Pasteur demonstrated that microorganisms are in the air
everywhere and offered proof of biogenesis (1861).
10. Microbes in the air were the agents responsible for contaminating
nonliving matter such as the broths in Needham's flasks
- Pasteur's discoveries led to the development of techniques used in
laboratory and medical procedures to prevent contamination by
microorganisms.

11. Pasteur first poured
beef broth into a
long-necked flask
Next he heated the neck
of the flask and bent it
into an S-shape; then he
boiled the broth for
several minutes.
Microorganisms did not
appear in the cooled
solution,
even after long periods
Microorganisms were
present in the broth.
Microorganisms were not
present in the broth after
boiling.
Bend prevented microbes
from entering the flask
Microorganisms were
not present even after
long periods.
Disproving the Theory of Spontaneous Generation.

12. The Golden Age of Microbiology
The science of microbiology advanced rapidly between 1857 and 1914.
Fermentation and Pasteurization
12. Pasteur found that yeast ferment sugars to alcohol and that
bacteria can oxidize the alcohol to acetic acid.
13. A heating process called pasteurization is used to kill bacteria in
some alcoholic beverages and milk.
The Germ Theory of Disease
14. Agostino Bassi (1835) and Pasteur (1865) showed a causal
relationship between microorganisms and disease.
15. Joseph Lister introduced the use of a disinfectant to dean surgical
wounds in order to control infections in humans (1860s).
16. Robert Koch proved that microorganisms cause disease. He used
a sequence of procedures, now called Koch's postulates (1876), that
are used today to prove that a particular microorganism causes a
particular disease.

13. Vaccination
17. In a vaccination, immunity (resistance to a particular disease) is
conferred by inoculation with a vaccine.
The protection from disease provided by vaccination (or by recovery
from the disease itself) is called immunity.
18. In 1798, Edward Jenner demonstrated that inoculation with cowpox
material provides humans with immunity to smallpox.
19. About 1880, Pasteur discovered that a virulent bacteria
could be used as a vaccine for; fowl cholera .
20. Modern vaccines are prepared from living a virulent
microorganisms or killed pathogens, from isolated components of
pathogens, and by recombinant DNA techniques.

14. The Birth of Modern Chemotherapy: Dreams of a "Magic Bullet
21. Chemotherapy is the chemical treatment of a disease.
substances that could destroy pathogenic microorganisms
without damaging the infected animal or human. Treatment of
disease by using chemical substances is called chemotherapy.
22. Two types of chemotherapeutic agents are synthetic drugs
(chemically prepared in the laboratory) and antibiotics (substances
produced naturally by bacteria and fungi against the growth of other
microorganisms).
23. Paul Ehrlich introduced an arsenic-containing chemical called
salvarsan to treat syphilis (1910).

15. The Birth of Modern Chemotherapy: Dreams of a "Magic Bullet
24. Alexander Fleming observed
that the Penicillium fungus inhibited
the growth of a bacterial culture.
He named the active ingredient
penicillin (1928) .
25. Penicillin has been used
clinically as an antibioti;; since the
1940s.
26. Researchers arc facing the
problem of drug-resistant
microbes.
- Drug resistance results from
genetic changes in microbes that
enables them to tolerate a certain
amount of an antibiotic that would
normally inhibit them , VRE- MRSA.

16. Modern Developments in Microbiology
1) Bacteriology is the study of
bacteria.
2) Mycology is the study of fungi.
3) Parasitology is the study of
parasitic protozoa and worms.
4) Virology is the study of viruses.
5) Phycology is the study of algae
28. Microbiologists arc using
genomics, the study of all of an
organism's genes, to classify
bacteria, fungi, and protoma.
31. The development of
recombinant DNA technology has
helped advance all areas of
microbiology.

17. Microbes and Human Disease
I. Everyone has microorganisms in and on the body; these make up
the normal microbiota, or flora.
2. The disease-producing properties of a species of microbe and
the host's resistance are important factors in determining whether a
person will contract a disease.
3. Bacterial communities that form slimy layers on surfaces are
called biofilms.
4. An emerging infectious disease (EIO) is a new or changing
disease showing an increase in incidence in the recent past or a
potential to increase in the near future.

18. References
• Microbiology: An Introduction Plus
MasteringMicrobiology with eText - Access Card
Package (11th Edition) Hardcover – January 2, 2012
by Gerard J. Tortora, Berdell R. Funke, Christine L.
Case.
• Some pictures from different sits.