Bacteria provide many benefits in various industries and natural processes. They are used in food processing to make bread, yogurt, cheese, and fermented foods. In biotechnology, bacteria produce chemicals, enzymes, dietary supplements, and pharmaceuticals. Genetic engineering uses bacteria to produce important products like human insulin. Bacteria also help separate plant fibers, control pests biologically, remove pollutants from the environment through bioremediation, aid digestion in animals, tan leather, and create antibiotics and vaccines.

2. Gains due to
bacteria
By Mehwish Manzoor

3. Contents
 Food processing
 Biotechnology
 Genetic engineering
 Fibre retting
 Pest control
 Bioremediation
 Digestion
 Tanning Of Leather
 Medicines

4. Food processing
 Sourdough bread is made to rise by fermentation, with
a leaven that consists of bacteria, often combined with wild
yeast enzymes.The milk-souring bacterial
genus Lactobacillus is used to make yogurt and cheese.
Bacteria are also used to form organic acids
in pickles and vinegar.

5. Biotechnology
 Biotechnology involves the use of microorganisms including
bacteria and fungi in the manufacturing and services
industries.
 These include chemical manufacturing such
as ethanol, acetone, organic acid, enzymes, and perfumes.
Bacteria are important in the production of many dietary
supplements and pharmaceuticals

7. Cont…..
 . For example, Escherichia coli is used for commercial
preparation of riboflavin and vitamin K. E. coli is also used to
produce D-amino acids such as D-p-hydroxyphenylglycine,
an important intermediate for synthesis of the
antibiotic amoxicillin.

8. Genetic engineering
 Genetic engineering is the manipulation of genes. It is also
called recombinant DNA technology. In genetic engineering,
pieces of DNA (genes) are introduced into a host by a variety
of techniques, one of the earliest being the use of a virus
vector.
 The foreign DNA becomes a permanent feature of the host,
and is replicated and passed on to daughter cells along with
the rest of its DNA.

9. Cont….
 Bacterial cells are transformed and used in production of
commercially important products.
 Examples include production of human insulin (used to treat
diabetes) and human growth hormone (somatotrophin used
to treat pituitary dwarfism).

11. Fibre retting
 Bacteria such as Clostridium butyricum are used to separate
fibres of jute, hemp and flax in the process of retting.
 The plants are immersed in water and when they swell,
inoculated with bacteria which hydrolyze pectic substances
of the cell walls and separate the fibres. Alternatively, the
plants are spread out on the ground and ret naturally
because dew provides moisture.These separated fibres are
used to make ropes, sacks etc.

12. Cont…
 Bacteria can also be used in the place
of pesticides in biological pest control.
 This commonly uses Bacillus thuringiensis (also called BT), a
Gram-positive, soil-dwelling bacterium.This bacterium is
used as a Lepidopteran-specific insecticide under trade
names such as Dipel andThuricide. Because of their
specificity, these pesticides are regarded as environmentally
friendly, with little effect on humans, wildlife, pollinators, or
other beneficial insects.

13. Bioremediation
 Bacteria can be used to remove pollutants from
contaminated water, soil and subsurface material.
 During the Mega Borg Oil Spill, for example, 100 pounds of
bacteria were sprayed over an acre of the oil slick to break
down the hydrocarbons present into more benign by-
products.

15. Digestion
 Bacteria living in the gut of cattle, horses and other
herbivores, for example Ruminococcus spp., help
digest cellulose by secreting the enzyme cellulase.This is
how herbivores are able get the energy they need from grass
and other plants.
 Also, Escherichia coli, part of the intestinal microbiota of
humans and other herbivorous animals, converts consumed
food into vitamin K2.This is absorbed in the colon and,
in animal models, is sufficient to meet their daily requirement
of the vitamin.

16. Tanning Of Leather
 Bacteria helps purify animal hides to make them easy, clean,
and fit for use.

17. Medicines
 Bacteria are used to create multiple antibiotics such as
Streptomycin from the bacteria streptococcus. Bacteria can
also be used to create vaccines to prevent several diseases.