Lecture 7 and 8 microbial_sem_6_20180307

Microbes as tools for microbiological
research/Biotechnological poten5al
of microbes
Microbial Biotechnology|Biotech-552|Dr. Zia|Lec 4

•  Human Microbiome Project (HMP) has published an
analysis of 178 genomes from microbes that live in or
on the human body.
•  The variable human microbiome is the set of genes
present in a given habitat in a smaller subset of
humans.
•  During human microevolu5on, new genes might be
included in the core microbiome, whereas other
genes might be excluded (Turnbaugh et al., 2007)
Human microbiome Project helped in developing
microbes as tool

Microbial Biosensors
“analy5cal devices combining biospeciﬁc recogni5on
systems with physical or electrochemical signaling”
•  Generic biosensor system comprises three
components:

1.  the biospeciﬁc interac5on
2.  the signal emiOed when the target is bound
3.  plaQorm that transduces the binding reac5on into a
machine-readable output signal

Examples;
IGEM PLAT
FORM/biobricks

Inspector NoCoLi

Examples;

A biosensor for nitrate monitoring has been
constructed by transforma5on of plasmid
containing nitrate reductase operon fused to gfp
reporter gene to E. coli cells (Taylor et al., 2004).

Molecular Diagnos5cs
•  Commercial kits for the molecular detec5on
and iden5ﬁca5on of infec5ous pathogens
have provided a degree of standardiza5on
and ease of use

•  Ampliﬁca5on-based methods are increasingly
employed for diagnosis


Biowarfare
“Biological warfare agents are a group of
pathogens and toxins of biological origin that can
be poten5ally misused for military or criminal
purposes” (Pohanka and Kuca, 2010)

Biowarfare
Project Bonﬁre: crea5on of an5bio5c-resistant bacteria.

Biowarfare
The Hunter Program; crea5on of hybrid viruses

Biowarfare
'Botulin‘, a toxin produced by Clostridium
botulinum, is highly toxic and if everyone has to be
killed on this earth, less than 1kg of this toxin will
do.

Biotechnological poten5al of microbes
“What is soil, becomes grass,
becomes a cow, becomes you and me
and then becomes soil again. Without
microbes, the whole ecosystem would
collapse”
“Microbes are always at Work”

•  The Earth hosts over 1030 microorganisms,
represen5ng the largest component of the planet’s
biomass.
•  Human body has 10 5mes as many microbial cells as
human cells.

THE MICROBIAL WORLD
Es5mated Total Microorganism Species in the World

Probio5cs;
•  A term coined in 1965 to describe
substances that favor the growth of
beneﬁcial microorganisms in the body.
•  Two species of probio5cs,
Biﬁdobacterium and Lactobacillus, have
been studied the most.
ü  Bacteria that produce the enzyme lactase
help reduce lactose intolerance.

Applica5ons in Space;
•  The harsh radia5on of interplanetary
space can penetrate astronauts' bodies,
damaging the DNA in their cells, which
can cause cancer and other illnesses.
•  Halobacterium appears to be a master of
the complex art of DNA repair. This
mastery is what scien5sts want to learn
from.

Life On Mars???
•  August 1996, scien5sts announced that
they had extracted the fossils of an
unknown bacillus shaped microorganism
from inside a meteorite from Mars
found in Antarc5ca.
•  This may support the theory that life did
or does s5ll exist on Mars!

•  Microbes might be used to breakdown
dirty laundry on long space ﬂights

Helps caOle to digest the food;
•  Microbes living in the rumen of the cow
are responsible for the breakdown of
the carbohydrate cellulose of plants.
•  The cow lacks the enzymes to break
down carbohydrates.

Microbes have a built-in compass;
•  Magnetotac5c bacteria find their way
around by using the aOrac5on from the
earth's magne5c field.
•  It is this built-in compass that enables
the bacteria to find its way down to the
deep, oxygen-free parts of its aqua5c
habitat.

Bacteria can act as insec5cides;
•  Bacillus thuringiensis, producing
proteins that are toxic to many insects.
•  Now, scien5sts have spliced genes of it
into crops, that produces toxins fatal to
crop damaging pests, but harmless to
"good" bugs

Plas5c making bacteria;
•  Alcaligenes eutrophus
•  It has granules that are made of a fat-
like polymer and not starch, like the
granules of other bacteria.

Sick Building Syndrome;
•  Fumes from certain construc5on
materials in buildings e.g. malls, are
responsible for giving people severe
headaches.
•  Microbes living in poOed plants
eliminate Sick Building Syndrome by
degrading the fumes.

Chocolate industry;
•  Chocolate comes from the seeds of
the Cacao tree.
•  The seeds come in pods and the only
way to retrieve the seeds are to
ferment them with yeasts and
lactobacilli and Acetobacter.

Bacteria can help clean up oil spills;
•  Amer the Exxon Valdez crashed oﬀ the
shore of Alaska, spilling its contents all
over the area, one of the biggest
contributors to cleaning up the
environment was Pseudomonas.
•  The hydrocarbon that the bacterium
feasts on are converted to carbon
dioxide and water.

Environmental hazards amer war;
•  Trinitrotoluene, TNT, is a problema5c
explosive that contaminates the soil in
areas where ammuni5on is kept.
•  Bacteria named Clostridium
bifermentans is able to break down this
contaminant.

Bioluminescence;
•  “Luciferase” - uses molecular oxygen and a protein that
has a par5cular vitamin FMNH2 aOached to it.
•  “Luciferase” - causes oxida5on reac5on to occur
between oxygen and vitamin leading to the conversion
from FMNH2 to FMN.
•  The color of light (orange, yellow, yellow-green, or
blue-green ) depends on the kind of luciferase and
amount of oxida5on of the vitamin aOached to the
luciferin.
e.g. Firefly luciferase (EC 1.13.12.7) from the
firefly pho5nus pyralis.

Lecture 7 and 8 microbial_sem_6_20180307

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Lecture 7 and 8 microbial_sem_6_20180307