Mbp 01 history microbiology

19MBT103 - MICROBIOLOGY
MBP-01
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF
MICROBIOLOGY
SRI RAMAKRISHNA COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE
(AUTONOMOUS)
COIMBATORE – 641 006.

History and foundation of Microbiology

What is Microbiology?
 Microbiology is the Science that studies
Microorganisms.
 Microorganisms, roughly, are those living things
that are too small to be seen with the naked eye.
 Microorganisms cannot be distinguished
Phylogenetically from “Macroorganisms”
 For example, many fungi are microorganisms,
as well as all bacteria, all viruses, and most
protists.
 Microbiology is more a collection of techniques:
• Aseptic technique
• Pure culture technique
• Microscopic observation of whole organisms

Microbes:
Decompose organic waste
Are producers in the ecosystem by
photosynthesis
Produce industrial chemicals such as
ethyl alcohol and acetone
Produce fermented foods such as vinegar,
cheese, and bread

The Microbial World and You

Knowledge of Microbes allows humans to
Prevent food spoilage
Prevent disease occurrence
Led to aseptic techniques to prevent
contamination in medicine and in
microbiology laboratories.

History of Microbiology
Ancestors of bacteria were the first life on Earth.

The Triumph of Death by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. The picture, painted in the mid-sixteenth century, a time when outbreaks of plagu
common in many parts of Europe, dramatizes the swiftness and inescapability of death for people of all social and economic classes. (P
Brueghel the Elder (1528–1569), Flemish, Trionfolo della Morte, Painting, Prado, Madrid, Spain/Scala/ Art Resource, NY)

Ossuary (done display) at the Sidlee Monastery, located near
Prague. Most of the bones are from victims of the
plague outbreak of 1347–1351, in which over 30,000 people
died. (Photo by J. Frisco Arenas Ramirez)

1590, Zacharias Janssen - enlarge
the image of a specimen three and
nine times the specimen’s actual
size.
In 1665, Robert Hooke (Englishman)
reported that living things were
composed of little boxes or cells.
Micrographia.
- Cell Theory

1625 and 1630 – bees observed by Francesco
Stelluti Microscope supplied by Galileo

1673-1723, Antonie van
Leeuwenhoek (Dutch) described live
microorganisms that he observed in
teeth scrapings, rainwater, and
peppercorn infusions.

Chapter 1 The Microbial World and You
So now there are two hypotheses:
The hypothesis that living organisms arise
from nonliving matter is called spontaneous
generation. According to spontaneous
generation, a “vital force’ Forms life.
The Alternative hypothesis, that the living
organisms arise from preexisting life, is
called biogenesis.

Rudolf Virchow (German) presented
biogenesis:
-living cells can arise only from preexisting
cells.

Many believed spontaneous generation:
life can arise from non-living matter
In 1668, the Italian physician Francesco
Redi performed an experiment to disprove
spontaneous generation.
Based on his study-theory of spontaneous
generation

Conditions Results
3 jars covered with
fine net
No maggots
3 open jars Maggots appeared
From where did the maggots come?
What was the purpose of the sealed jars?
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
Redi filled six jars with decaying meat.

John Needham (1713–1781) reported the results of his
experiments on spontaneous generation in 1978.
Conducted experiments with boiled mutton.
Tiny organisms arose spontaneously

Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729–1799) (Italian priest and
naturalist) improved on Needham’s experimental design by
first sealing glass flasks that contained water and seeds.
Proposed that air carried germs to the culture medium, but
also commented that the external air might be required for
growth of animals already in the medium

Theodore Schwann (1810–1882) allowed air to enter a
flask containing a sterile nutrient solution after the air
had passed through a red-hot tube.
The flask remained sterile.
Georg Friedrich Schroder &Theodor von Dusch allowed
air to enter a flask of heat-sterilized medium after it had
passed through sterile cotton wool.
No growth occurred in the medium even though the
air had not been heated.
French naturalist Felix Pouchet claimed in 1859 to have
carried out experiments conclusively proving that
microbial growth could occur without air contamination.

1861: Louis Pasteur demonstrated that
microorganisms are present in the air.
Conditions Results
Nutrient broth placed
in flask, heated, not
sealed
Microbial growth
Nutrient broth placed
in flask, heated, then
sealed
No microbial growth
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?

Next experiment, Pasteur’s S-shaped flask kept
microbes out but let air in. These experiments
form the basis of aseptic technique

John Tyndall (1820–1893) (English physicist ) dealt a
final blow to spontaneous generation in 1877 by
demonstrating that dust did indeed carry germs and that
if dust was absent, broth remained sterile even if directly
exposed to air.
During the course of his studies, J. Tyndall provided
evidence for the existence of exceptionally heat-resistant
forms of bacteria.
Ferdinand Cohn (1828–1898) (German botanist)
discovered the existence of heat-resistant bacterial
endospores.

The Golden Age of Microbiology
1857-1914
Beginning with Pasteur’s work, discoveries
included the relationship between microbes
and disease, immunity, and antimicrobial
drugs

Alexander Fleming. Fleming discovered the
antibacterial properties of penicillin.
(UPI/Bettmann/Corbis)

Pasteur showed that microbes are
responsible for fermentation.
Fermentation is the conversation of sugar to
alcohol to make beer and wine.
Microbial growth is also responsible for
spoilage of food.
Bacteria that use alcohol and produce acetic
acid spoil wine by turning it to vinegar (acetic
acid).

Pasteur demonstrated that
these spoilage bacteria
could be killed by heat that
was not hot enough to
evaporate the alcohol in
wine. This application of a
high heat for a short time is
called pasteurization.

The Germ Theory of Disease
Importance of Hand Washing
Wash, wash, wash your
hands,
Play our handy game.
Rub and scrub, scrub and
rub,
Germs go down the
drain.

1835: Agostino Bassi showed a silkworm
disease was caused by a fungus.
1865: Pasteur believed that another silkworm
disease was caused by a protozoan.
1840s: Ignaz Semmelwise advocated
handwashing to prevent transmission of
puerperal fever from one OB patient to
another.

• 1860s: Joseph Lister used a chemical
disinfectant to prevent surgical wound
infections after looking at Pasteur’s work
showing microbes are in the air, can spoil
food, and cause animal diseases.

1876: Robert Koch provided proof that a
bacterium causes anthrax and provided the
experimental steps, Koch’s postulates, used
to prove that a specific microbe causes a
specific disease.
Koch was a physician and Pasteur’s young
rival

• The microorganism must be found in abundance in all
organisms suffering from the disease, but should not
be found in healthy animals.
• The microorganism must be isolated from a diseased
organism and grown in pure culture.
• The cultured microorganism should cause disease
when introduced into a healthy organism.
• The microorganism must be reisolated from the
inoculated, diseased experimental host and identified
as being identical to the original specific causative
agent.
Koch’s postulates

Koch's Postulates
are used to
prove the cause
of an infectious
disease.

Koch's Postulates
are a sequence
of experimental
steps to relate a
specific microbe
to a specific
disease.

Meet the Microbe!
Organism: Streptococcus
pyogenes
Streptococcal Infections
Streptococcus is a Gram + cocci-shaped genus of
bacteria, which produce toxins that contributes to its
pathogenesis.
Some diseases caused by this bacterium include:
Puerperal fever
Strep Throat
Streptococcal Pneumonia
Scarlet fever
Necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating bacteria)
Streptococcus
Images: Scarlet fever strawberry tongue Public Health Image
Library (PHIL) # 5120; Streptococcus pyogenes, PHIL #2110;
Necrotizing fasciitis, Smuszkiewicz, Trojanowska & Tomczak. From the Virtual Microbiology Classroom on ScienceProfOnline.com

Germ Theory of Disease
Dr. John Snow & the Investigation of Cholera
 Played key role in setting standards for good
public hygiene and preventing spread of
infectious disease.
 Snow skeptic of the then-dominant “miasma
theory” (disease caused by bad air).
 Believed cholera transmitted by water
contaminated with waste of other cholera
sufferers.
 Mapped occurrence of cholera cases during
epidemic in London and found cases centered
around a specific public water supply.
1813 - 1858

CholeraDisease, Please!
• Infectious gastroenteritis caused by the Gram
- bacterium Vibrio cholerae.
• Transmission occurs through ingesting
contaminated water or food.
• Action on mucosal epithelium lining of the small
intestine responsible for the characteristic
massive diarrhea.
• One of the most rapidly fatal illnesses known.
• Can progress from first liquid
stool to shock in 4 to 12 hours,
with death quickly following
without rehydration treatment.

John Tyndall and the Discovery of Endospores
 Discovered that some bacteria existed in two forms:
1. heat-stable form (endospore)
2. heat-sensitive form (vegetative cell)
 Need prolonged or intermittent heating to destroy
the heat-stable endospores.
 His research resulted in a method of sterilizing
liquid by heating it to boiling point on successive
days, referred to as Tyndallization.
 Tyndallization is useful for sterilization of growth
media in science classes and other situations where
autoclaves not available for pressure sterilization.
1820 - 1893
Variations in
endospore morphology:
(1, 4) central
endospore; (2, 3, 5)
terminal endospore;
(6) lateral endospore

Bacterial Genus : Clostridium
GRAM-POSITIVE
Obligate anaerobes
bacillus-shaped
endospore producer
 The members of this genus have a couple of bacterial
“superpowers” that make them particularly tough
pathogens.
 All have a strictly fermentative mode of metabolism
(Don’t’ use oxygen).
 Vegetative cells are obligate anaerobes killed by
exposure to O2, but their endospores are able to
survive long periods of exposure to air.
 Known to produce a variety of toxins, some of which are
fatal.
- Clostridium tetani = agent of tetanus
- C. botulinum = agent of botulism
- C. perfringens = one of the agents of gas gangrene
- C. difficile = part of natural intestinal flora, but resistant
strains can proliferate and cause pseudomembranous colitis.

Robert Koch
 Experimented with medium to grow
bacteria on.
 He tried gelatin, but it did not work.
 Wife of colleague recommended agar (a
gelatin-like product derived from
seaweed).
 Didn’t melt, and bacteria couldn’t digest it.
 He could also add various nutrients
necessary to grow certain organisms.
 Koch (pronounced Coke) originated use of a two
part dish for growing bacteria (Petri dish
named after Julius Petri, a German
bacteriologist), and a technique for
isolating pure bacterial colonies.
1843 - 1910

Anthrax
Gram + bacteria
Bacillus anthracis
 An endospore-producing bacterium.
(Genera Bacillus & Clostridium examples of
endospore producing bacteria.)
 Bacillus anthracis first bacterium
proven to be the cause of a disease.
 Anthrax was a disease killing European livestock. Farm animals,
apparently healthy in the morning, might die by the end of the day,
blood turned black.
 Humans interacting with the animals were also at risk of becoming
ill.
 In 1877, Robert Koch grew Bacillus anthracis in pure culture,
demonstrated its ability to form endospores, and produced
experimental anthrax by injecting it into animals.
 These experiments resulted in Koch formulating guidelines, called
Koch’s Postulates, for linking specific organisms with specific
diseases.
Robert Koch's original micrographs of the anthrax bacillus.
Disease,

Gram Stain
 First of Koch’s postulates demands that the suspected agent must be found in every case of a
given disease.
 That means the tiny microbes must be seen and identified. However, in most cases, microbes are
colorless and difficult to see.
 Christian Gram (1850-1938) developed a technique, the Gram stain, that is still widely used today.
 Differential stain that involves the application of a series of dyes.
 Leaves some microbes purple and others pink.
 Microbes that stain purple, Gram-positive, and those that stain pink, Gram-negative.

A young milkmaid informed the physician
Edward Jenner that she could not get
smallpox because she had already been
sick from cowpox.
1796: Edward Jenner inoculated a person
with cowpox virus. The person was then
protected from smallpox.
Called vaccination from vacca for cow
The protection is called immunity

Vaccinations
produced from avirulent microbial strains
produced from live viruses
produced from viral particles

Birth of Modern Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy – treatment with chemicals
• Chemotherapeutic agents used to treat
infectious disease can be synthetic drugs
or antibiotics.
• Antibiotics are chemicals produced by
bacteria and fungi that inhibit or kill other
microbes.
• Quinine from tree bark was long used to
treat malaria.

• 1910: Paul Ehrlich developed a synthetic
arsenic drug, salvarsan, to treat syphilis.
• 1930s: Sulfonamides were synthesized.

After World War II, the antibiotics were introduced to
medicine. The incidence of pneumonia, tuberculosis,
meningitis, syphilis, and many other diseases declined with
the use of antibiotics.

1928: Alexander
Fleming discovered
the first antibiotic.
He observed that
Penicillium fungus
made an antibiotic,
penicillin, that killed
S. aureus.
1940s: Penicillin was
tested clinically and
mass produced.

Modern Developments
• Bacteriology is the study of bacteria.
• Mycology is the study of fungi.
• Parasitology is the study of protozoa and
parasitic worms.
• Recent advances in genomics, the study of
an organism’s genes, have provided new
tools for classifying microorganisms.

Immunology is the study of
immunity. Vaccines and
interferons are being investigated
to prevent and cure viral diseases.
The use of immunology to identify
some bacteria according to
serotypes (variants within a
species) was proposed by Rebecca
Lancefield in 1933.
Modern Developments in Microbiology

• Work with viruses could not be effectively
performed until instruments were developed to help
scientists see these disease agents.
• In the 1940s, the electron microscope was
developed and perfected.
• In that decade, cultivation methods for viruses were
also introduced, and the knowledge of viruses
developed rapidly.
• With the development of vaccines in the 1950s and
1960s, such viral diseases as polio, measles,
mumps, and rubella came under control.

Virology is the study of viruses.
Recombinant DNA is DNA made from two different
sources. In the 1960s, Paul Berg inserted animal DNA
into bacterial DNA and the bacteria produced an
animal protein.
Recombinant DNA technology or genetic engineering
involves microbial genetics and molecular biology.

60
 George Beadle and Edward Tatum showed that genes
encode a cell’s enzymes (1942)
 Salvadore Luria and Max Delbruck (1943) used bacterial
mutants
 Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty showed
that DNA was the hereditary material (1944).
 Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod discovered the role of
mRNA in protein synthesis (1961).
 Russell Vreeland (2003) isolated a spore forming Bacillus
sp. (250 years old sample of salt crystal found below
ground (1850 ft.) in New Mexico. The bacterium seems to
be similar to Bacillus marismortui. Earlier, there were
reports of oldest living creatures of 254-40 million years.

Winogradsky and Beijerinck also discovered that
(i) soil bacteria oxidize Iron, Sulphur and Ammonia to obtain
energy
(ii) isolated anaerobic N2 fixers and
(iii) studied the decomposition of cellulosic organic matter.

62
* The first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Selected Noble Prizes in Physiology or Medicine
1901* von Behring Diphtheria antitoxin
1902 Ross Malaria transmission
1905 Koch TB bacterium
1908 Metchnikoff Phagocytes
1945 Fleming, Chain, Florey Penicillin
1952 Waksman Streptomycin
1969 Delbrück, Hershey, Luria Viral replication
1987 Tonegawa Antibody genetics
1997 Prusiner Prions

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