In this Presentation we are explaining future aspects of microorganisms

1. Microbes and You
(Future aspects of Micro-organisms)

2. • Introduction
• Review of Presentation
• Applications
i. Food & Dairy Industries
ii. Agriculture
iii. Bioremediation & Waste Treatement
iv. Medicine
v. Genetic Engineering
vi. Biofuel Production
vii. Mining & Mineral Recovery
• Conclusion
• References

3. INTRODUCTION
• Microorganisms live in all parts of the biosphere where there is
liquid water, including soil, hot springs, on the ocean floor, high
in the atmosphere and deep inside rocks within the Earth's
crust.
• It is concerned with the structure, function, and classification of
these organisms and with ways of controlling and using their
activities.
• In addition, means of channeling the activities of various
microorganisms to benefit human lives have been discovered.
Molds, for example, produce antibiotics, notably penicillin.

4. • Microorganisms have a long history of use in food production,
agriculture, and waste treatment. Many opportunities exist
to use genetically modified microorganisms to enhance these and
other applications, including the clean-up of environmental
pollutants and the recovery of minerals.

5. REVIEW
OF
LITRATURE

6. • The scientific study of microorganisms began with their observation
under the microscope in the 1670s by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.
• In the 1850s, Louis Pasteur found that microorganisms caused food
spoilage, debunking the theory of spontaneous generation.
• In the 1880s, Robert Koch discovered that microorganisms caused the
diseases tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax.
• Microbes are important to human culture and health in many ways,
serving to ferment food, treat sewage, produce fuel, enzymes and
other bioactive compounds. They are essential tools in biology as model
organisms and have been put to use in bioterrorism

7. • Microorganisms are found in almost every habitat present in
nature, including hostile environments such as the North and South
Poles , desserts, geysers and rocks. They also include all marine
microorganisms of the oceans and deep sea.
• Microorganisms are useful in producing foods, treating wastewater,
creating biofuels and a wide range of chemicals and enzymes.
• They are a vital component of fertile soils. In the human body
microorganisms make up the human microbiota including the
essential gut flora.

8. Product Contribution of Microorganisms
Cheese
Growth of microorganisms contributes to ripening and flavor. The flavor and
appearance of a particular cheese is due in large part to the microorganisms
associated with it.
Alcoholic beverages
yeast is used to convert sugar, grape juice,or malt-treated grain into alcohol.
other microorganisms may also be used; a mold converts starch into sugar to
make the Japanese rice wine, sake.
Vinegar
Certain bacteria are used to convert alcohol into acetic acid, which gives vinegar
its acid taste.
Citric acid
Certain fungi are used to make citric acid, a common ingredient of soft drinks
and other foods.
Vitamins Microorganisms are used to make vitamins, including C, B2 , B12.
Antibiotics With only a few exceptions, microorganisms are used to make antibiotics.
FOOD PRODUCTION
• Microorganisms are used to make fermented food production
like yoghurt, cheese, curd, kefir, ayran, xynogala, and other types of food.

9. WATER TREATMENT
• These depend for their ability to clean up water contaminated with
organic material on microorganisms that can respire dissolved
substances. Respiration may be aerobic, with a well-oxygenated filter
bed such as a slow sand filter. Anaerobic Digestion
by methanogens generate useful methane gas as a by-product.
ENERGY
• Microorganisms are used in fermentation to produce ethanol, and
in biogas reactors to produce methane. Scientists are researching
the use of algae to produce liquid fuels and bacteria to convert
various forms of agricultural and urban waste into usable fuels.

10. CHEMICALS & ENZYMES
• Microorganisms are used to produce many commercial and
industrial chemicals, enzymes and other bioactive molecules
• Organic acids produced on a large industrial scale by microbial
fermentation include acetic acid produced by Acetobacter
aceti, butyric acid made by the bacterium Clostridium
butyricum, lactic acid made by Lactobacillus and other lactic
acid bacteria, and Citric acidproduced by the mould
fungus Aspergillus niger.

11. BIO-TECHNOLOGY
• Microorganisms are essential tools in biotechnology, biochemistry,
genetics and Molecular Biology.
• The yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces
pombe are important model organisms in science, since they are simple
eukaryotes that can be grown rapidly in large numbers and are easily
manipulated.
WARFARE
• In the Middle ages , as an early example of biological warfare, diseased
corpses were thrown into castles during sieges using catapults or
other siege engines. Individuals near the corpses were exposed to the
pathogen and were likely to spread that pathogen to others.
• In modern times, bioterrorism has included the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror
attack and the 1993 release of anthrax by Aum Shinrikyo in Tokyo.

12. SOIL
• Microbes can make nutrients and minerals in the soil available to
plants, produce hormones that spur growth, stimulate the
plant immune system and trigger or dampen stress responses. In
general a more diverse set of soil microbes' results in fewer plant
diseases and higher yield.
HUMAN HEALTH
(A) HUMAN GUT FLORA
• Microorganisms can form an endosymbiotic relationship with other,
larger organisms. For example, microbial symbiosis plays a crucial
role in the immune system.
• Microorganisms that make up the gut flora in the gastrointestinal
tract contribute to gut immunity, synthesize vitamins such as folic
acid and biotin, and ferment complex indigestible carbohydrates.

13. (B) DISEASE
• Microorganisms are the causative agents (pathogens) in many infectious
diseases. The organisms involved include pathogenic bacteria, causing
diseases such as plague, tuberculosis and anthrax etc.
• Protozoan parasites, causing diseases such as malaria, sleeping
sickness, dysentery and toxoplasmosis etc.
• Fungi causing Diseases such as ringworm, candidiasis, histoplamosis etc.
• pathogenic viruses' diseases such as influenza, yellow fever or AIDS etc.

14. APPLICATIONS
OF
MICROBES

15. FOOD AND DAIRY INDUSTRIES
• Food production, including baking, brewing, and fermenting foods, is hygienic
but not aseptic.
• Naturally occurring microorganisms with specialized or unique properties have
been used for centuries in food production. The basic microbiology of bread-
making has remained substantially the same for thousands of years.
• Other fermentations are used in producing pickles, olives, and sauerkraut.
Virtually every human culture that utilized domesticated milk-producing
animals also developed fermented milk products.
• Although microorganisms from food-processing industries enter the
environment, they have been used safely for centuries. The microbial flora of a
food may include microorganisms found on the raw material, those added
during processing, and those surviving preservation, treatment, or storage.

16. • Mushroom production is one of the few large‐scale commercial applications
of microbial technology for bioconversion of agricultural and forestry waste
materials to valuable foods.
• There are peer-reviewed studies [in mice] that show that mushrooms may
help with tumor suppression, virus suppression, blood sugar regulation, and
cholesterol lowering.
• Genetic modification by molecular methods provides a valuable alternative
strategy for strain improvement. glucoamylase gene from Saccharomyces
diastaticus has been cloned and expressed in brewer's yeast.

17. AGRICULTURE
• The history of introduction of naturally occurring microorganisms into
the environment for agricultural purposes provides extensive data on
the release of genetically modified microorganisms.
• The microorganisms that have attracted the greatest attention for
agricultural applications include:
• Bacillus thuringiensis (the source of BT toxin) and baculoviruses used
as insecticides
• The toxins from different strains are specific to certain lepidopteran,
dipteran, and coleopteran insect pests.

18. • bacteria that fix nitrogen in soil and rhizobia that fix nitrogen in association
with leguminous plant roots.
• Leguminous crops form symbiotic associations with host-
specific Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium species that fix nitrogen in a form
that can be used by the plant, thus increasing agricultural yield.
• These nitrogen-fixing bacteria have attracted considerable attention with
respect to genetic improvement.

19. BIOREMEDIATION &WASTE TREATMENT
• Biodegradation of pollutants in the environment has used both naturally
occurring as well as genetically modified microorganisms
• Trichloroethylene (TCE) is the contaminant on the Environmental Protection
Agency list (1985) most frequently reported at hazardous waste sites.
• TCE and other chlorinated alkenes present a serious groundwater
contamination problem because they are suspected carcinogens that resist
biodegradation in the environment Recently, an aerobic, methane-oxidizing
bacterium that degrades TCE has been isolated; in pure culture it degrades TCE
at concentrations commonly observed in groundwater.
• The most extensive and intensive application of microorganisms released into
the environment is in domestic waste treatment, where they are used to
reduce the biological oxygen demand and often to reduce the toxicity of
sewage effluents.

20. • Sludge digesters, settling ponds, trickling filters, and enhanced
degradation systems depend on microbial processes. Sewage sludge
from large digesters, when pumped into an evaporation pond,
represents a massive release of microorganisms into the
environment.
• Yet effluent from a properly operated activated sludge processor or
trickling filter poses neither public nor environmental health
problems. The history of releasing treated sewage effluent into the
environment argues convincingly that these procedures are safe.
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are ubiquitous pollutants that are
physically inert and poorly soluble in water. Although PCBs were
believed to be refractory to biodegradation, many PCBs containing
fewer than four chlorines per molecule can be degraded biologically.

21. • Field studies on degradation of PCB in soil treated with nutrients
and inoculated with PCB-degrading bacteria have been conducted
near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Biodegradation increased markedly in
the inoculated soils. Gene-probe analyses and growth of the
microorganism in culture demonstrated that the added microbial
strain survived.

22. Genetic Engineering
• Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct
manipulation of an organism ‘s genome using biotechnology.
• Genetic engineering alters the genetic makeup of an organism using
techniques that remove heritable material, or that introduce DNA prepared
outside the organism either directly into the host or into a cell that is then
fused or hybridized with the host.
• Investigators have sought, by genetic modification, to combine several
degradative steps in a single microorganism to be used for destroying
pollutants in activated sludge.

23. • Modified microorganisms survived and functioned with no adverse
effects on the rest of the microbial community and with no transfer
of the new genetic information to indigenous microorganisms.
• Genetic modifications also may provide significant improvements in
the rates of degradation and the range of toxic pollutants subject to
degradation.
• In medicine, genetic engineering has been used to mass-produce
insulin, human growth hormones, follistim (for treating infertility),
human albumin, monoclonal antibodies, antihemophilic factors,
vaccines,and many other drugs.

24. Medicines
Vaccine Development By Recombination-A gene may be programmed
to produce an antiviral protein in a bacterial cell. Once sealed into the
DNA, the bacteria is now effectively re-programmed to replicate this
new antiviral protein.
• Recombinant engineered vaccines are being extensively explored,
especially to eradicate infectious diseases, allergies, and cancers.
Phage Therapy-Phage therapy, viral phage therapy, or phagotherapy
is the therapeutic use of bacteriophages to treat pathogenic bacterial
infections.
• Bacteriophages are not a fully established alternative to antibiotics
as an antibacterial therapeutic. However, they hold great promise
not only for tackling antibiotic-resistant infections, but also for
treating at-risk patients that are less tolerant to antibiotics such as
infants, pregnant women, and immunocompromised patients.

25. • Antibiotic Production-Antibiotics are produced by several groups
of microbes such as bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes as their natural
defense system against other microbes living in their vicinity. Soils are
home to a large and diverse population of microorganisms due to its
heterogeneous nature.

26. Mining and Mineral Recovery
• The principles of microbial biogeochemistry and the potential for
recovering minerals through improved microbial processes may be
exploited within the next decade.
• Thiobacilli are autotrophic and can derive their energy from the
oxidation of sulfur compounds or ferrous iron. Techniques for
manipulating the genes of this group of microorganisms to enhance
leaching of copper and uranium are being developed.

27. • Commercial bioleaching operations in the mining industry
represent another application of microorganisms—treatment of
ores in heaps or pits. Adverse environmental effects have not been
reported from the introduction of improved bacterial strains for
mining applications of biotechnology.
• Although genetic technology as applied to this group of microbes is
less advanced than that for other microorganisms, plasmids have
been constructed that may enhance the recovery of gold from ores
by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans and increase the organism's
resistance to arsenic compounds.

28. Bio Fuel Production
• Biofuel research is currently an area of immense interest due to the increase
in global energy demand by emerging economies and the recent increases in
global oil prices.
• Multiple approaches are currently being researched for the use of
microorganisms in the production of various biofuel (e.g. alcohols,
hydrogen, biodiesel, and biogas) from multiple starting materials.
• the fungi Penicillum capsulatum and Talaromyces emersonii the thermophilic
actinomycete Thermomonospor fusca, the
hyperthermophile Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus, and several other
microorganisms helps to degrade Hemicellulose (mainly xylans) to xylose.

29. • A promising approach for the production of ethanol is indirect fermentation. In
this approach, starting plant material is pyrolyzed (burned) to produce Syngas.
Syngas, which consists primarily of CO, CO2, and hydrogen, is converted to
ethanol by acetogenic bacteria.
• Clostridium acetobutylicum have long been known for their ability to produce
butanol, isobutanol, and propanols as products of sugar metabolism.
• In a recent breakthrough, researchers at University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA) used several modifications in the amino acid production pathways in E.
coli to produce alcohols (n-propanol, n-butanol, isopropanol, 2-methyl-1-
butanol, and 3-methyl-1-butanol) from E. coli.

30. “Before 50 Years we are looking for the Human
solutions of Microbial Problems, but for the next 50
years we will be looking for the Microbial Solution of
Human Problems.”
CONCLUSION

31. REFERENCES
• Madigan, M.; Martinko, J., eds. (2006). Brock Biology of
Microorganisms (13th ed.). Pearson Education. p. 1096. ISBN 978-0-321-
73551-5.
• National Research Council (US) Committee on Scientific Evaluation of the
Introduction of Genetically Modified Microorganisms and Plants into the
Environment. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1989.
• Past Experience with the Introduction of Microorganisms into the
Environment. https://doi.org/10.17226/1431.
• Understanding Our Microbial Planet: The New Science of Metagenomics A
20-page educational booklet providing a basic overview of metagenomics
and our microbial planet.
• "Uncharted Microbial World: Microbes and Their Activities in the
Environment" Report from the American Academy of Microbiology.

32. PRESENTED BY
Ankit Dimri
Chandra Awasthi
(Kamet Association of
Research & Development)
Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India