WCCCD

Dr. Curtis Greene

Chapter 1

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Lecture PowerPoint to accompany

Foundations in
Microbiology
Sixth Edition

Talaro
Chapter 1
The Main Themes of
Microbiology

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Microbiology
• The study of organisms ordinarily too
small to be seen without magnification
• Microorganisms include:
– bacteria
– viruses
– fungi
– protozoa
– helminths (worms)
– algae

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 Branches of Study Within
Microbiology
• Immunology
• Public health microbiology and epidemiology
• Food, dairy and aquatic microbiology
• Biotechnology
• Genetic engineering and recombinant DNA
technology

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For billions of years, microbes have influenced the
development of the earth’s habitats and the evolution
of other life forms. They are usually the first sign of life
or are an indicator of the presence of life. The time-line
for life on is seen in figure 1.1.

origin of life - first appeared over 4 billion years ago

procaryotes - appeared about 3.5 billion years ago
eucaryotes – appeared about 1.8 billion years ago
humans - relatively new when compared to bacteria on
this scale.

Another indication of the influence bacteria exert is how

ubiquitous they are. Microbes can be found nearly
everywhere on earth. 5
Fig. 1.1

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 Microbes are Involved in
• Nutrient production and energy flow
• Decomposition
• Biotechnology
– production of foods, drugs and vaccines
• Genetic engineering
• Bioremediation
• Infectious disease

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 Infectious Diseases

• Nearly 2,000 different microbes cause

diseases.
• 10 B new infections/year worldwide
• 13 M deaths from infections/year worldwide

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 Characteristics of Microbes
• Procaryotes and eukaryotes
– procaryote – microscopic, unicellular
organisms, lack nuclei and membrane-bound
organelles
– eucaryote – unicellular (microscopic) and
multicellular, nucleus and membrane-bound
organelles
• Viruses
– acellular, parasitic particles composed of a
nucleic acid and protein
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 Insert figure 1.5
basic cell and virus structures

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 Microbial Dimensions
• Procaryotes are measured in
micrometers.
• Viruses in nanometers
• Helminths are measured in millimeters.

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Insert figure 1.7
measurements

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Historical Foundations of Microbiology

• 300 years of contributions by many

• Prominent discoveries include:
– microscopy
– scientific method
– development of medical microbiology
– microbiology techniques

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Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
• Dutch linen merchant
• First to observe living
Insert figure 1.8 microbes
• Single-lens magnified
up to 300X
• Known as the father
of bacteriology and
protozoology

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Insert figure 1.9 (a)
microscope

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Fig. 1.9.b

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 Spontaneous Generation
Early belief that some forms of life could arise
from vital forces present in nonliving or
decomposing matter (flies from manure, etc)

Abiogenesis verse Biogenesis

John Needham (spores) Francesco Redi (meat)
Louis Jablot (hay, no spores)
Shultze and Schwann (air)
Louis Pasteur (air, dust, food)
 Scientific Method
• A general approach to explain a natural
phenomenon
• Form a hypothesis - a tentative
explanation that can be supported or
refuted by observation and experimentation
• A lengthy process of experimentation,
analysis and testing either supports or
refutes the hypothesis.

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• Results must be published and repeated
by other investigators.
• If hypothesis is supported by a growing
body of evidence and survives rigorous
scrutiny, it moves to the next level of
confidence - it becomes a theory.
• If evidence of a theory is so compelling
that the next level of confidence is
reached - it becomes a Law or principle.

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Discovery of Spores and Sterilization
• John Tyndall and Ferdinand Cohn
each demonstrated the presence of
heat resistant forms of some microbes.
– Cohn determined these forms to be
endospores.
• Sterility requires the elimination of all
life forms including endospores and
viruses.

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Development of Aseptic Techniques
• Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes – observed
that mothers of home births had fewer
infections than those who gave birth in
hospital
• Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis – correlated
infections with physicians coming
directly from autopsy room to maternity
ward

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• Joseph Lister – introduced aseptic
techniques reducing microbes in
medical settings to prevent infections
– involved disinfection of hands using
chemicals prior to surgery
– use of heat for sterilization

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 Pathogens and Germ Theory of
Disease
• Many diseases are caused by the
growth of microbes in the body and not
by sins, bad character, or poverty, etc.
• Two major contributors:
Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch

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 Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
• Showed microbes caused
fermentation and spoilage
• Disproved spontaneous
generation of microorganisms
Insert figure 1.11 • Developed pasteurization
• Demonstrated what is now
known as Germ Theory of
Disease
• Developed vaccines for anthrax,
cholera, and rabies.
rabies

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 Robert Koch (1843-1910)
• Established Koch’s
postulates - a sequence of
experimental steps that verified
the germ theory
Insert figure 1.12 • Identified cause of anthrax,
TB, and cholera
• Developed pure culture
methods

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 Taxonomy: Organizing,
Classifying and Naming Living
Things
• Formal system originated by Carl von Linné
(1701-1778)
• Concerned with:
– classification – orderly arrangement of organisms
into groups
– nomenclature – assigning names
– identification – discovering and recording traits of
organisms for placement into taxonomic schemes

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 Taxonomy - system for organizing,
classifying & naming living things
• Domain - Archaea, Bacteria & Eukarya
• Kingdom - 5
• Phylum (protozoa & animal)or Division (bacteria, algae, plants, and
fungi)

• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus
• species 29
 Naming Micoorganisms
• Binomial (scientific) nomenclature
• Gives each microbe 2 names:
– Genus - noun, always capitalized
– species - adjective, lowercase
• Both italicized or underlined
– Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus)
– Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis)
– Escherichia coli (E. coli)

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 3 Domains
• Bacteria - true bacteria, peptidoglycan
• Archaea - odd bacteria that live in
extreme environments, high salt, heat,
etc.
• Eukarya-
Eukarya have a nucleus and
organelles

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Evolution - living things change
gradually over millions of years
• Changes favoring survival are retained and less
beneficial changes are lost.
• All new species originate from preexisting
species.
• Closely related organism have similar features
because they evolved from common ancestral
forms. (phylogeny)
• Evolution usually progresses toward greater
complexity.
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Whittaker Classification System
Insert figure 1.15
Woese-Fox System

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