Microbiology-An Introduction

 

MICROBIOLOGY 

It is the science which deals with the study of microorganisms. Microorganisms are the small organisms which cannot be seen through naked eyes but can be seen with a special instrument called microscope Microorganism can be divided into five groups bacteria, virus, fungi, algae and protozoa. So on the basis of their study, different branches of microbiology are: bacteriology, virology, pathology immunology , phycology and mycology etc.

Bacteriology 

It is a science which deals with the study of bacteria and their relationship with medicine,industries and agriculture. so it involves the roles of bacteria in the manufacturing of foods, production of antibiotics, probiotics drugs, vaccines ,insecticides ,james and solvents . These bacteria program to make various substances that are used in food , science ,agriculture and medicine Louise Pasture is known as father of bacteriology. So it is the one of the subdivision of microbiology which involves the identification ,classification and characterization of bacterial species.  Also bacteria is known as the smallest of all living organisms Theomargarita namibiensus is known as the largest bacteria and it is very interesting fact that this bacteria is large enough to be visible to the naked eye.

 Types of bacteria

 Morphologically bacteria are divided into five basic groups coccus ,bacillus, spiral ,coryneform  and filamentous

Virology

It is the subdivision of microbiology which deals with the study of viruses, their taxonomy, disease producing properties and genetics. In general viruses contain two parts one central nucleic acid that carries the information necessary for viral application surrounds by the protein coat. Viruses are discovered by the Dmitri Ivanovsky in 1892.A single virus generally named as virion and is made up of a set of genes bundled within a protective protein shell called capsid. Based on their host viruses can be classified into three types namely animal viruses, plant viruses and bacteriaphages

 A few years ago HIV dominated the headlines and today corona virus dominated the society.With the globalization virus infections spreading day by day so diagnosis of these viruses become more important ,so virology should aim to move beyond diagnostic and be more directly involved with the patients. Also in future ,there will be a close contact between humans and animals so many diseases would occur in future.  So virology plays a vital role.

 Mycology 

It is the another subdivision of microbiology which deals with the study of fungi like mushrooms and yeast and there useful role in medicines and inindustries Similarly medical mycology is the study of fungus organism that cause disease in humans as it includes the understanding at the system organizational and molecular lelevel So it provides a platform that has given rise to use of fungi in industry, agriculture, food and feed medicine and health . Mycologist is the person or someone who works with the fungi which are living organisms such as yeast and mushroom  It is the well known fact that mushrooms produce large amounts of vitamin D when exposed to UV light

 Examples of drugs

There are few examples of drugs that are produced from the fungi or the molds like Penicillin,psilocybin,cephalosporin and ciclosporin.

Role of mycology

 Mycology plays an important role in the agricultural industry as we know that phytopathologist study plant diseases which affect the crops and we know that fungi are major pest for crops but also act as symbiosis and allow plants to extract nutrients and water from the soil . So it is necessary to distinguish between advantages and disadvantages of fungi . Also fungi are used as pesticides and can kill targeted insects . The another branch of mycology is mycotoxicology i.e the study of fungi which produces toxins.

Parasitology 

It is the subdivision of microbiology which deals with the study of biology of parasites and parasitic diseases. Also including the distribution of parasites (molecular ,biology and clinical aspects)  including the host response to these agents. There are three main classes of parasites which causes disease in humans that are protozoa ,helminths, and ectoparasite.Among these there are few parasites which causes diseases and are not visible to naked eyes like pin worms ,tape worms, round worms ,and flat worms.

The function of parasites is to find out the direct interaction of the host and the parasite and their reaction.

Major points about parasitology

• The foremost thing about the parasitology is to understand the life cycle and the developmental stages of parasites for positive diagnosis of disease.

• Some of the immunologically mechanism to combat parasites pathogens now a days have been evolved but it depends upon the size of invading organism.

• This is the known fact that parasitic organism may be facultative or require obligated interaction with the host if we know about the life cycle and the developmental stages of parasites. 

Some of the parasites have simple life cycle whereas the other one has complicated.

Immunology

 It is the branch of the microbiology which deals with the study of  the immune systems of the human beings to protect body from the attack of microbes. So immunology plays an important role in the field of microbiology is the development of vaccines, antibiotics and improvement of therapies for inflammatory diseases. As human being have three types of immunity i.e innate ,adaptive and passive.  In innate immunity we know that everybody have their natural immunity this is a type of general protection  from invading microbes. Adaptive immunity is the immunity which develops in the human beings throughout their lives. And in passive immunity it is provided with the antibodies given to the persons for a disease rather than producing then through their own immune system

 So immunology is a very important branch in the medical and Biological Science.

Advantages of microbiology

• It plays an important role in the field of agriculture,as it helps to resolve various problems like diseases and decrease yield of crops.

• To increase the yields in industries like fuel and drugs pharmaceutical, researchers have done various researches with the use of microflora.

• In medicinal world, use of various microbes helps in curing of various diseases.

• Fermented foods ,food preservation, food production with the help of microorganism is done which is  today’s choice of microbiologist.

• To improve the quality of soil, study of soil microorganisms should be done

• Diseases caused by the microbes in animals is studied under veterinary microbiology

Overall we can say that , development and improvement in any field depends upon microbes and their study i.e called MICROBIOLOGY

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