Subdivisions of Microbiology

Subdivisions of microbiology

The world of microorganisms that are the small organisms, living things which cannot be seen with naked eye, comprises those which are microscopic in nature generally unicellular and include yeast, fungi, bacteria ,mycoplasma, viruses ,algae and protozoa. This science tries to understand the beneficial as well as harmful activities of microorganisms and through the understanding, scientist make efforts that the benefits can be increased and damages can be removed. Subdivisions of microbiology are as follows

1. Soil microbiology

It deals with the study of microbes premicrobiology. Soils are excellent culture media for the growth of many types of microbes .A spoonful of soil contains many more microbes than they are equal to the population in the world . Soil microbiology deals with the study of their activities in soil isolation, their role in nature and all the aspects including in their life cycle

2. Water microbiology

It deals with the study of all types of microbes present in water. Its branches include

• microbiology of fresh waters deals with the microbes present in the water bodies having rainwater that is ponds, lakes etc

• marine microbiology is the study of microbes living in the water example various bacteria and marine algae etc.

• Sewage microbiology deals with the study of the microbes found in sewage water . These include a vast variety of microbes including coli forms and some pathogens.

3 .Food microbiology

It is the branch of microbiology which deals with the study of microbes involved in spoilage and manufacturing of food and transmission of disease via food.

It is concerned with the following main subjects

• preservation of food by eliminating microbes responsible for food spoilage

• Deduction and preservation of food poisoning due to pathogenic microbes

• Using Microbes for the production of new varieties of food through fermentation also to preserve foods to include their desired characteristics

• Not focuses only on detection of food spoilage but also to find new preservation techniques

• probiotics use now has been increased worldwide which is the instant source of energy and proteins.

4 .Milk microbiology or dairy microbiology

it has two objects

• to prevent the spoilage of milk

• to produce desirable product of milk

A large number of products are obtained by fermentation of milk and milk products by employing microbes. These products are as follows

• Cheese

• Yogurt

• Butter

• Buttermilk

• Various fermented milks example Vita and Verka

thus dairy microbiology aims at increasing the variety of milk products and including them . At the same time it tries to find the microbial content of milk because many milk borne epidemics of human diseases can be caused if milk is contaminated with pathogens.

5 .Medical microbiology or clinical microbiology

It is the study of various infectious diseases caused by microbes included in medical microbiology. These studies include pathogenicity of such diseases ,their epidemiology and so on immunology which deals with the study to cure the diseases . Some diseases caused by microbes are tuberculosis, typhoid ,malaria, cholera , leprosy and smallpox. Knowledge of pathogenic microbes is valuable that helps in preventing the diseases.

So it provides the cause of infection and antimicrobial susceptibility data to physician.

6 .Agriculture microbiology

It deals with the study of the role of microbes in agriculture microbes, associated with the roots of leguminous plants ,other bacteria found in the vicinity of roots ,also some free living bacteria present in soil and their role in increasing or decreasing the fertility of soil. All these things are investigated under this branch. Nitrogen fixing microbes form a large part of these studies . Bio fertilizers as well as microbial insecticides are developed from the knowledge obtained from this branch of microbiology.

So it has been studied for the decade as it helps to understand the important bacterial strains to minimize agricultural loss, increase soil fertility and harvest.

7 .Industrial microbiology

It is a field of microbiology in which we studied utilization of microbes in industrial processes. Microorganisms are added to the fermentation tanks and useful products are obtained. fermentation is a process in which useful substances are obtained from various substrates utilising different species of microbes in industrial mimicrobiology . It is seen that the raw material must be cheap and readily available . The products obtained are economically high. Practically industrial microbiology is a very important subdivision in microbiology and is directly applied to the welfare of human beings. Some important industries based upon the activity of microbes are as follows

• Chemical industry

• Food industry

• textile industry

• Pharmaceutical industry

• Petroleum and mining industry

• Agriculture industry

• alcohol industry

• Dairy industry

• Leather industry

8 .Microbial genetics and genetic engineering

Genetics of the microbes study in detail under the subdivision microbial genetics ,thus by studying the details of genetic process in the microbes ,scientists try to understand various genetic phenomena.

Genetic engineering involves transfer of genes from one Organism to another to get desirable products important geans coding for special product are isolated from different sources and cloned into bacteria . This bacteria then become the factories for the production of that special product . The genetic engineering is that subdivision of the microbiology under which engineering of gene is studied.

9 .Biotechnology

It is a science that deals the technology by which living organisms can be utilised for the welfare of human being . As among whole the living Organisms, microbes have been proved to be the best material for experimentation and explanation. The spy technology is also a part of microbiology as mostly the microbes are utilised in various studies . In addition to microbial studies, biotechnology also involves various other fields example tissue culture and study of enzymes etc

10 . Exo microbiology

In this branch with the help of microbes ,scientists explore possibilities of life in the outer space. Microbes are widely spread in the space . They are capable of having colonies cause they are having adaptability to any extreme environment like temperature, pressure ,cosmic rays . Mutation of genes are caused by these space conditions, which can allow the formation of mutants of microbes. After screening, these mutants can be produced on large scale and helpful in medicinal world that is drug production.