Pure and Applied Branches of Microbiology

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Pure and applied branches of microbiology Introduction What is micro biology? Micro means ‘tiny’, bio is ’life’ and logy is ‘study’. Therefore micro biology is the study of tiny living organisms which share the world with us. To go by the definition, “Micro biology is the study of living organisms of microscopic size, which include bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa and the infectious agents at the borderline of life that are called viruses”. A detailed study of their form, size, structure, metabolism, reproduction, physiology, classification and their reaction with the environment and its factors is done. Most of these organisms are single-celled, i.e., unicellular, but there are organisms which are multicellular. Generally, the individual microbe isn’t visible with a naked eye, but their colonies are big enough for us to be able to see. They are ubiquitous, i.e., found everywhere possible, even at the extreme conditions. Some of them are harmful to humans, animals and plants. Some of them are beneficial and are being cultured for exploitation. A little bit of history behind this vast field There are a lot of scientists who have contributed for the development in the field of microbiology. I would like to mention some of the major contributors here. Anton von Leeuwenhoek was the first to describe the microbes in detail with accurate diagrams and prepared a microscope by himself. Due to this breakthrough in microbiology, Louis Pasteur, after 200 years was able to relate the ubiquity of microbes with fermentation reactions and pasteurization, and later let many other scientists in finding out that these tiny organisms were the cause of diseases in human, animals as well as plants. Robert Koch identified the causative agents of anthrax ( Baccilus anthrasis) and tuberculosis ( Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and also established Koch postulates. groups of
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