Important Applications of Microbiology:

Important Applications of Microbiology:

Microbiology and pharmaceutical research

Some of the considerable applications of microbiology are as discussed below:

Microbiology is one the main branches of applied sciences. It exceptional applications in the field of medical microbiology, soil microbiology, food microbiology, water and wastewater microbiology, extraction of metals, microbial technology, industrial microbiology and environmental microbiology containing applications of microorganisms as biosensors are discussed as fellow:

1.                Systematic study of Microorganism:

It give us the information about various types of microorganisms which enables us to reveal their structural and functional aspects, identifying and differentiating them, their classifications, naming, essential needs regarding their nutrition, to isolate and purify them as pathogens of plant and human, to develop phylogenetic relationships (relationships of various developmental stages during the evolution of an organism) and to interpret the origin of life itself.

systematic study of microorganisms

2.               Microorganisms as a source of food:

Besides edible fungi such as mushrooms, microorganisms are also now used in the production of single cell protein in the form of bacteria, cyanobacteria, yeasts, and fungi as animal feed or human food. Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, Thailand, Israel, and America produces algal microbes on large scale. Various microbe synthesizing products are now utilized as human food such as cellulose or lignocellulose. Animal feed are also based on different microbial products.

3.              Fermented Food Products:

 Microorganisms are utilized in the manufacture of a large number of fermented foods such as sourdough bread, leavened bread, flavours and fermented milk products. The fermented milk products include cheese, yoghurt and many other products.

Fermentation by microorganisms

4.              Fermented Vegetables:

 The important fermented vegetables are sauerkraut that is obtained from cabbage and Kimchi obtained from fermented vegetables in Korea.

Various fermented vegetables

5.              Fermented meats and Fermented Fish:

Fermented fish and fermented meats are utilized in various parts of the world because of their increasing retentivity, otherwise the fish and meats are extremely perishable.

6.              Fermentation and Beverage Products:

Beer, rice wine, tempeh, vinegar, soya sauce too are fermented products.

7.               Preservation of Food:

Microbiology has been playing vital role in preservation of food by appertization and pasteurization that is commercially sterile food and by heat processing, prevention of spoilage of canned food, irradiation, aspectic packaging, ionizing radiation, UV radiation, high pressure processing that is low temperature storage, pascalization and chemical preservation ( esters, organic acids, sulphur dioxide and nitrites).

Food microbiology gives the tools for prevention of food borne illness caused by bacterial and non-bacterial agents. The food borne illness agents among the nematodes and helminthes are Platyhelminthes that are tapeworms and liver flukes and roundworms such as Trichinella spiralis. Among the protozoa, the agents that are causing food borne diseases are Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia.

Various Food Preserves

8.              Microbial Diseases:

Microorganisms are the leading cause of several diseases which are spreading worldwide and causing serious health issues. Microbiology provides a number of tools for the treatment and control of such diseases.

Cholera vector illustration

9.              Industrial Microbiology:

Various products obtained from microbial metabolism after microbial processing of raw material have been produced on industrial scale. These include high value drugs, chemicals, fuels and electricity.

Microbiology in different industrial processes

10.        Microbes as a Source of Enery:

Several substrates can be utilized as a source of energy such as methanogenic bacteria are source of biogas. The methanococcus and methanobacterium produce methane gas by utilizing CO₂ as an electron acceptor. In japan, for the faster production of methane gas, a new specie of methanobacterium has been evolved that is M. cadomensis 23 strain. Ethanol can also be utilized for the manufacture of gasohol by mixing 20 percent ethanol and 80 percent gasoline.

11.           Degradation of cellulose and lignin:

Trichoderina reesei can be utilized degrading cellulose because it is producing extracellular cellulase. The white rot fungus Sporotrichum pulverulentum which is a cellulase negative organism, whoever a mutant of it has been produced which can degrade wood and kraft lignocellulase actively. Now biological pulp has been produced in the absence of any chemical treatment for delignification

12.         Mining and Extraction of Metals:

Pyrite (FeS₂) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS₂)  can be degraded by utilizing Thiobacillus ferroxidants and a combination of Thiobacillus organoparpus and Leptospirillium ferroxidants. Iron and sulphur can be oxidized by using archaeal species S.brierlevi and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius that depends on CO₂ or other simple organic compounds for energy. These archeobacterial specie can also degrade chalcopyrite (CuFeS₂) and Pyrite (FeS₂).

Metal extraction process

13.         Recombinant DNA and genetic recombination:

Manufacturing and manipulating genetic material in vitro that is genetic engineering has produced extremely wonderful products such as Recombinant DNA. The genetic recombination is the process of joining DNA from various sources. Different microorganisms have been used to isolate several number of restriction enzymes and restriction endonucleases that have the abilities to cleave or cut double stranded DNA leaving staggered ends.

DNA cutting and manipulation

14.         Hybridoma and preparation of monoclonal antibodies:

A cell which is made by combining antibody-producing B cell with a cancer cell is called as Hybridoma. The resulting hybridoma cells or myeloma contain properties of both parent cells immortality and can also secrete considerable amount of a single specific type of antibody. This phenomenon was discovered by Kohler

15.           Harvesting DNA biotechnology for various public health engineering programmes:

These programmes include manufacturing of an antiviral protein that is interferon prepared by specific animal cells in response to a viral infection, production of somatotrophin that is a human growth hormone, production of human insulin and production of several other vaccines and hormones

The vaccines for diphtheria, cholera, tetanus, viral hepatitis type A and type B, pertussis, influenza, plague, mumps, measles (rubella) poliomyelitis, rabies, typhoid, typhus, rubbela,  and yellow fever have been prepared so far.

16.         Microbes as Biofertilizers:

Microbial technology of nitrogen fixation exploiting symbiotic

Microbial technology involves the nitrogen fixation by symbiotic microoganisms having association with higher or lower plants and nonsymbiotic or asymbiotic relationship that involves the nitrogen fixation by microorganisms independently. The main enzymes that are responsible of converting molecular nitrogen to ammonia involves nitrogenases.

17.          Making smarter and faster computers:

The Archaeobacterium Halobacterium halobium are growing in nature in solar evaporation ponds that have excessive concentration of salts. These salty ponds are present around San Francisco Bay located on the Western coast of USA.

It has been investigated that when the cell of Halobactrium halobium is broken down, it fragments into two main fractions which are red and purple in colour. The purple fraction plays important role in manufacturing computer chips. The protein which is responsible for purple colour is referred to as bactriorhodopsin.

Robert Birge at Syracuse University’s Centre of Molecular Electronics has grown Halobacerium halobium in 5-litre batches and has extracted the protein bacteriorhodopsin from the cells and developed the computer chips which are made up of a thin layer of bacteriorhodopsin.

The chips that are prepared from bacterial sources have the capacity to store more information as compared to conventional silicon chips and can process the information as fast as human brain. These chips must be stored at -4°C.

DNA chip: DNA micro-array