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1. INTRODUCTION TO
APPLIED &
ENVIRONMENTAL
MICROBIOLOGY
Chapter 1
BIOM 430 Spring 2013
Gill Geesey

2. Assignment #1
 Text reading assignment: Chapter 1 & 2

3. Applied Microbiology
(Biotechnology)
 The exploitation of microorganisms, their
activities, and their products for the
benefit of society.
 Beverage production
 Dairy products
 Bioremediation of disturbed environments
 Antibiotics

4. Environmental Microbiology
 The study of microorganisms and their
activities in the environment for the
purpose of understanding their role in
maintenance of the biosphere
 Cycling of elements and nutrients
 Influence on global climate

5. Microbial Ecology
 Microbial Ecology is the study of
interactions between populations of
microorganisms and between microbial
populations and organisms in other tropic
levels

6. Key events that led to the development of
Environmental Microbiology as a scientific
discipline
 Rachael Carson published “Silent Spring”
bringing to the public’s attention the poor
condition of the environment
 Emergence of new waterborne and
foodborne pathogens that posed human
health threats
 New technologies have emerged to study
microbes in their natural environment rather
than as pure cultures in the laboratory

7. Applied &
Environmental
Microbiology
Soil
microbiology
Aero-
microbiology
Hazardous
waste/
bioremediation
Aquatic
microbiology
Water quality
Industrial
microbiology
Food safety
Occupational
health/
Infection
control
Diagnostic
microbiology
Biotechnology

8. MICROORGANISMS IN THE
ENVIRONMENT
 They are ubiquitous – occur everywhere
 In and on the body
 10 times more microbial cells than our own cells in
the normal healthy human body
 Things we touch, use, eat and drink
 Wet surfaces – biofilms
 Plant tissue surfaces
 Deep subsurface environment
 Gold mines, oil reservoirs

9. Microorganisms in the Environment
 Viruses – animal & plant pathogens,
bacteriophages
 Prior to the advent of antibiotics,
bacteriophage were being studied as
antibacterial agents. Is this concept still
applicable today?
 Bacteria – pathogens & commensals;
many are saprophytic, some
chemolithotrophic, some photosynthetic

10. Microorganisms in the Environment
 Archaea
 Algae – primary producers, some
pathogens
 Fungi – from microscopic to macroscopic
 Protozoa – parasites & saprophytes

11. Environmental Monitoring
 Challenge:
 Microbes exist as complex communities-not as
pure cultures in the natural environment
 Defining microbial community structure and
function under in-situ conditions is just now
becoming possible
 Isolating microorganisms from their natural
state and studying them in an artificial lab
environment is no longer necessary. Why?
 Isolation of one population from another
consorting population may be impossible...

12. Monitoring approaches
 Molecular methods... Are they the gold
standard?
 No one approach is free of bias
 Best strategy is to use several independent
approaches and compare results

13. Modern Environmental Microbiology
 Discovery and identification of new microbes,
microbial activities, and microbial products
that protect environment
 Use microbial products as pesticides to replace
chemical pesticides with long resident time in
environment. Example of such a product?
 Microbially enhanced oil recovery. Example of a
product?
 Microbially enhanced mineral recovery. Example?
 Bioremediation

14. Modern Environmental Microbiology
 New steps in the cycling of elements
 Anaerobic oxidation of ammonia
 Anaerobic oxidation of methane
 Archaea are much more abundant in the
worlds oceans than initially thought
 What roles do they play there?

15. Goals of the course
 Gain an appreciation for the good
things microbes do in the biosphere
 Appreciate the need to maintain
microbial diversity in the biosphere
 Learn connection between human
health and the health of the
environment-both near and far.