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History of Microbiology
History of Microbiology
Obviously human have had to deal with microbes even before the recorded history. The first record of human using comes from ancient tablets from mid east.
- Babylonians were using yeast to make beer over 8000 years ago and acetic acid bacteria to make vinegar over 6000 years ago.
- About 5000 years ago, Persia (Now Iran) region recorded the wine making.
- The Romans had God for that were specific for microorganisms. The roman God of mold and mildew was “Robigus” and “Robigo” which means crop rust. (Rust is one of the plant disease caused by fungus). God Robigus was very much feared because of crop lost.
- About 2000 years ago, Romans proposed that diseases were caused by tiny animals. But, fundamentalist religions had a strong hold over the progress.
- The real microbiology history starts from 1600s, when people began to make crude lenses and microscopes.
Discovery of Microscope
Discovery of Microscope
Robert Hooke (1635 – 1700)
One maker of microscope (30x magnification) discovered the cell (Latin: cellulae meaning small room) from cross sections of cark. He noticed some microscopic fungi too. [Wikipedia]
Antony Van Leeuwenhock (1632 – 1723)
Lived during same age of Robert Hooke, was an amateur lens and microscope maker. His microscope can magnify 300x times. He was the first to describe the protozoa and bacteria. He observed some bacteria from plagues of his own teeth. He named them as animacules. He was way ahead of his time and many scientists too did not believe him. But now, he recognized as Father of Microbiology. [Wiki]
Disprove of Spontaneous Generation theory
Disprove of Spontaneous Generation theory
At that time, the age old idea of “Spontaneous Generation theory” was the dominant one. The idea that organism originates directly from non-living matter. (Life from non-living) also called as abiogenesis (a – not; bio – life; genesis – origin).
Ex : Maggots were developed spontaneously via recombination of matters in rotting materials. (ex meat)
The microbiology starts when the disprove of Spontaneous generation theory.
Francesco Redi (1626 – 1697) conducted experiment to disprove the spontaneous generation theory. He placed a meat in a jar and covered with net and sealed. The flies laid the egg on the cover/net and maggots developed on the cover. So He established that the origin of maggot was from fly only not from meat.
Lazaro Spallanzani (1729 – 1799) boiled the beef broth for an hour and sealed in a flask. No microbes observed during incubation.
Franz Schulze (1815 – 1873) passed the air through strong acid before contact to beef broth leads no microbial growth during incubation.
Theodor Schwann (1810 – 1882) passed the air through red hot tube before contact to beef broth leads no microbial growth during incubation.
H. Schroder & T. Von Dusch (1850) used cotton plug to filter the air on the mouth of the flask and observed no growth. (Cotton plug for microbial culture and media preparation technique was initiated from now)
Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895) performed “gooseneck experiment”. The nutrient of flask was heated and the untreated – unfiltered air could pass in or out, but the germs settled in the gooseneck and no microbes were observed in the nutrient solution.
His concept of Germs theory of disease (means germs are responsible for the disease not the inert mater) ends the Spontaneous Generation theory.
John Tyndall (1820 -1893) proved that dust carries the germs and if no dust in the air, the sterile broth remained free of microbial growth for indefinite period. He also developed a sterilization method “Tyndallization” , referred as intermittent or fractional sterilization. The subsequent cooling and heating by steam for 3 days will remove the germs and their spores.
Watch this video to understand how spontaneous generation theory was disproved.
Life of Louis Pasteur
Contributions of Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895) [Chemistry Professor, France]
- Disproved the Spontaneous generation theory
- Discovered that fermenting fruit to alcohol by microbes – From now the Fermentation started
- Sorted different microbes giving different taste of wine.
- He selected a particular strain (Yeast) for high quality wine.
- He developed a method to remove the undesired microbes from juice without affecting its quality . Heating the juice at 62.8°C for half-an hour did the job. This technique is called as Pasteurization, which is commonly used in the field of milk industry.
- He discovered that parasites (protozoa) causing pebrine disease of silk worm. He suggested that disease free caterpillars can eliminate the disease.
- He isolated the anthrax causing bacilli from the bloods of cattle, sheep and human being.
- He also demonstrated the virulence (ability of microbe to cause disease) of bacteria
- He developed vaccine (a killed or attenuated microbe to induce the immunity) against rabbis from the brains and spinal cord of rabbit [Wikipedia]
Edward Jenner (1798)
Developed vaccines for small pox disease. He coined the term vaccines.
Robert Koch (1843 – 1810)
Isolated bacilli from bloods of cattle and infected with healthy one and observed the disease. He proved that microorganisms causes the disease. He formulated a sequence procedure to prove that specific microorganism causes the specific disease, called as Koch’s Postulate.
Koch’s postulate
- The agent must be present in every case of the disease.
- The agent must be isolated and cultured in vitro.
- The disease must be reproduced when a pure culture of the agent is inoculated into a susceptible host.
- The agent must be recoverable from the experimentally-infected host.
He isolated tubercle bacillus (Mycobacterium tuberculosis)
He developed a special staining to view Mycobacterium called acid-fast staining.
Discovered and isolated the cholera –causative agent, Vibrio cholerae [Wikipedia]
Walther Hesse & his wife Fannie E. Hesse (1883)
used agar instead of gelatin for preparation of media. Agar goes to solution at 100°C and solidifies at 45°C. Till now this was not replaced by any other substance.
Hans Chrisian Gram (1853 – 1933) developed a staining procedure for differentiating two different group of bacteria based on the cell wall structure (Gram +ve and Gram –ve). The staining is called Gram staining.
Edvin Klebs & Frederich Loeffler discovered the diphtheria bacilli and demonstrated the toxin production in the culture flask.
Emil Von Behring & S. Kitasato devised to produce immunity by injecting the poison (toxin) into animals so that an antitoxin will be developed.
Elic Metchnikoff (Russia) demonstrated that the white blood cells can eat the disease causing bacteria in blood. He called the cells as phagocytes (eating cells) and the phenomenon as phagocytosis.
Paul Erhlich explained the immunity of human. He also the first used a chemical (arsenic) to control the microbial growth (Chemotherapeutic agent)
Joseph Lister (1878) developed Pure culture technique. Pure culture referred as the growth of moss of cells of same species in a vessel. He developed the pure cultures of bacteria using serial dilution technique.
He also discovered that carbolic acid to disinfect the surgical equipments and dressings leads the reduction of post-operational deaths/infections.
Alexander Fleming (1928) identified Penicillium notatum inhibiting Staphylococcus aureus and identified the antibiotic Penicillin [Wikipedia]
Domagh, 1935 used sulfanilamide for chemotherapeutic treatment
Selman A Waksman, 1945 identified Streptomycin antibiotic from soil bacterium. He also coined the term antibiotics (referring a chemical substance of microbial origin which is in small quantity exert antimicrobial activity).
Rene Dubos, 1939 isolated gramicidin and tyrocidin from Bacillus brevis
Virus Research
Virus Research
Unknowingly, Edward Jenner handled the small pox virus and controlled by vaccines.
Same time, L. Pasteur also handled the rabies virus. He also noticed that these microbes cannot be grown in lab condition and can not be seen under microscopes.
Charles Chambeland developed the porcelain filter, which filter the bacteria but allow the rabis causative agent.
1892, Iwanowski discovered the causative agent of tobacco mosaic disease, which was filterable. By spraying the bacteria free filtrate to healthy plant led to TM disease.
1935, Wendell Stanley crystallized the TMV. These crystals can cause the disease.
1936, F.C.Bawden explained that the crystalline powder contains protein and nucleic acid
A.Gierer and G.Schramm (1956) proved that the nucleic acid is responsible for infectious.
F.W.Twort and F.d’Herelle (1915) discovered the bacteriophages (bacterial viruses)
SOIL MICROBIOLOGY
Helriegel & wilfarth found the symbiotic relation between legumes and bacteria.
Leishman (1858) demonstrated that the nodules in legume were formed by bacteria.
Muntz (1878) found the role of bacteria in nitrification in sewage water system.
Martinus Willium Beijerinck (1851 – 1931)
- Developed the enrichment technique to isolate various group of bacteria.
- Isolated sulphur reducing bacteria and sulphur oxidizing bacteria from soil
- Isolated free-living nitrogen fixing bacterium, Azotobacter from soil,
- Root nodulating bacterium, Rhizobium, Lactobacillus, green algae were identified by him
- He confirmed the Tobacco mosaic virus causes disease and it incorporated in the host plant to reproduce. [Wiki]
Sergei Winogradsky (1856 – 1953)
- Microorganisms involved in N cycle, C cycle, S cycle
- Nitrification process in soil
- Autotrophy nutrition of bacteria
- Chemolithotrophy nutrition of soil bacteria
- Anaerobic nitrogen fixing Clostridium pasteurianum
- Winogradsky column to differentiate soil autotrophic bacteria [Wiki]
J.G. Lipman and P.E.Brown (1903) explained the ammonification process in soil.
L. Hiltner (1904) coined the term “rhizosphere” (refers the region around the root surface) where the microbial activity was very high.
J. Dobereiner (1976) isolated Azospirillum, an associative nitrogen fixing organism which is commonly present in the grasses. The associative symbiotic Nitrogen fixation was started from here. She also isolated many associative nitrogen fixers from cereal roots.
B. Frank (1885) coined the term mycorrhiza (association between fungus and higher plant roots).
Barbara Mosse and J.W. Gerdemann identified the endomycorrhiza which can able to colonize the agricultural crops.
Winogradsky column principles - by Ap Tech Nova
Youtube video from Educator.com
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