MCB 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Ethanol, Bioremediation, Sugar Alcohol
23 May 2018
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Lecture 1
• Microbiology = study of microbes usually less than 1mm in diameter which cannot be
seen with the naked eye and require some magnification to be seen clearly
o Microbes
▪ Viruses
• Acellular = not truly a living thing
▪ Bacteria
▪ Fungi
• Mycologists = people who study fungi
▪ Protozoans
▪ Prions
• Acellular
o Possible focuses of microbiologists
▪ Medicine—immunology
▪ Food and dairy
▪ Public health—epidemiology
▪ Industrial
▪ Agricultural
▪ Biotechnology (antibiotics, hormones, growth factors, etc.)
▪ Genetic engineering
• GMOs
▪ Recombinant DNA technology = transfer of genetic material from one
organism to another to deliberately alter the DNA and produce a specific
product
▪ Bioremediation = use of microorganisms to restore stability/clean up toxic
pollutants
• Evolution
o Microbes were the first living organisms on earth
o Origin of prokaryotes on earth was 3.5 BYA
o There was no oxygen on earth until 2 BYA so microbes introduced oxygen to the
earth
▪ Made the environment suitable for everyone else
• Microbes and humans
o Only a small fraction of microbes are disease causing
o Historical uses
▪ Bread production
• Microbes produce CO2 which is what makes bread rise
▪ Alcohol production
• Fermentation = sugar → alcohol
o Ethyl alcohol
▪ Cheese production
• Milk = sugar + protein
• Microbes ferment the sugar part of the milk to make cheese
▪ Treatment of wounds/lesions
• Antibiotics
▪ Mining precious metals
• Microbes use minerals for their energy production and we can
extract the minerals from the microbes
▪ Bioremediation = use of biological means to remove pollution
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