BIOL 257 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Helminths, Medical Microbiology, Invertebrate
Document Summary
Microbiology is a specialized area of biology that deals with living things ordinarily too small to be seen without magnification. Such microscopic organisms are collectively referred to as microorganism, microbes, or several other terms, depending o the kind of microbes or the purpose. They are bacteria, algae, protozoan, helminths (parasitic invertebrate animals such as worms), and fungi. All of these microbes just like plants and animals can be infected by the viruses, which are noncellular, parasitic, protein-coated genetic elements, dependent on their infected host. They can cause harm to the host they infect. Their evolutionary history and impact are intimately connected with the evolution of microbes and with all living organisms, including humans. Studies cell structure and function, their growth and physiology, their genetics, their taxonomy and evolutionary history, and their interactions with the living and nonliving environment. Branches of microbiology: medical microbiology: deals with microbes that cause disease in humans and animals.
