INTRODUCTION TO APPLIED & ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY

1. INTRODUCTION TO APPLIED & ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY Lecture 1 MB433 Spring 2009 Gill Geesey

2. Assignment #1 • Text reading assignment: Chapter 1 & 2 • Be prepared to discuss in class on Wednesday Aug 30th

3. Applied Microbiology • The exploitation of microorganisms, their activities, and their products for the benefit of society.

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 and their potential use in remediating sites that have been disturbed.

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 emerged to study microbes in their natural environment rather than as pure cultures in the laboratory

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

8. MICROORGANISMS IN THE ENVIRONMENT • They are ubiquitous – occur everywhere • In and on the body • Things we touch, use, eat and drink • Wet surfaces – biofilms • Plants • Deep subsurface • Extraterrestrial?

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:Define microbial community structure and function under in-situ conditions • 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