Introductory Microbiology

The authors present a basic and accessible introduction to the world of microbiology. In three sections, this book provides both a foundation and overview of the subject. In the first section, 'Microbial Structure and Mode of Life', the structure and functioning of fungi, bacteria and viruses are discussed (with particular attention being paid to their description and discussion of their reproduction and nutrition). The second section, 'Handling Microbes' introduces the methods used to culture, control and study these organisms in the laboratory. The final section covers the 'Isolation, Classification and Identification of Microbes'. This book is essential reading for anyone becoming interested in this subject, whether it be 6th form students, their teachers, or undergraduates.

"Microbiology covers the scope and sequence requirements for a single-semester microbiology course for non-majors. The book presents the core concepts of microbiology with a focus on applications for careers in allied health. The pedagogical features of the text make the material interesting and accessible while maintaining the career-application focus and scientific rigor inherent in the subject matter. Microbiology's art program enhances students' understanding of concepts through clear and effective illustrations, diagrams, and photographs. Microbiology is produced through a collaborative publishing agreement between OpenStax and the American Society for Microbiology Press. The book aligns with the curriculum guidelines of the American Society for Microbiology."--BC Campus website.

Microbiology: An Introduction helps you see the connection between human health and microbiology.

The book is written for the college students to provide wide information about the fundamental aspects of microbiology. The book is designed in such a manner to understand all the basics, principles and recent trends in the field of microbiology. Enough diagrams and pictures are given then and there to understand the chapteIt also covers new concepts in microbiology such as environmental microbiology and biotechnology etc.

The book “Introductory Microbiology” consists of nine chapters covering all the basics required for the beginners in microbiology. The first chapter “Introduction to Microbiology” gives a brief insight of the historical development of microbiology, pioneers in microbiology, developments and various branches of microbiology, and scope of microbiology. As microorganisms are ubiquitous in distribution, a need for the study of microbial techniques for the proper identification of microorganisms to scientists involved in applied research and industry for their exploitation. The author describes the various isolation and enumeration techniques of microorganisms in the second chapter “Isolation and Enumeration of Microorganisms”. The author describes the stains, its types, and various staining methods in the third chapter “Staining Techniques” for the easy identification of various bacteria as they are quite colourless, transparent, and have a refractive index of the aqueous fluids wherein they’re suspended. Microorganisms are too small (nanometers to micrometers) to be seen by our unaided eyes and therefore the microscopes are of crucial importance to view the microbes. Hence the author in the fourth chapter “Microscopy” have described the metric units, properties of light, basic quality parameters of microscopic image, the components of various light and electron microscopes with reference to their working principles, and limitations. The never techniques in microscopy such as confocal, fluorescence, confocal, scanning probe, and atomic force microscope and application have also been discribed. Microbial cells are structurally complex, perform numerous functions, and have a need for carbon, energy, and electrons to construct new cellular components and do cellular work. Hence microorganisms should have a constant supply of nutrients, and a source of energy, which are ultimately derived from the organism’s environment. The author in this fifth chapter “Microbial Nutrition” describes the basic common nutrients required for the microbial growth, nutritional types of microorganisms, nutritional and physical requirements of microbial growth, and the various nutrient uptake mechanisms with a special emphasis on the passive and active transport, group translocation, and Iron uptake. Culture is an in vitro technique of growing or cultivating microorganisms or only other cells in a suitable nutrients medium called a culture medium in the laboratory. A culture medium is a solid or liquid preparation used to grow, transport, and store microorganisms. Different microorganisms require different nutrient materials. All the microbiological studies depend on the ability to grow and maintain microorganisms in the laboratory which is possible only if suitable culture media are available. The author in the sixth chapter “Culture media and methods” have described the historical prospective of the culture medium, important factors for cultivation, common ingredients of a culture medium, classification of culture media based on consistency, nutritiona component, and functiona use, special culture techniques, and some of the commonly used laboratory media have been briefly described. People have been practicing disinfection and sterilization unknowingly since time immemorial, though the existence of microorganisms was unknown. The complete destruction or removal of all living microorganisms or their spores by any physical, chemical, or mechanical means is called sterilization. Sterilization can be accomplished by using heat, filtration, and gases. A satisfactory sterilization process is designed to ensure a high probability of achieving sterility. This author in the seventh chapter “Sterilization” have described the basic principles of sterilization, factors influencing the effectiveness of antimicrobial agents, various physical and chemical agents and other agents of sterilization. The strain development is a primary step, in the process of fermentation or growth studies carried out in any fermentation process or microbiological research, which enables to increase the population of microorganisms from stock culture, to obtain cells in an active, and exponential growth phase. The author in the eigth chapter “Strain development and improvement” have described the historical prospective of fermentation with reference to brewing, and bakers yeast, development of inoculum for bacteria, and fungi. He has described the conventional (Metagenomics, genetic engineering, and mutation selection), and latest strain improvement methods such as the genomic, transcriptome, proteomic, and metabolome analysis. Microbial culture preservation aims at maintaining a microbial strain alive, uncontaminated, without variation or mutation. The author in the ninth chapter “Culture Preservation” describes the relevance of various culture preservation techniques with the objective of maintaining live strains, uncontaminated, and to prevent change in their characteristics.

Introductory Microbiology Lab Skills and Techniques in Food Science covers topics on isolation, identification, numeration and observation of microorganisms, biochemistry tests, case studies, clinical lab tasks, and basic applied microbiology. The book is written technically with figures and photos showing details of every lab procedure. This is a resource that is skills-based focusing on lab technique training. It is introductory in nature, but encourages critical thinking based on real case studies of what happens in labs every day and includes self-evaluation learning questions after each lab section. This is an excellent guide for anyone who needs to understand how to apply microbiology to the lab in a practical setting. Presents step-by-step lab procedures with photos in lab setting. Includes case studies of microorganism causing infectious disease. Provides clinical microbial lab tasks to mimic real-life situations applicable to industry.

Welcome to the wonderful world of microbiology! Yay! So. What is microbiology? If we break the word down it translates to "the study of small life," where the small life refers to microorganisms or microbes. But who are the microbes? And how small are they? Generally microbes can be divided in to two categories: the cellular microbes (or organisms) and the acellular microbes (or agents). In the cellular camp we have the bacteria, the archaea, the fungi, and the protists (a bit of a grab bag composed of algae, protozoa, slime molds, and water molds). Cellular microbes can be either unicellular, where one cell is the entire organism, or multicellular, where hundreds, thousands or even billions of cells can make up the entire organism. In the acellular camp we have the viruses and other infectious agents, such as prions and viroids. In this textbook the focus will be on the bacteria and archaea (traditionally known as the "prokaryotes,") and the viruses and other acellular agents.