Book Description

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.