TAKE NOTE PROTOZOA (pro-to-zo`ah; singular: protozoan) also are sin- gle-celled, microscopic

-less than 1% of known microorganisms cause disease organisms with at least one nucleus and numerous intracellular structures.
-that microorganisms are part of the human environment and are therefore
important to human health. HEMLINTS AND ARTHROPODS In addition to organisms properly in the domain of
-study of microbes provides insight into life processes in all life-forms. mi- crobiology, in this text we consider some macroscopic helminths (worms)
-Bubonic plague, also called the Black Death, appeared in the Mediterranean (&IGURE F) and arthropods (insects and similar organisms).
region around 542 a.d.,
-The GERM THEORY OF DISEASE states that microor- ganisms (germs) can invade HISTORICAL ROOTS
other organisms and cause disease.

The Microbes The Greek physician Hippocrates (400 b.c.,), He associated particular signs and
symptoms with certain illnesses and realized that diseases could be transmitted
BACTERIA Among the great variety of microorganisms that have been identified, from one person to another by clothing or other objects.
bacteria probably have been the most thoroughly studied. The majority of bacteria
(singular: bacterium) are single-celled organisms with spherical, rod, or spiral Greek historian Thucydides people who had recovered from the plague could take
shapes, but a few types form filaments. care of plague victims without danger of get- ting the disease again.

ARCHAEA Very similar to bacteria are the group known as Archaea. They and the Varro proposed that tiny invisible animals entered the body through the mouth
bacteria belong in the same Kingdom, called the Monera. A new category of and nose to cause disease.
classification, the Domain, has been erected as being higher than Kingdom. There
are 3 Domains: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya, which are Like Bacteria, the Anton van Leeuwenhoek a Dutch cloth merchant and amateur lens grinder, who
Archaea are single celled and do not have a nucleus. first made and used lenses to observe living microorganisms. Leeuwenhoek
refused to sell his microscopes to others and so failed to foster the development of
ALGAE Many algae (al`je; singular: alga) are single-celled micro- scopic organisms, microbiology as much as he could have.
but some marine algae are large, rela- tively complex, multicellular organisms.
Unlike bacteria, algae have a clearly defined cell nucleus and numerous Carolus Linnaeus developed a general classification system for all living organisms.
membrane-enclosed intracellular structures. All algae photosynthesize their own
food as plants do, and many can move about. Matthias Schleiden and the German zoologist Theodor Schwann formulated the
cell theory, which states that cells are the fundamental units of life and carry out
FUNGI Like algae, many FUNGI (fun`ji; singular: fungus), such as yeasts and some all the basic functions of living things. Today this theory still applies to all cellular
molds, are single-celled microscopic organisms. Some, such as mushrooms, are organisms, but not to viruses.
multicellular, macroscopic organisms. Fungi also have a cell nucleus and
intracellular structures.
 1. The specific causative agent must be found in every case of the disease.
Early Studies 2. The disease organism must be isolated in pure culture.
3. Inoculation of a sample of the culture into a healthy, susceptible animal must
Louis Pasteur (1822), and the English physicist John Tyndall. “swan-necked” flasks produce the same disease.
(Figure 1.8). He boiled infusions (broths of foodstuffs) in flasks, heated the glass 4. The disease organism must be recovered from the inoculated animal.
necks, and drew them out into long, curved tubes open at the end. Air could enter
the flasks without being subjected to any of the treatments that critics had claimed IMMUNIZATION
destroyed its effectiveness. Airborne microorganisms could also enter the necks of
the flasks, but they became trapped in the curves of the neck and never reached Lady Mary Ashley Montagu, introduced a kind of immunization to England.
the infusions.
-This tech- nique, called variolation, was used at first by only a few prominent
-He discovered that carefully se- lected yeasts made good wine, but that mixtures people, but eventually it became widespread.
of other microorganisms competed with the yeast for sugar and made wine taste
oily or sour. Edward Jenner real- ized that milkmaids who got cowpox did not get small- pox,
and he inoculated his own son with fluid from a cowpox blister.
-pasteurization
ELIE -ETCHNIKOFF Metchnikoff was one of the first scientists to study the body’s
-went on to contribute to the development of vaccines. The best known of his vac- defenses against invading microorganisms.
cines is the rabies vaccine,
-a pioneer in immunology
Tyndall delivered another blow to the idea of spon- taneous generation when he
arranged sealed flasks of boiled infusion in an airtight box. -discovered that cer- tain cells in the body would ingest microbes. He named those
cells phagocytes, which literally means “cell eating.”
Robert Koch Koch also found a way to grow bacteria in pure cultures—cultures
that contained only one kind of organ- ism. Charles Chamberland developed a porcelain filter to remove bacteria from water
in 1884,
-Koch identified the bacterium that causes anthrax, a highly contagious and lethal
disease in cattle and some- times in humans. VIROLOGY

Koch’s outstanding achievement was the formulation of four postulates to Martinus Beijerinck determined why such filtrates were infectious and was thus
associate a particular organism with a specific disease. the first to characterize viruses. The term virus had been used ear- lier to refer to
poisons and to infectious agents in general. Beijerinck used the term to refer to
Koch’s Postulates, which provided sci- entists with a method of establishing the specific pathogenic (disease-causing) molecules incorporated into cells.
germ theory of disease, are as follows:
Wendell Stanley crystal- lized tobacco mosaic virus in 1935, showing that an agent Antibiotics
with properties of a living organism also behaved as a chemical substance
-began in 1917 with the observation that certain bacteria (actinomycetes) stopped
-The crystals consisted of protein and ribonucleic acid (RNA). the growth of other bacteria.

-Viruses were first observed with an electron microscope in 1939. In 1928 Fleming (Figure 1.16) observed that a colony of Penicillium mold
contaminating a culture of Staphylococcus bacteria had prevented growth of
By 1952 the American biologists Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase had bacteria adjacent to itself.
demonstrated that the genetic material of some viruses is another nucleic acid,
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). -Fleming discovered the antibacterial properties of penicillin.

1953 the American postdoctoral student James Watson and the English Gerhard Domagk and one of the drugs, prontosil, saved the life of his daughter. In
biophysicist Francis Crick determined the structure of DNA. 1939 he was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work, but Hitler refused to allow him to
make the trip to receive it.
CHEMOTHERAPY
-of Domagk’s work led to the de- velopment of isoniazid,
Materia Medica in the first century a.d. This five-volume work listed a num- ber of
substances derived from medicinal plants still in use today—digitalis, The development of antibiotics resumed with the work of Selman Waksman, an
antibiotic produced by soil bacteria, products. He coined the term antibiotic in
1941 to describe actinomy- cin and other products he isolated.
Early in the sixteenth century the Swiss physician Au- reolus Paracelsus used
metallic chemical elements to treat diseases—antimony for general infections and -less toxic drug streptomycin in 1943.
mercury for syphilis.
-remains. Even the sea has yielded antibiotics, especially from the fungus
In the mid-seventeenth century Thomas Sydenham, an English physician, Cephalosporium acremonium.
introduced cinchona tree bark to treat malaria.
The Italian microbiologist Giuseppe Brotzu noted the absence of disease organisms
Paul Ehrlich, the first serious researcher in the field of chemotherapy in seawater where sewage entered, and he determined that an antibiotic must be
present.
-Ehrlich was a pioneer in the development of chemotherapy for infectious disease.
 First proof of Germ Theory of Disease with B.
anthracis discovery (Robert Koch)
1677
Observed "little animals" (Antony Leeuwenhoek)
1881
1796 Growth of Bacteria on solid media (Robert Koch)

First scientific Small pox vaccination (Edward Jenner)

1882
1850 Outlined Kochs postulates (Robert Koch)

Advocated washing hands to stop the spread of disease

1882
(Ignaz Semmelweis)
Developed acid-fast Stain (Paul Ehrlich)
1861
1884
Disproved spontaneous generation (Louis Pasteur)
Developed Gram Stain (Christian Gram)
1862
1885
Supported Germ Theory of Disease (Louis Pasteur)
First Rabies vaccination (Louis Pasteur)
1867
1887
Practiced antiseptic surgery (Joseph Lister)
Invented Petri Dish (R.J. Petri)
1876
1892 1983

Discovered viruses (Dmitri Iosifovich Ivanovski) Polymerase Chain Reaction invented (Kary Mullis)

1899 1995

Recognized viral dependence on cells for First microbial genomic sequence published (H.
reproduction (Martinus Beijerinck) influenzae) (TIGR)

1900
 ADDITIONAL
Proved mosquitoes carried the yellow fever agent
(Walter Reed) Hooke: Observed and described cells under a microscope.

1910 Leeuwenhoek: Discovered bacteria, protozoa, and sperm cells.

Discovered cure for syphilis (Paul Ehrlich) Pasteur: Established germ theory of disease, developed
pasteurization, and created the first rabies vaccine.
1928
Koch: Disproved spontaneous generation and developed Koch's
postulates.
Discovered Penicillin (Alexander Fleming)
Spallanzani: Disproved spontaneous generation through experiments.
1977
Semmelweis: Discovered importance of handwashing in preventing
Developed a method to sequence DNA (W. Gilbert & F. disease.
Sanger)
Lister: Developed antiseptic surgery.
Jenner: Developed the first vaccine for smallpox.

Metchnikoff: Discovered phagocytosis, a process by which white

blood cells engulf and destroy bacteria.

Beijerinck: Discovered the first virus, the tobacco mosaic virus.

Ehrlich: Developed the first effective treatment for syphilis.

Fleming: Discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic.