Environmental Microbiology Introduction to Environmental Microbiology Course: Companion Site for Environmental Microbiology Instructor: Maier

Chapter 1 - Lecture Objectives: Understand course objectives and how to obtain the grade you want Recall some of the names of your classmates and your instructor Locate course materials on the web Define Environmental Microbiology and articulate its relevance to the human race

Environmental Microbiology – definition The study of microbial fate and activity in air, water and soil, and the resulting impact on human health and welfare. Introduction to Environmental Microbiology Compare with: Microbial Ecology – definition The science that explores interrelationships between organisms and their living and abiotic environment Driving force behind Environmental Microbiology: How can we harness the understanding of environmental microbes to benefit society?

Important Events Leading to Environmental Microbiology A Historical Perspective A) Ancient History 1676 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek - 1st microscope “animalcules” 1830-1900 Louis Pasteur - rejected theory of spontaneous generation - demonstrated presence of microbes in air 1856-1953 Sergei Winogradski - “Father” of Soil Microbiology - nitrification, autotrophy 1843-1910 Robert Koch – Nobel Prize - pure culture technique - Koch’s postulates: a specific organism causes a specific process (e.g., disease)

B) 20th Century C) The Next Millenium 1928 Griffith - bacterial genetics - transformation 1952 Selman Waksman - Principles of Soil Microbiology - Discovery of streptomycin (Nobel Prize) 1953 Watson and Crick - Structure of DNA (Nobel Prize) 1985 Kary Mullis - Polymerase Chain Reaction (Nobel Prize) "Beginning with a single molecule of the genetic material DNA, the PCR can generate 100 billion similar molecules in an afternoon. The reaction is easy to execute. It requires no more than a test tube, a few simple reagents and a source of heat. The DNA sample that one wishes to copy can be pure, or it can be a minute part of an extremely complex mixture of biological materials. The DNA may come from a hospital tissue specimen, from a single human hair, from a drop of dried blood at the scene of a crime, from the tissues of a mummified brain or from a 40,000-year-old wooly mammoth frozen in a glacier." C) The Next Millenium “Bioinformatics”

Modern Environmental Microbiology Soil microbiology Aquatic microbiology Hazardous waste/bioremediation Water quality Food safety Aeromicrobiology Occupational health/infection control Diagnostic microbiology Biotechnology Industrial microbiology