1. Microbial Biotechnology
Lecture:6
Microbial Biotechnology

2. Bacteria have a variety of important uses:
Help make interesting food (buttermilk, yogurt, cheese, sauerkraut, pickles, and olives, etc…)
Decompose organic matter (recycle nutrients from dead organisms; break down sewage into simpler compounds)
Nitrogen fixation (chemically changes nitrogen gas, N2, into ammonia, NH3, so plants can make amino acids)
Human health (bacteria on skin help prevent infection & bacteria in gut helps digest food & make vitamins)
Biotechnology (used to make antibiotics, insulin, human growth hormone, vitamins, and other drugs)

3. A minority (less than 1%) of bacteria cause disease in humans, animals, and plants.
Bacteria can cause a variety of diseases:
Food Poisoning
Tuberculosis
Cholera
Bacterial Meningitis
Pneumonia
Tetanus

4. Antibiotics can only be used to treat bacterial infections!
Target specific structures on bacteria to kill them.
First made from a fungus (penicillin), now most are made artificially.
Unfortunately, antibiotic resistance (where the antibiotic doesn’t kill the target bacteria anymore) is becoming a major problem.

5. Vaccines can only be used to prevent infections (both viral and bacterial) from leading to disease.
Made from a weakened virus, inactivated virus, or by using only part of the virus/bacteria itself.

6. Bacteria and their energy
Autotrophs
Chemotrophs
Heterotrophs

7. Autotrophs
Make their own energy
Using Solar energy
Eg. Cyanobacteria

8. Chemotrophs
Make own Energy
Using Chemical energy
Eg. Archaebacteria

9. Heterotrophs
Obtain food
By eating
Eg. E-coli

10. Bacteria Respiration
Obligate Anaerobes
Facultative Anaerobes
Obligate Aerobes
- Live without Oxygen
- Can live with or without oxygen
- Cannot live without oxygen.

11. Bacteria Reproduction
Binary Fission
Conjugation
Spore Formation

12. Prokaryotes, such as bacteria, propagate by binary fission
Prokaryotes, such as bacteria, propagate by binary fission. For unicellular organisms, cell division is the only method used to produce new individuals. In both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, the outcome of cell reproduction is a pair of daughter cells that are genetically identical to the parent cell.

13. Bacterial conjugation is the transfer of genetic material between bacterial cells by direct cell-to-cell contact or by a bridge-like connection between two cells.

14. When the bacteria is starving or senses a change in the environment, like extreme temperatures and drought, they will produce a spore. This spore is a protective, thick cell wall and can help the bacteria survive for several years by living in a dormant state. The spore is made up of few things but includes peptidoglycan, cytoplasm, water, and bacterial DNA. Once environmental conditions improve, the spore will break.

15. Symbiosis
Close relationship between to species in which at least one species benefits from the other
Live together for LIFE

16. Parasitism
Bacteria exploit the host cell, injuring them
Eg. Mychobacterium tuberculosis

17. Mutualism
Symbiosis in which two of the species live together in such a way that both benefit from the relationship
Eg. E-coli

18. Nitrogen Fixations
Process by which nitrogen in the atmosphere is converted into a form that can be used by living things