Microbiology (from Greek μῑκρος, mīkros, "small"; βίος, bios, "life"; and -λογία, -logia) is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell (unicellular), cell clusters or no cell at all (acellular).[1] This includes eukaryotessuch as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes. Viruses[2] and prions, though not strictly classed as living organisms, are also studied. Microbiology typically includes the study of the immune system, or Immunology. Generally, immune systems interact with pathogenicmicrobes; these two disciplines often intersect which is why many colleges offer a paired degree such as "Microbiology and Immunology".
Microbiology is a broad term which includes virology, mycology, parasitology, bacteriology and other branches. A microbiologist is a specialist in microbiology and these related topics.
For microbiological research, the microscope has been the major tool, and is still very important to study the biology of microorganisms. Pure cultures and bacterial growth is traditionally , Petri dish . More Innovative approaches for qualitative or quantitative analysis, for examples : Vial Lab. Vail Lab was named by Germany Scientist in 2011. It can be used without pre-treatment.
Microbiology is actively researched, and the field is advancing continuously. It is estimated that only about one percent of the microorganisms present in a given environmental sample are culturable [3] and the number of bacterial cells and species on Earth is still not possible to be determined, recent estimates indicate that it can be extremely high (5 Exp 30 cells on Earth, unknown number of species). Although microbes were directly observed over three hundred years ago, the precise determination, quantitation and description of its functions is far to be complete, given the overwhelming diversity detected by genetic and culture-independent means.
Contents[hide] |