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Microbiology For Dummies (9781119544425) was previously published as Microbiology For Dummies (9781118871188). While this version features a new Dummies cover and design, the content is the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product.





Microbiology is the study of life itself, down to the smallest particle


Microbiology is a fascinating field that explores life down to the tiniest level. Did you know that your body contains more bacteria cells than human cells? It's true. Microbes are essential to our everyday lives, from the food we eat to the very internal systems that keep us alive. These microbes include bacteria, algae, fungi, viruses, and nematodes. Without microbes, life on Earth would not survive. It's amazing to think that all life is so dependent on these microscopic creatures, but their impact on our future is even more astonishing. Microbes are the tools that allow us to engineer hardier crops, create better medicines, and fuel our technology in sustainable ways. Microbes may just help us save the world.


Microbiology For Dummies is your guide to understanding the fundamentals of this enormously-encompassing field. Whether your career plans include microbiology or another science or health specialty, you need to understand life at the cellular level before you can understand anything on the macro scale.





Explore the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells

Understand the basics of cell function and metabolism

Discover the differences between pathogenic and symbiotic relationships

Study the mechanisms that keep different organisms active and alive



You need to know how cells work, how they get nutrients, and how they die. You need to know the effects different microbes have on different systems, and how certain microbes are integral to ecosystem health. Microbes are literally the foundation of all life, and they are everywhere. Microbiology For Dummies will help you understand them, appreciate them, and use them.

Microbiology For Dummies

Introduction 1





About This Book 1





Foolish Assumptions 2





Icons Used in This Book 2





Beyond the Book 3





Where to Go from Here 3





Part 1: Getting Started With Microbiology 5





Chapter 1: Microbiology and You 7





Why Microbiology? 7





Introducing the Microorganisms 8





Deconstructing Microbiology 10





Chapter 2: Microbiology: The Young Science 11





Before Microbiology: Misconceptions and Superstitions 12





Discovering Microorganisms 12





Debunking the myth of spontaneous generation 13





Improving medicine, from surgery to antibiotics and more 14





Looking at microbiology outside the human body 16





The Future of Microbiology 16





Exciting frontiers 17





Remaining challenges 18





Chapter 3: Microbes: They're Everywhere and They Can Do Everything 21





Habitat Diversity 23





Metabolic Diversity 24





Getting energy 25





Capturing carbon 25





Making enzymes 26





Secondary metabolism 26





The Intersection of Microbes and Everyone Else 27





Part 2: Balancing the Dynamics Of Microbial Life 29





Chapter 4: Understanding Cell Structure and Function 31





Seeing the Shapes of Cells 31





Life on a Minute Scale: Considering the Size of Prokaryotes 33





The Cell: An Overview 34





Scaling the Outer Membrane and Cell Walls 35





Examining the outer membrane 35





Exploring the cell wall 37





Other Important Cell Structures 41





Divining Cell Division 43





Tackling Transport Systems 44





Coasting with the current: Passive transport 45





Upstream paddle: Active transport 46





Keeping things clean with efflux pumps 46





Getting Around with Locomotion 47





Chapter 5: Making Sense of Metabolism 49





Converting with Enzymes 49





In Charge of Energy: Oxidation and Reduction 51





Donating and accepting electrons 52





Bargaining with energy-rich compounds 54





Storing energy for later 55





Breaking Down Catabolism 56





Digesting glycolysis 56





Stepping along with respiration and electron carriers 57





Moving with the proton motive force 59





Turning the citric acid cycle 60





Stacking Up with Anabolism 61





Creating amino acids and nucleic acids 62





Making sugars and polysaccharides 63





Putting together fatty acids and lipids 65





Chapter 6: Getting the Gist of Microbial Genetics 67





Organizing Genetic Material 68





DNA: The recipe for life 68





Perfect plasmids 70





Doubling down with DNA replication 71





Assembling the Cellular Machinery 75





Making messenger RNA 75





Remembering other types of RNA 77





Synthesizing protein 78





Making the Right Amount: Regulation 80





Turning the tap on and off: DNA regulation 81





Regulating protein function 83





Changing the Genetic Code 83





Slight adjustments 83





Major rearrangements 85





Chapter 7: Measuring Microbial Growth 89





Getting Growth Requirements Right 89





Physical requirements 90





Chemical requirements 91





Culturing microbes in the lab 92





Observing Microbes 94





Counting small things 95





Seeing morphology 97





Calculating Cell Division and Population Growth 98





Dividing cells 99





Following growth phases 100





Inhibiting Microbial Growth 101





Physical methods 101





Disinfectants 102





Part 3: Sorting Out Microbial Diversity 103





Chapter 8: Appreciating Microbial Ancestry 105





Where Did Microbes Come From? 105





Tracing the origins of life 106





Diversifying early prokaryotes 107





The impact of prokaryotes on the early earth 107





Hitching a ride: Endosymbiosis 108





Understanding Evolution 111





Studying Evolution 113





Choosing marker genes 113





Seeing the direction of gene transfer in prokaryotes 114





Classifying and Naming Microbes 115





Climbing the Tree of Life 117





Chapter 9: Harnessing Energy, Fixing Carbon 119





Forging Ahead with Autotrophic Processes 120





Fixing carbon 120





Using the Energy in Light 124





Harvesting light: Chlorophylls and bacteriochlorophylls 125





Helping photosynthesis out: Carotenoids and phycobilins 127





Generating oxygen (or not): Oxygenic and anoxygenic photosynthesis 128





Getting Energy from the Elements: Chemolithotrophy 133





Harnessing hydrogen 134





Securing electrons from sulfur 134





Pumping iron 135





Oxidizing nitrate and ammonia 136





Chapter 10: Comparing Respiration and Fermentation 139





Lifestyles of the Rich and Facultative 139





Seeing the Big Picture 141





Digging into Respiration 144





Spinning the citric acid cycle 144





Stepping down the electron transport chain 146





Respiring anaerobically 147





Figuring Out Fermentation 150





Chapter 11: Uncovering a Variety of Habitats 155





Defining a Habitat 156





Understanding Nutrient Cycles 157





Carbon cycling 157





Nitrogen cycling 160





Sulfur cycling 162





Phosphorous cycles in the ocean 162





Microbes Socializing in Communities 163





Using quorum sensing to communicate 163





Living in biofilms 163





Exploring microbial mats 165





Discovering Microbes in Aquatic and Terrestrial Habitats 165





Thriving in water 166





Swarming soils 167





Getting Along with Plants and Animals 168





Living with plants 169





Living with animals 171





Living with insects 172





Living with ocean creatures 172





Tolerating Extreme Locations 173





Detecting Microbes in Unexpected Places 174





Part 4: Meeting the Microbes 175





Chapter 12: Meet the Prokaryotes 177





Getting to Know the Bacteria 178





The Gram-negative bacteria: Proteobacteria 178





More Gram-negative bacteria 182





The Gram-positive bacteria 186





Acquainting Yourself with the Archaea 188





Some like it scalding: Extreme thermophiles 190





Going beyond acidic: Extreme acidophiles 191





Super salty: Extreme halophiles 192





Not terribly extreme Archaea 193





Chapter 13: Say Hello to the Eukaryotes 195





Fun with Fungi 196





Figuring out fungal physiology 196





Itemizing fungal diversity 199





Interacting with plant roots 201





Ask us about the Ascomycetes 202





Mushrooms: Basidiomycetes 203





Perusing the Protists 204





Making us sick: Apicoplexans 205





Making plants sick: Oomycetes 207





Chasing amoeba and ciliates 207





Encountering the algae 210





Chapter 14: Examining the Vastness of Viruses 215





Hijacking Cells 215





Frugal viral structure 216





Simplifying viral function 217





Making Heads or Tails of Bacteriophage 219





Lytic phage 219





Temperate phage 220





Transposable phage 222





Discussing Viruses of Eukaryotes 224





Infecting animal cells 224





Following plant viruses 227





How Host Cells Fight Back 229





Restriction enzymes 229





CRISPR 230





Interfering with RNA viruses: RNAi 232





Part 5: Seeing the Impact Of Microbes 233





Chapter 15: Understanding Microbes in Human Health and Disease 235





Clarifying the Host Immune Response 236





Putting up barriers to infection 236





Raising a red flag with inflammation 237





Holding down the fort with innate immunity 237





Sending out the troops for adaptive immunity 238





Antibodies in action 240





Relying on Antimicrobials for Treating Disease 243





Fundamental features of antibiotics 244





Targets of destruction 245





Unraveling microbial drug resistance 247





Discovering new antibiotics 249





Searching Out Superbugs 250





Staying ahead of vancomycin-resistant enterococci 251





Battling methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus 251





Outcompeting Clostridium difficile 253





Pressure from extended-spectrum beta-lactamases 253





Knowing the Benefits of Prebiotics and Probiotics 254





Attacking Viruses with Antiviral Drugs 255





Chapter 16: Putting Microbes to Work: Biotechnology 257





Using Recombinant DNA Technology 258





Making the insert 258





Employing plasmids 261





Cutting with restriction enzymes 262





Getting microbes to take up DNA 264





Using promoters to drive expression 267





Making use of expression vectors 267





Properly folding proteins 268





Being mindful of metabolic load 269





Making long, multi-gene constructs 269





Providing Therapies 272





Improving antibiotics 272





Developing vaccines 272





Using Microbes Industrially 273





Protecting plants with microbial insecticides 274





Making biofuels 275





Bioleaching metals 276





Cleaning up with microbes 276





Chapter 17: Fighting Microbial Diseases 279





Protecting Public Health: Epidemiology 279





Tracking diseases 280





Investigating outbreaks 280





Identifying a Microbial Pathogen 283





Characterizing morphology 283





Using biochemical tests 284





Typing strains with phage 286





Using serology 287





Testing antibiotic susceptibility 288





Understanding Vaccines 289





Understanding how vaccines work 290





Ranking the types of vaccines 291





Part 6: New Frontiers in Microbiology 293





Chapter 18: Teasing Apart Communities 295





Studying Microbial Communities 295





Borrowing from ecology 296





Seeing what sets microbial communities apart from plants and animals 296





Observing Communities: Microbial Ecology Methods 297





Selecting something special with enrichment 297





Seeing cells through lenses 298





Measuring microbial activity 299





Identifying species using marker genes 300





Getting the Hang of Microbial Genetics and Systematics 301





Sequencing whole genomes 301





Using metagenomics to study microbial communities 302





Reading microbial transcriptomics 303





Figuring out proteomics and metabolomics 304





Looking for Microbial Dark Matter 306





Chapter 19: Synthesizing Life 307





Regulating Genes: The lac Operon 308





Using a good natural system 308





Improving a good system 310





Designing Genetic Networks 312





Switching from one state to another 313





Oscillating between states 314





Keeping signals short 315





The Synthetic Biologist's Toolbox 315





Making it modular 315





Participating in the iGEM competition 316





Part 7: The Part of Tens 319





Chapter 20: Ten (or So) Diseases Caused by Microbes 321





Ebola 322





Anthrax 322





Influenza 323





Tuberculosis 324





HIV 324





Cholera 325





Smallpox 325





Primary Amoebic Menigoencephalitis 326





The Unknown 327





Chapter 21: Ten Great Uses for Microbes 329





Making Delicious Foods 329





Growing Legumes 330





Brewing Beer, Liquor, and Wine 330





Killing Insect Pests 331





Treating Sewage 331





Contributing to Medicine 332





Setting Up Your Aquarium 332





Making and Breaking Down Biodegradable Plastics 333





Turning Over Compostable Waste 333





Maintaining a Balance 334





Chapter 22: Ten Great Uses for Microbiology 335





Medical Care: Keeping People Healthy 335





Dental Care: Keeping Those Pearly Whites Shining Bright 336





Veterinary Care: Helping Fido and Fluffy to Feel Their Best 337





Monitoring the Environment 338





Making Plants Happy 339





Keeping Fish Swimming Strong 339





Producing Food, Wine, and Beer 340





Science Hacking 341





Looking for Microbes in Clean Rooms 341





Producing Pharmaceuticals 342





Index 343