Microbiology

Microbiology is the study of the organisms too small to see without a microscope and of the viruses, viroids, and prions that are not organisms at all. This book is the one-semester course for nursing and allied-health students: it begins with how microbes were discovered and how they are seen, classified, and grown, works through their biochemistry, metabolism, and genetics, explains how infection, immunity, and antimicrobial drugs work, and ends with the infectious diseases of each body system, organized by the pathogens that cause them.

Chapters

• An Invisible World — what our ancestors knew, a systematic approach to naming and classifying microbes, and the types of microorganisms.
• How We See the Invisible World — the properties of light, the history of microscopy, the instruments of microscopy, and staining specimens.
• The Cell — spontaneous generation, the foundations of modern cell theory, and the unique characteristics of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
• Prokaryotic Diversity — habitats, relationships, and microbiomes; the proteobacteria, other gram-negative and phototrophic bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, deeply branching bacteria, and archaea.
• The Eukaryotes of Microbiology — unicellular eukaryotic parasites, parasitic helminths, fungi, algae, and lichens.
• Acellular Pathogens — viruses and the viral life cycle; isolating, culturing, and identifying viruses; viroids, virusoids, and prions.
• Microbial Biochemistry — organic molecules, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and using biochemistry to identify microorganisms.
• Microbial Metabolism — energy, matter, and enzymes; the catabolism of carbohydrates, cellular respiration, and fermentation; the catabolism of lipids and proteins; photosynthesis; and the biogeochemical cycles.
• Microbial Growth — binary fission, the growth curve, and counting cells; biofilms and quorum sensing; the oxygen, pH, temperature, and other conditions that affect growth; and the media used to grow bacteria.
• Biochemistry of the Genome — using microbiology to discover the secrets of life, and the structure and function of DNA, RNA, and cellular genomes.
• Mechanisms of Microbial Genetics — the functions of genetic material, DNA replication, transcription, translation, mutations, how asexual prokaryotes achieve genetic diversity, and operon theory.
• Modern Applications of Microbial Genetics — the tools of genetic engineering; visualizing and characterizing DNA, RNA, and protein; whole-genome methods and pharmaceutical applications; and gene therapy.
• Control of Microbial Growth — controlling microbial growth with physical and chemical methods, and testing antiseptics and disinfectants.
• Antimicrobial Drugs — the history of chemotherapy, the fundamentals of antimicrobial chemotherapy, the mechanisms of antibacterial and other antimicrobial drugs, drug resistance, testing antimicrobials, and current strategies for discovery.
• Microbial Mechanisms of Pathogenicity — the characteristics of infectious disease, how pathogens cause disease, and the virulence factors of bacterial, viral, and eukaryotic pathogens.
• Disease and Epidemiology — the language of epidemiologists, tracking infectious diseases, modes of transmission, and global public health.

Planned contents

Microbiology has 26 chapters. The remaining 10 will appear in this order:

• Innate Nonspecific Host Defenses — physical, chemical, and cellular defenses; pathogen recognition and phagocytosis; inflammation and fever.
• Adaptive Specific Host Defenses — an overview of adaptive immunity, major histocompatibility complexes and antigen-presenting cells, T and B lymphocytes, and vaccines.
• Diseases of the Immune System — hypersensitivities, autoimmune disorders, organ transplantation and rejection, immunodeficiency, and cancer immunobiology and immunotherapy.
• Laboratory Analysis of the Immune Response — polyclonal and monoclonal antibody production, detecting antigen-antibody complexes, agglutination assays, EIAs and ELISAs, and fluorescent antibody techniques.
• Skin and Eye Infections — the anatomy and normal microbiota of the skin and eyes, and their bacterial, viral, fungal, protozoan, and helminthic infections.
• Respiratory System Infections — the anatomy and normal microbiota of the respiratory tract, and its bacterial, viral, and fungal infections.
• Urogenital System Infections — the anatomy and normal microbiota of the urogenital tract, and the bacterial, viral, fungal, and protozoan infections of the urinary and reproductive systems.
• Digestive System Infections — the anatomy and normal microbiota of the digestive system, diseases of the mouth, and the bacterial, viral, protozoan, and helminthic infections of the gastrointestinal tract.
• Circulatory and Lymphatic System Infections — the anatomy of the circulatory and lymphatic systems and their bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections.
• Nervous System Infections — the anatomy of the nervous system and its bacterial, acellular, fungal, and parasitic diseases.

About this edition

This book is adapted from OpenStax Microbiology by Nina Parker, Mark Schneegurt, Anh-Hue Thi Tu, Philip Lister, Brian M. Forster, and OpenStax, © OpenStax, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Access the original for free at openstax.org. Every section page records its own changes from the source; figures are the source’s own, re-encoded for the web with their credits kept in the captions.