• The beginnings of microbiology – contributions of Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, Pasteur, Koch, Ehrlich, Fleming, Wakaman, Winogradsky etc. in three centuries,and microbiology in the twentieth century.
• The methods of microbiology – pure culture techniques, microbial nutrition principles, construction of culture media, isolation and environment.
• The relationship between structure and function in bacteria, fungi and viruses.
• The principles of bacterial classification and phylogeny.
• Microbial growth and effect of physical and chemical agents in environment viz.
• pH, temperature, pressure, electromatgnetic radiations, solutes, phenols, alcohols and oxygen relations.
• The Archaebacteria and their significance.
• Microbial metabolism – fuelling ractions, biosynthesis, polymerization and assembly.
• Microbial genetics – transformation, conjugation, transdution, protoplast fusion, genetic recombination.
• Microorganisms as geochemical agents in mineral transformation, cycles of matter through geological time, biofertilizers, bioleaching of metals.
• Microbes in industry – fermentation processes for the production of alcohols, organic acids, amino acids, enzymes, vitamins, antibiotics and steroid transformations – “primary and secondary metabolites”.
• Ouline of roles of microbes in air, soil, water, food, dairy, diseases, waste disposal and recycling.

References:

1. G.Gottschalk, Backterial Metabolism, Springer-Verlag, 1979.
2. R.V. Stanimr, J.L. Ingraham, M.L. Wheelis, P.R. Painter, The Microbial World, 5th edition, Prentice-Hall, 1990.
3. Biotchnology – Volumes 1-8, (Ed.) H.J. Rehm and G.Reed, Verlag Chemie, 1981.
4. A Wiseman, Principles of Biostechnology, 2nd edition, Surrey University Press.
5. H.G. Schlegel, General Microbiology, 6th edition, Cambridge University Press 1986.