Microbial ecology

"Environmental microbiology" redirects here. For the journal, see Environmental Microbiology.

The great plate count anomaly. Counts of cells obtained via cultivation are orders of magnitude lower than those directly observed under the microscope. This is because microbiologists are able to cultivate only a minority of naturally occurring microbes using current laboratory techniques, depending on the environment.[1]

Microbial ecology (or environmental microbiology) is the ecology of microorganisms: their relationship with one another and with their environment. It concerns the three major domains of life—Eukaryota, Archaea, and Bacteria—as well as viruses.[2] This relationship is often mediated by secondary metabolites produced my microorganism. These secondary metabolites are known as specialized metabolites and are mostly volatile or non volatile compounds.[3][4] These metabolites include terpenoids, sulfur compounds, indole compound and many more.[3]

The study of microorganisms and their interactions with the environment was pioneered by some scientists such as Sergei Winogradsky, Louis Pasteur, Martinus Beijerinck, Robert Koch, Lorenz Hiltner and many more.[5][6]

Microorganisms are ubiquitous, and play various roles that impact the entire biosphere and any environment they found themselves both positively and negatively. Microbial life plays a primary role in regulating biogeochemical systems in virtually all of our planet's environments, including some of the most extreme, from frozen environments and acidic lakes, to hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the deepest oceans, and some of the most familiar, such as the human small intestine, nose, and mouth.[7][8][9] Microorganism (soil microbes) are involved in biogeochemical cycle ( example nitrogen cycle, sulphur cycle, carbon cycle, Phosphorus cycle etc ) in the soil which helps in fixing nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur in the soil ( environment).[10] As a consequence of the quantitative magnitude of microbial life (calculated as 5.0×1030 cells; eight orders of magnitude greater than the number of stars in the observable universe[11][12]), microbes, by virtue of their biomass alone, constitute a significant carbon sink.[13] The immensity of microorganisms' production is such that, even in the complete absence of eukaryotic life, these processes would likely continue unchanged.[14] Microbial interactions with their environment has industrial application such as wastewater treatment and bioremediation[15][16]

Microorganism also form several symbiotic relationship with other organism in their environment[17] where one or both of the partner involve benefit or one partner benefits while the other partner is harmed. Some symbiotic relationship include mutualism, commensalism etc.[18][19]

Certain substance in the environment can kill microorganism, thus preventing them from interacting with their environment. These substances are called antimicrobial substances. These include antibiotics, antifungal, or even antiviral.[20]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference hugenholz2002 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  3. ^ a b Schmidt, Ruth; Ulanova, Dana; Wick, Lukas Y; Bode, Helge B; Garbeva, Paolina (July 9, 2019). "Microbe-driven chemical ecology: past, present and future". The ISME Journal. 13 (11): 2656–2663. doi:10.1038/s41396-019-0469-x. ISSN 1751-7362. PMC 6794290. PMID 31289346.
  4. ^ Tyc, Olaf; Song, Chunxu; Dickschat, Jeroen S.; Vos, Michiel; Garbeva, Paolina (April 2017). "The Ecological Role of Volatile and Soluble Secondary Metabolites Produced by Soil Bacteria". Trends in Microbiology. 25 (4): 280–292. doi:10.1016/j.tim.2016.12.002. ISSN 0966-842X. PMID 28038926.
  5. ^ Kolter, Roberto (October 8, 2021). "The History of Microbiology—A Personal Interpretation". Annual Review of Microbiology. 75 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1146/annurev-micro-033020-020648. ISSN 0066-4227. PMID 33974804.
  6. ^ Hartmann, Anton; Rothballer, Michael; Schmid, Michael (November 1, 2008). "Lorenz Hiltner, a pioneer in rhizosphere microbial ecology and soil bacteriology research". Plant and Soil. 312 (1): 7–14. Bibcode:2008PlSoi.312....7H. doi:10.1007/s11104-007-9514-z. ISSN 1573-5036.
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  9. ^ Hentges, David J. (1993). "The Anaerobic Microflora of the Human Body". Clinical Infectious Diseases. 16: S175–S180. doi:10.1093/clinids/16.Supplement_4.S175. ISSN 1058-4838. JSTOR 4457097. PMID 8324114.
  10. ^ Basu, Sahana; Kumar, Gautam; Chhabra, Sagar; Prasad, Ram (January 1, 2021), Verma, Jay Prakash; Macdonald, Catriona A.; Gupta, Vijai Kumar; Podile, Appa Rao (eds.), "Chapter 13 - Role of soil microbes in biogeochemical cycle for enhancing soil fertility", New and Future Developments in Microbial Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Elsevier, pp. 149–157, doi:10.1016/b978-0-444-64325-4.00013-4, ISBN 978-0-444-64325-4, retrieved October 30, 2024
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  15. ^ Kushkevych, Ivan (November 2021). "Special Issue: The Application of Microorganisms in Wastewater Treatment". Processes. 9 (11): 1914. doi:10.3390/pr9111914. ISSN 2227-9717.
  16. ^ Wolicka, Dorota; Suszek, Agnieszka; Borkowski, Andrzej; Bielecka, Aleksandra (July 1, 2009). "Application of aerobic microorganisms in bioremediation in situ of soil contaminated by petroleum products". Bioresource Technology. 100 (13): 3221–3227. Bibcode:2009BiTec.100.3221W. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2009.02.020. ISSN 0960-8524. PMID 19289274.
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  19. ^ Mathis, Kaitlyn A.; Bronstein, Judith L. (November 2, 2020). "Our Current Understanding of Commensalism". Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 51 (1): 167–189. doi:10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-011720-040844. ISSN 1543-592X.
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