Prescott, Microbiologia Generale, Settima Edizione Mc Graw Hill.Vol 1,2,3.
Biologia Dei Microorganismi Gianni Deho e Enrica Galli. Casa Editrice Ambrosiana.
Learning Objectives
The course aims at instilling in the students the fundamental knowledge about the biology, genetics and physiology of microorganisms, archea, bacteria, yeast, fungi, and viruses.
Prerequisites
Chemistry, General Biology, Phisics.
Teaching Methods
Lessons with Slides and Audio Video.
Further information
History of microbiology. The prokariotic cell: shape, structure and function. Microbial growth, nutrition, culture and metabolism. Methods of sterilization and control of bacterial growth. Fundamentals of Microbial genetics, genomics, metagenomics. Biology of yeasts and fungi. Virology. Molecular systematics and microbial evolution. Host microbe interaction and fundamentals of immunology. Antibiotics, antifungals, and antiviral molecules, mechanisms of action and resistance.
Type of Assessment
Written and oral.
Course program
History of microbiology. Microbial habitats, microorganisms and the life on earth, microbial diversity. The prokariotic cell: shape, structure and function. Optical and electoronic microscopy. Size, organization and shape of the bacterial cell. Differences between Bacteria, Eukarya and Archea. The cytoplasmic membrane, transport and metabolism. The cell wall, structure function and synthesis in Gram+ and Gram- Bacteria. The capsule. Bacterial morphogenesis and differentiation. The spore, structure, function and genetic control of sporulation. Chemotaxis and bacterial movement, biofilms.
Microbial nutrition, culture and metabolism. Bacterial cell growth curve. The bacterial cell cycle. Methods for quantitative assessment of bacterial cell growth. Generation time. Total and vital count methods. Methods of sterilization, pasteurization and control of bacterial growth. Physical parameters affecting bacterial growth, temperature. Micronutrients and macronutrients. Growth Media, minimal and complete. Working in sterility, isolation in pure culture, conservation of strains and stocks. Fermentation and respiration. Sources of carbon and sources of energy. Autotrophy, eterotrophy, chemotrophy. Microbial diversity as a result of metabolic diversity and habitat adaptation. Antibiotics, antifungals, and antiviral molecules, mechanisms of action and resistance.
Fundamentals of Microbial genetics. DNA replication. Plasmids, structure and function. Control of gene expression and gene organization, the Lac Operon. TRP Operon. Horizontal gene transfer. Restriction enzymes and molecular microbiology. Biology of yeasts and fungi, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model in genetics and systems biology. Candida albicans as a model to study the transition between commensalism and pathogenicity. Aspergillosis as a risk factor in immunocompromised patients.
Molecular systematics and microbial evolution. The study of microbial systematics taxonomy and evolution. Molecular clocks and microbial evolution. The microbial species concept. Methods for microbe identification, PCR, PCR RFLP, PCR RAPD, sequenziamento del 16S e ITS 1-4.
Virology. Classification of viruses. Bacteriophage T4 and lambda. Phage therapy. The HIV virus, Papilloma virus, Herpes virus, the flu. Vaccines.
Host microbe interactions, symbiosis, commensalism, parassitism. Microbial communities in biofilms and fermented foods. Virulence factors and pathogeneicity. Innate and adaptive immunity. Evasion of host defences, infection and sepsis. Methods for immune escape, Salmonella tiphymurium, Candida albicans. Difese dell'ospite, infezione e sepsi. Epidemiology of infectious diseases.
Microbial biotechnology, microorganisms as cell factories. Prebiotics and probiotics.