3.Major fields of theoretical and applied Microbiology

Аpplied microbiology refers to the use of knowledge related to practical functions, such as food microbiology, industrial microbiology, medical microbiology and microbial biotechnology. One significant area is environmental microbiology, which studies the diversity of microbes in natural environments. This branch has its own sub-branches, including bioremediation and microbial mediated nutrient cycling.

Applied microbiology

Medical microbiology: The study of the pathogenic microbes and the role of microbes in human illness. Includes the study of microbial pathogenesis and epidemiology and is related to the study of disease pathology and immunology.

Pharmaceutical microbiology: The study of microorganisms that are related to the production of antibiotics, enzymes, vitamins,vaccines, and other pharmaceutical products and that cause pharmaceutical contamination and spoil.

Industrial microbiology: The exploitation of microbes for use in industrial processes. Examples include industrial fermentation and wastewater treatment. Closely linked to the biotechnologyindustry. This field also includes brewing, an important application of microbiology.

Microbial biotechnology: The manipulation of microorganisms at the genetic and molecular level to generate useful products.

Food microbiology and Dairy microbiology: The study of microorganisms causing food spoilage and foodborne illness. Using microorganisms to produce foods, for example by fermentation.

Agricultural microbiology: The study of agriculturally relevant microorganisms. This field can be further classified into the following:

Plant microbiology and Plant pathology: The study of the interactions between microorganisms and plants and plant pathogens.

Soil microbiology: The study of those microorganisms that are found in soil.

Veterinary microbiology: The study of the role in microbes in veterinary medicine or animal taxonomy.

Environmental microbiology: The study of the function and diversity of microbes in their natural environments. This involves the characterization of key bacterial habitats such as therhizosphere and phyllosphere, soil and groundwater ecosystems, open oceans or extreme environments (extremophiles). This field includes other branches of microbiology such as:

Microbial ecology

Microbially mediated nutrient cycling

Geomicrobiology

Microbial diversity

Bioremediation

Water microbiology (or Aquatic microbiology): The study of those microorganisms that are found in water.

Aeromicrobiology (or Air microbiology): The study of airborne microorganisms.

While some fear microbes due to the association of some microbes with various human illnesses, many microbes are also responsible for numerous beneficial processes such as industrial fermentation (e.g. the production of alcohol, vinegar and dairy products), antibiotic production and as vehicles forcloning in more complex organisms such as plants. Scientists have also exploited their knowledge of microbes to produce biotechnologically importantenzymes such as Taq polymerase, reporter genes for use in other genetic systems and novel molecular biology techniques such as the yeast two-hybrid system.

Bacteria can be used for the industrial production of amino acids. Corynebacterium glutamicum is one of the most important bacterial species with an annual production of more than two million tons of amino acids, mainly L-glutamate and L-lysine