Abstract
Among all living organisms on planet Earth, those that are invisible to the naked eye are the most abundant, most widely distributed and are indispensable for the continuation of life which they themselves originated. This review article has been prepared by going through important historical as well as recent literature on microorganisms with the primary purpose of dissemination of knowledge. It starts with the discovery of microorganisms and takes the reader through the key developments that enabled us to understand the invaluable roles they play in our lives, their possible origin on this planet, their diverse ecosystems and the amazing recent findings of some their existence several kilometers below the Earth’s surface. Such subterranean communities appear to possess hitherto little known metabolic systems which are yet to be fully resolved. Moreover, whether these organisms originated in their ultra deep habitats or were transported down from the surface during the early formation of the primitive Earth by processes of subduction is still a matter of speculation. This review article is expected to arouse curiosity to pursue further research studies to unravel more novel information on the diverse activities, ubiquitous distribution and potential utilization of these organisms.
Highlights
The discovery of microorganisms by Anton Van Leeuwenhoek (1632 – 1723) brought about a revolution in science
With the accumulation of knowledge on their morphology, physiology, biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology it became evident that microorganisms are an extremely diverse group of organisms with only one feature in common, their minute size which make them invisible to the unaided eye
The discovery of these organisms led to a new area of science termed Microbiology: the study of microorganisms
Summary
The discovery of microorganisms by Anton Van Leeuwenhoek (1632 – 1723) brought about a revolution in science. With the accumulation of knowledge on their morphology, physiology, biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology it became evident that microorganisms are an extremely diverse group of organisms with only one feature in common, their minute size which make them invisible to the unaided eye The discovery of these organisms led to a new area of science termed Microbiology: the study of microorganisms. His results on micro-filtration experiments demonstrated that tobacco mosaic disease is caused by an infectious agent smaller than a bacterium, later named as a virus Another milestone in medical microbiology was the development of the Gram stain by the Danish microbiologist Hans Christian Gram (1853 - 1935) which enabled the differentiation of bacteria into two major groups based on the their ability to retain or not to retain this special stain after washing with alcohol. Alexander Fleming (1881 – 1955) British (Scottish) physician, microbiologist and pharmacologist’s work discovering lysozyme (Fleming 1922), and demonstrating the first antibiotic penicillin (Fleming 1929) obtained from the fungus Penicillium and the subsequent preparation of a myriad of antibiotics from microorganisms are land mark findings that changed the negative attitudes of society towards microorganisms
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