The roots of microbiology and the influence of Ferdinand Cohn on microbiology of the 19th century

Abstract

The beginning of modern microbiology can be traced back to the 1870s, and it was based on the development of new concepts that originated during the two preceding centuries on the role of microorganisms, new experimental methods, and discoveries in chemistry, physics, and evolutionary cell biology. The crucial progress was the isolation and growth on solid media of clone cultures arising from single cells and the demonstration that these pure cultures have specific, inheritable characteristics and metabolic capacities. The doctrine of the spontaneous generation of microorganisms, which stimulated research for a century, lost its role as an important concept. Microorganisms were discovered to be causative agents of infectious diseases and of specific metabolic processes. Microscopy techniques advanced studies on microorganisms. The discovery of sexuality and development in microorganisms and Darwin’s theory of evolution contributed to the founding of microbiology as a science. Ferdinand Cohn (1828–1898), a pioneer in the developmental biology of lower plants, considerably promoted the taxonomy and physiology of bacteria, discovered the heat-resistant endospores of bacilli, and was active in applied microbiology.