The scientific revolution in microbiology and its importance for practice

Abstract

The accumulation of knowledge in the process of scientific and technological development does not occur linearly, but in leaps and bounds: periods of relative stagnation are replaced by scientific revolutions. The scientific revolution is the change of explanatory paradigms by the scientific community. A few years ago, the establishment of the taxonomic affiliation of microorganisms by cultivation and counting by methods of classical microbiology was fraught with a number of insurmountable difficulties. The complex composition of the media, the presence of an excess of inhibiting compounds in the composition of the nutrient media, the need to maintain extreme temperatures, the composition of gases and pressure for cultivation, the susceptibility of the culture to the effects of oxygen excluded uncultured microorganisms from the field of view of the researcher. The emergence of molecular genetic methods made it possible to study the diversity of microorganisms, bypassing the previously obligatory stage of cultivation, isolation of a pure culture and comparison with a reference sample. Through the prism of scientific revolutions and changes in scientific paradigms, the differences between the methods of classical microbiology and molecular genetic methods are revealed. The experience of BIOTROF LLC in the application of molecular genetic methods for the identification of microorganisms in livestock and poultry farming is summarized. Based on the use of 16S metagenomics, it was possible to show for the first time that health disorders of farm animals and birds, a decrease in productivity and the duration of economic use in many cases are associated with dysbiotic phenomena in the gastrointestinal tract. Thus, in cows culled due to lactic acidosis, in comparison with clinically healthy animals, inhibition of the growth of bacteria synthesizing cellulases and microorganisms of the order Selenomonadales, capable of fermenting lactic acid to volatile fatty acids, was observed. Based on the calculation of Pearson's correlations, it was shown that an increase in the content of lactobacilli of the family Lactobacillaceae in the intestines of poultry was associated with an increase in meat productivity, and an increase in staphylococci, with a decrease.