Areas impacted by microbes include:

Medicine : Microbes produce valuable chemicals such as antibiotics. Many antibiotics are produced by common soil bacteria called Streptomyces and actinomycetes. The ability of Streptomyces cultures to inhibit the growth of other bacteria leads to discovery of many antibiotics. Streptomycin is an antibiotic and was the first used for tuberculosis. It is produced by actinobacterium Streptomyces griseus. Many antibiotics are produced by microbes such as Rifampicin produced by Amycolatopsis rifamycinica, Chloramphenicol by bacterium Streptomyces venezuelae and Actinomycin D produced by genus Streptomyces etc.

Industry: - The microorganisms are used for the production of food, either human or animal. Yogurt, cheese, chocolate, and silage (animal food) are all produced by industrial microbiology processes. Lactic acid bacteria and Bifidobacteria are amongst the most important groups of microorganisms used in the food industry. The microorganisms used in industrial processes may be natural isolates; laboratory selected mutants or genetically engineered organisms.

Ecology: - Microbial life plays a primary role in regulating biogeochemical systems in all environment such as frozen environments and acidic lakes, to hydrothermal vents at the bottom of deepest oceans, and human small intestine. Microbes, often engage in symbiotic relationships (either positive or negative) with other organisms, and these relationships affect the ecosystem. They are the backbone of all ecosystems. Other microbes are decomposers, with the ability to recycle nutrients from other organisms' waste products. These microbes play a vital role in biogeochemical cycles. The nitrogen cycle , the phosphorus cycle and the carbon cycle all depend on microorganisms in one way or another. Presently, microbiologists facing many challenges to solve many of society's problems including combating disease, reducing environmental pollution, and maintaining improving the world's food supply.

Future of microbiology:

•  Future challenges such as finding new ways to combat disease, reduce pollution and feed the world's population.

•  AIDS, hemorrhagic fevers and other infectious diseases

•  Create new drugs, vaccines. Use the techniques in molecular biology and rDNA to solve the problems

•  Host-pathogen relationships

•  Study the role of microorganisms as

•  Sources of high-quality food and other practical products such as enzymes for industrial application

•  Degrade pollutants and toxic wastes

•  Used as vectors to treat diseases and enhance agricultural productivity

Microbial diversity – less than 1% of the earth's microbial population has been cultured. Develop isolation techniques and work needs to be done on microorganisms living in extreme environments. Discovery of new organisms may lead to further advances in industrial processes and enhanced environmental control

•  Microbe – microbe interactions.

•  Analysis of genome – advances in the field of bioinformatics

•  Symbiotic relationships – knowledge can help improve our appreciation of the living world, and improvements in the health of plant, livestock's and humans.

REFERENCES:

Text Books:

1. Jeffery C. Pommerville. Alcamo's Fundamentals of Microbiology (Tenth Edition). Jones and Bartlett Student edition.

2. Gerard J. Tortora, Berdell R. Funke, Christine L. Case. Pearson - Microbiology: An Introduction. Benjamin Cummings.

Reference Books:

1. Lansing M. Prescott, John P. Harley and Donald A. Klein. Microbiology. Mc Graw Hill companies.