Feature

Microbes in our every day life

Zakaria Ahmed

Microorganisms or microbes are very tiny one-celled microscopic organisms and are found everywhere in the world. They are found in all living things. There are more microbes on and inside our body than the cells. They can live in the air, on land surface and salt water environments. Some of them (pathogens) can be harmful and case diseases but there are also some microbes which are needed for the survival of the living things. Microorganisms can enter the air through human or animals sneezings and dust particles. Microorganisms that grow in the mucus of the respiratory tract enter the air with moisture particles which are sneezed out of the lungs and are breathed in the lungs of others and cause sickness.

Microorganisms also fertilize soil and help grow plants. Microbes sticking to the roots of plants help decompose dead organic matters into food for the plants. Some of them causes illness to human, animals and plants but others kill the harmful bacteria, keep them safe from disease and help happy living for them. Drug companies make use of hundreds of different microorganisms to make medicines which help cure disease. Human waste can be made safer particles by microorganisms. Scientists all over the world are always looking for new ways to use microbes.

Most of us have misconception about microorganisms and think that it would be a great achievement of scientists if they could wipe out all the microorganisms. But we never think about the useful side of the microbes. Microorganisms do more good than harms and are beneficial for human beings. We are little informed about the usefulness of microbes in our day-to-day life. So let us look into some specific examples about the usefulness of microbes in our life:

· Bacillus thuringiensis is common soil bacterium which acts as a natural pest-killer in gardens and on crops.

· The bacterium Propionibacterium freudenreichii produces carbon dioxide gas (CO2) bubbles that burst in ripening cheese, leaving this cheese's trademark holes.

· The bacterium Xanthomonas campestris produces a slimy outer coating called xanthan. Xanthan gum is used as a thickening and stabilizing agent in many common products including water-based paints and cosmetics.

· Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as “Baker's Yeast” because it is used to make bread rise. This fungus also breaks down the natural sugars in grains or other starchy ingredients into carbon dioxide (CO2) and ethanol.

·Methanotrophic bacterium eats methane gas to clean up hazardous waste dumps and landfills. These methane-munching bacteria make an enzyme that can break down more than 250 nasty pollutants into harmless molecules. More methanotrophs means faster pollution break up.

· The bacterium Acetobacter modifies glucose, making vitamin C as a by-product.

· Streptomyces is a soil bacterium that makes streptomycin, an antibiotic used to treat infections. Fungi and bacteria produce powerful antibiotics such as penicillin and tetracycline. These are drugs we use to fight off nasty bacteria that cause sore throats, ear infections, diarrhea and other discomforts.

. Microbes make compounds called enzymes that we use in making hundreds of products. These enzymes can be get from bacteria for making soy sauce, soda, beer, wine, cheese, infant formula, chewing gum, leather goods, paper, laundry detergent, and even the stone-washed look on blue jeans. Such as, fungi (Aspergillus niger) make large quantities of enzymes, some of which are used to turn animal hides into leather goods. Fungus Aspergillus oryzae and Kluyveromyces lactis produce lactase, an enzyme that breaks down lactose, enabling people with lactose intolerance to drink milk.

· Arbuscular mycorrhizas is a soil-living fungus which helps crops take up nutrients from the soil.

· The distinctive flavor and rich smell of soy sauce is made with the help of fungus Aspergillus oryzae Zygosaccharomyces rouxii and Torulopsis species.

· Fungus Saccharomyces carlsbergensis breaks down the natural sugars in grains to form ethanol.

· The bacterium Pseudomonas putida cleans waste from sewage water at water treatment plants.

· A lactobacillus acidophilus bacterium breaks down sugars and carbohydrates in milk, turning it into yogurt.

· Marine bacteria are used as one of the tools to clean up oil spills. These bacteria chow on the oil, turning it into carbon dioxide and other harmless by-products.

· Escherichia coli is one of many kinds of friendly microbes that live in our gut and help us digest our food every day.

So, it can easily conclude that instead of causing disease, microbes are mostly beneficial for human. We should try to know more about these tiny but very useful bugs. If we get into more details about microorganisms, we will find so many amazing and interesting information about them. Let's try to explore this unknown world of microbes.

(Zakaria Ahmed, ph.d.
Assistant professor, Department of microbiology
Primeasia university, Banani, dhaka, bangladesh.)