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Microbiology is a science defined by smallness. Its creation was made possible by the invention of the microscope (Gr. micro, small _ skop, to look, see), which allowed visualization
of structures too small to see with the naked eye. This definition of microbiology as the study of microscopic living forms still holds if one can accept that some organisms can live only in other cells (eg, all viruses, some bacteria) and others have macroscopic forms (eg, fungal molds, parasitic worms). Microorganisms are responsible for much of the breakdown and natural recycling of organic material in the environment. Some synthesize nitrogen-containing compounds that contribute to the nutrition of living things that lack this ability; others (oceanic algae) contribute to the atmosphere by producing oxygen through photosynthesis. Because
microorganisms have an astounding range of metabolic and energy-yielding abilities,some can exist under conditions that are lethal to other life forms. For example, some bacteria can oxidize inorganic compounds such as sulfur and ammonium ions to generate energy, and some can survive and multiply in hot springs at temperatures above 75°C. Some microbial species have adapted to a symbiotic relationship with higher forms of life. For example, bacteria that can fix atmospheric nitrogen colonize root systems oflegumes and of a few trees such as alders and provide the plants with their nitrogenrequirements. When these plants die or are plowed under, the fertility of the soil is enhanced by nitrogenous compounds originally derived from the metabolism of the bacteria.
Ruminants can use grasses as their prime source of nutrition, because the abundant flora of anaerobic bacteria in the rumen break down cellulose and other plant compounds to usablecarbohydrates and amino acids and synthesize essential nutrients including some amino acids and vitamins. These few examples illustrate the protean nature of microbial life and their essential place in our ecosystem. The major classes of microorganisms in terms of ascending size and complexity are viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Parasites exist as single or multicellular structures with the same eukaryotic cell plan of our own cells. Fungi are also eukaryotic but have a rigid external wall that makes them seem more like plants than animals. Bacteria also have a cell wall, but their cell plan is prokaryotic and lacks the organelles of eukaryotic cells. Viruses have a genome and some structural elements but must take over the machinery of another living cell (eukaryotic or prokaryotic) in order to replicate.
