This is a Introduction to microbiology course. The content of this module is syllabus as well as powerpoint slides presentation, using OpenStax Microbiology textbook. Content uploaded by Joanna Gray. All content created by Jaleh E. Jalili
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"Microbial life can be found in nearly every environment on earth. These tiny organisms can significantly impact their surroundings, be it deep-sea microbes influencing the ecology of the ocean floor or the human gut microbiome affecting health. Metagenomics, or the analysis of microbial DNA in different environments, has dramatically increased what is known about microbial life. These sequencing-based techniques are not dependent on culturing microbes, which can be an incredibly difficult undertaking. However, isolating and cultivating microbes remains important to both confirm and expand upon those results. Moreover, cultivated microbes could potentially be used as probiotics or biocontrol agents or for industrial purposes. To date, most environmental microbes remain uncultured, but metagenomic data can be leveraged to help researchers isolate and cultivate new ones..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.
Students culture cells in order to find out which type of surfactant (in this case, soap) is best at removing bacteria. Groups culture cells from unwashed hands and add regular bar soap, regular liquid soap, anti-bacterial soap, dishwasher soap, and hand sanitizer to the cultures. The cultures are allowed to grow for two days and then the students assess which type of soap design did the best job of removing bacteria cells from unwashed hands. Students extend their knowledge of engineering and surfactants for different environmental applications.