MICROBIAL PHYSIOLOGY

Paper Code: 
MBL 502
Credits: 
03
Contact Hours: 
45
Objective: 

This paper will enable students to:

  •  Study different types of transport mechanisms.
  •  Study photosynthesis and energy generating pathways.
  •  Learn about nitrogen fixation process.
  •  Understand chemolithotrophy.

 

9.00
Unit I: 
Nutrient uptake

Biochemical properties of membrane, biochemical factors regulating the permeability, Nerst equation. Osmosis, Plasmolysis, passive & facilitated diffusion, active transport, secondary active transport, group translocation across membrane, role of ionophores.

8.00
Unit II: 
Photosynthesis

Photosynthetic microbes, oxygenic & anoxygenic photosynthesis, photophosphorylation, Calvin cycle.

9.00
Unit III: 
Respiratory Pathways

Glycolysis, Oxidative pentose phosphate pathway, Entner- Doudoroff pathway, fermentative pathways, Yeast fermentation, Lactic acid fermentation, Acetic acid fermentation, Krebs cycle, ETC, oxidative and substrate level phosphorylation.

 

9.00
Unit IV: 
Nitrogen Metabolism

Biological nitrogen fixation: process, components of nitrogenase system, oxygen sensitivity of nitrogenase enzyme, Nitrogen fixation in symbiotic and free living systems, Nitrate assimilation, transamination and deamination reactions.

8.00
Unit V: 
Chemolithotrophs

Hydrogen bacteria, nitrifying bacteria, sulfur bacteria, Iron bacteria, Methanogens and Methylotrophs.

ESSENTIAL READINGS: 
  1. Biochemistry, 5th edition L Stryer, W H Freeman and Co., New York, 2001
  2. General Microbiology, R Y Stanier, J L Ingharam, M L Wheelies, P R Painter, Mac Millan Education Ltd, 1999
  3. Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 3rd edition, D L Nelson and M M Cox Worth Publications Inc. CBS Publication New Delhi, 2000

 

REFERENCES: 
  1. An Introduction to Nitrogen fixation, J R Gallon and A E Chaplin, Cassell Education Ltd, 1987
  2. Biochemistry, 23rd edition, Harper, Appleton and Lange Prentice Hall, 1993
  3. Biology of Microorganisms, 10th edition, T D Brock, M T Madigan, Pearson Education, Inc., 2003
  4. Microbial Physiology and Metabolism, D R Caldwell, Brown Publishers, 1995
  5. Microbial Physiology, 4th edition, A G Moat and J W Foster, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2002
  6. Microbiology-a Laboratory Manual, 6th edition, J G Cappuccino and N Sherman, Addison Wesley, Pearson Education, Inc., 2006
Academic Year: