Microbial evolution, systematic and taxonomy-Evolution of earth and earliest life forms; primitive organisms, their metabolic strategies and molecular coding; approaches to bacterial taxonomy, DNA-DNA and DNA-RNA hybridization, G+C content determination, ribotyping, Ribosomal RNA sequencing; Characteristics of primary domains, Taxonomy, Nomenclature and Bergey's Manual. Culture collection, maintenance and preservation of microorganisms.
Hyperthermophiles, halophiles halophilic thermophiles.
Heat, cold and deep sea adaptations. Exploitation of extremophiles in medicine, agriculture and industries
Environmental sample collection and processing. Microscopic techniques: Fluororescence (direct count, fluorescent immunolabelling, FISH . Electro Microscopy: Scanning Transmission, elemental analysis), Confocal Laser scanning microscopy, Scanning Probe microscopy ( atomic force microscopy), flow cytometry Culture methods: isolation and enumeration of bacteria, media for bacteria, culture methods of algae, fungi and viruses. Physiological methods: carbon respiration, incorporation of radiolabelled traces into cellular macromolecules, adenylate energy charges, enzyme assays stable isotope probing, functional genomics and proteomics –based approaches |
Microbial habitats in aquatic environments (planktonic, Benthic, microbial mats, biofilms).Aquatic environments; (fresh water, brackish water, marine water, subterranean).
Micro flora of various soil types, Culture methods for enumeration of soil microorganisms, physiochemical characteristics, soil as a microbial environment microorganism in surface soil, shallow & in the deep subsurface.
Books Recommended:
Warren Levinson and Ernst Jawetz, (7th edition), Mc Graw Hill, 2002.
Microbial Diversity: Current Prospective and Potential Applications, T. Satyanarayana, B.N. Johri, IK International, 2005.