Series Editor: Dr. Jeyabalan Sangeetha
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Science
Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod, South India
Email: drjsangeetha.cuk@gmail.com

Pre-microbiology period is the period before the invention of microscope in the 16th century. Many researchers and physicians discussed the existence of microorganisms without any scientific research and supported data. Marcus Terentius, a Roman scholar, in his book On Agriculture,explained the possibility of the presence of unseen organisms. During 1020, Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna in the West, theorized that tuberculosis and many other diseases are contagious in his book The Canon of Medicine. It was proposed in 1546 by Girolamo Fracastoro, an Italian physician, that transferable seed-like materials were responsible for epidemic diseases through direct or indirect contact. In 1609, Galileo Galilei invented a device known as the microscope. After the invention of microscope with many improved lenses, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek revealed that the planet is filled with unicellular organisms through his observation of animalcule-like structures that swim and tumble in water.

From there the field of microbiology started to receive more attention from researchers worldwide. Scientists discovered the purpose of sterilization, the nature of decontamination, microbial physiology and multiplication, microbial diversity, culturing techniques, identification methods, and so on.

During 7000 BC, the first indication of cereal grain fermentation by the microorganisms to produce alcohol was obtained from the evidence from the Neolithic village of Jiahu in China. The use of biotechnological techniques was co-founded with developments in the field of microbiology. There is much evidence on the use of yeasts to produce wine, to make bread, and to brew beer discovered from the archaeological sites dating around 2000 to 1200 BC. Later, the true cause of fermentation was explained by Louis Pasteur with scientific evidence. Pasteur’s work began a new era in fermentation processes to produce various fermentation-based products in the food industries. Based on the developments and new findings in the microbial world, the field microbiology emerged as one of the major science fields.

Microbiology earned the interest of the majority of industrialists and researchers as microbial products received attention from consumers for better quality. Microbiology was needed on an industrial scale, which, in turn, triggered the development of modern microbiological techniques in various fields. The recent technology in the fields of genetics, biotechnology, and bioinformatics improves and supports modern developments in the field of microbiology as well. Study of biome of microorganisms is a very tedious task as it requires lots of energy and time and also involves money-consuming processes.

The advanced technologies in molecular biology, which paved a way to reveal the entire microbial community in the given sample in a short period, provided us many chances to unravel the secrets of the microbial community to explore the beneficial applications of microbes. In 1980s, modern technological microbiology was begun when it was scientifically proved that the Pseudomonas putida strain is capable of degrading the compounds present in crude oil and allowed for patenting the technology. Revolution in the field of microbial biotechnology was observed when a patent registered for genetically modified Pseudomonas sp. by Anand Mohan Chakrabarty gained the first ever patent for living organisms. The advent of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) contributed many patents to the field, and many companies emerged based on creating GMOs for the development of bioengineering microbial products as well as food crops.

There are contemporary developments seen in classical microbiology through the molecular exploration of new species from various environments, including extremophiles, which led to the selection and improvement of known traits to recover target compounds or functions.

Microbiology is a multidisciplinary area, and it connects human society in both ways—as beneficial in many fields as well as detrimental for its harmful pathogens. In the life sciences, microbiology is a developing field with more mysteries yet to be revealed in the microbial world. Hence, this book series aims to provide a collection of books that deal with advanced microbiology and innovations in microbiology. Each volume under the series will cover in depth advanced knowledge on the particular filed in microbiology with various chapters contributed by worldwide scholars in the respective fields.

The book series will broadly consider the contributions from the following fields:

• Environmental Microbiology
• Food Microbiology
• Industrial Microbiology
• Agricultural Microbiology
• Pharmaceutical Microbiology
• Extremophiles
• Microbes in Drug Discovery and Therapeutics
• Host-Microbiome Interactions and Applications
• Clinical Virology
• Microbiomes
• Bioremediation of Xenobiotics
• Microbial Biofuels
• Beneficial Microbes
• Microbiome and Climate Change
• Modern Trends in Fermentation Technology