What are Microorganisms?
Microbes are ubiquitous organisms that can't be seen with naked eyes. They can only be seen with the aid of an electron microscope. They're called ubiquitous because they're seen everywhere.
They can be seen in the air, water, soil, and human body. They also survive in extreme environment like hot spring, extreme cold environment. These set of microbes are called Extremophiles. They're called extremophiles because they develop structures which helps them to adapt to harsh environment.
Classes of Microorganisms
Microbes are classified into
Bacteria
Fungi
Virus
Protozoa
Man and microbes
The above statement comes from the fact that man can't survive without microorganisms. Microbes makes the environment suitable for man's survival.
Benefit of Microbes
Source
In the Industry
Most of the industrial process are facilitated by microbes. They're very useful and cost effective. They use little substrate and microbial strains to produce a large output. Some of the microbes that aids in the industry are Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisae, Leuconostoc.
In our Environment
It is impossible to overstate the significance of bacteria in our surroundings. They support the biological process of bioremediation, which employs bacteria to clean up contaminated environments. Bioremediation has the advantages of being economical and yielding non-toxic byproducts. Acinebacter, pseudomonas, and cyanobacteria are among the microbes that help in bioremediation.
Molecular genetics
Before, Insulin was a scare commodity but through the intervention of genetic engineering, genes for producing insulin are extracted and put into microbes to produce insulin in large quantity.
Medicine
Since the discovery of antibiotics made by bacteria, medicine has advanced significantly. Moreover, microbes are employed in the synthesis of vaccinations and other and drugs.
Food
Fermentation is the driving force of every food industry. Microbes aids in fermentation. Microbes like Saccharomyces cerevisae, Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus sojae aids in bread making, beer and other food products.
Conclusion
We live in a microbial world, the benefits of microorganisms to man cannot be over emphasized. Thanks for reading through.