The third and last golden age of microbiology dates from 1971 until the present time. During this period microbiology has encountered scientific progress, challenges and changes. We will start by studying the impact of biotechnology. Then we will look briefly at the development of antibiotic resistance, the constant fight against emerging and re emerging infectious diseases, the use of bio remediation, the threat of bioterrorism And finally, the investigation of microbial evolution towards the end of the 20th century, that is from 1970s to the year 2000. There have been great advances in biotechnology. biotechnology is the use of natural and genetically engineered abilities of mind organisms to carry out biological proper processes for commercial, industrial and medical applications.

The impact of biotechnology in improvement of health of millions of individuals can be noticed in the examples of insulin and hepatitis B vaccine. Arthur Rick's and his colleagues made synthetic insulin from ecola in 1977. In 1982, Lilly marketed it by the name human. Pablo Valenzuela succeeded in making the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus in Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells in 1986. The following year, it was made commercial by Merck company with the name recom. vivax antibiotic resistance has many aspects to be considered.

Currently most pathogens are resistant to at least one if not more antibiotics. Also, resistance to antibiotics is developing faster than the discovery of new antibiotics. mutations can cause pathogens to turn into what is now called Super bugs, resistant to many drugs. One such super bug is the methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA. There have been campaigns to limit the use of antibiotics to only when needed and to educate patients not to demand antibiotics when they are not needed, as in the case of viral infections. Unfortunately, there have been an There has been a decline in the production of new drugs.

Furthermore, there is an increase in time from drug development to market. If solutions are not seen in the near future, previously treatable diseases may become untreatable. infectious diseases do not only tend to spread faster, but emerge more quickly. Since the 1970s, there have been one or more new diseases identified per year. Among them main emerging diseases are Ace which was first recognized by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 1981, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, Lyme disease, mad cow disease, SARS, and more recently, the 2000 Nine outbreak of swine flu. reemerging infectious diseases are diseases that have existed in the past but are now showing resurgence either in the number of cases or in the spread to the large, larger geographic range.

Examples of these are cholera, tuberculosis, dengue fever, West Nile virus disease, to name a few. cholera was once considered an old world disease. But now it is reemerging in many countries, such as in Africa, like Nigeria and Zimbabwe, as well as in Haiti, after the recent earthquake in the country had faced in nine in 2010. There have been several reasons for the reemergence of infectious diseases such as antibiotic resistance susceptibility of certain in Individuals that is certain individuals are more prone to the disease than others which may be due to their immune system, or genetics. And finally, climate changes. While some species of microorganisms die in a toxic environment, others are capable of degrading the toxic substances and survive or even thrive in the same environment.

The use of microorganisms to either remove or decontaminate toxic materials in the environment is called bio remediation. Bio remediation takes the advantage of the versatility of certain bacterial archaeal fungal or Proteus pieces. These pieces have the ability to break down organic material. One example of bio remediation is the cleaning up of toxic oil spills by microorganisms that help degrade the soil scientists Therefore tend to enhance the growth of such microorganisms. bioterrorism, is the intentional or threatened use of biological agents aiming to cause fear or in actually inflicting death or disease upon a large population. The biological agents used in the attack can be bacteria, virus or toxins.

During World War One, anthrax was used to kill pop animal populations, but it was relatively ineffective. concentrated anthrax spores were used in the 2001 anthrax attack in the US. The spores were delivered by mail to media offices and to two US senators. As a result of that attack. 22 persons were infected and five died. The FBI named the attacks as me Married tracks.

Smallpox as a biological weapon is dangerous because it is highly contagious. plague has been one of the most devastating epidemic diseases to mankind second only to smallpox. It has been used as a biological weapon in the past. The availability capacity for mass production and the high fatality rate of the pneumonic type of plague makes the potential use of plague as a biological weapon, a matter of great concern. The last topic we will discuss in the third golden age of microbiology is microbial evolution. The principles of evolution first described by Darwin remain the cornerstone and foundation of all biology and medicine.

Just as all other organisms, microorganisms also evolved microbes. Mobile evolution is an experimental science. Since microbes have sharp generation times, evolutionary processes can be observed directly. Microbes also allow for large scale experimentation because of the large population size. Antibiotic resistance has been faster than ever before bringing about the microbial evolution of superbugs. evolution and mechanisms underlying the emergence of infectious diseases are also a critical part in the study of microbial evolution.

The availability of sequence genomes allows researchers to construct a family tree demonstrating the evolutionarily relationships among the different related and unrelated groups of microbes. This screen here shows the three groupings you bacteria are And eukaryotes. DME these are the three main domains that we shall study later in the classification of microorganisms and then can encompass the bacteria archaea, fungi, protests, plants and animals.