Microbial Physiology and metabolism

Microbial physiology and metabolism provides information on sources of energy and its utilization by microorganisms. Microorganisms play important role in environment as producers, consumers and decomposers. These are the only group of organisms which takes part in all three important stages of ecosystem. Understanding microbial physiology has greater application in industry, developing medicine and even in agriculture. Microorganisms being Lilliput in size behaves like tiny factories to produce several enzymes, metabolites of industrial importance which are regulated by specific genes under the influence of environmental factors. Regulating these two parameters will provide greater output of the metabolites of the choice. To know the specific parameters it is important to understand physiology of these organisms in detail.

Microorganisms are also very special considering its ability to degrade different carbon sources and converting them both aerobically and anaerobically to metabolites of commercial value. This diverse metabolic activity is generally not observed in any other group of living organisms.The syllabus of the course is designed keeping in mind the recent developments in microbial physiology and will be useful to all those who want to learn and update their knowledge on physiology of microorganisms.