Bacteriology and Virology

By Dr. Madhumita Maitra | St. Xavier's College (Autonomous), Kolkata

Learners enrolled: 1150

The course “Bacteriology and Virology” is a core course in B.Sc. Microbiology under the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) formulated by UGC. This course has 37 modules in all. The course has been drawn to provide the students the knowledge of bacterial and viral living systems are organized in their structural as well as in their functional aspects. Since these living entities cannot be seen with naked eyes, the knowledge of the important instrument called Microscope is very essential. As organized in the three domain system, prokaryotes include archaebacteria and eubacteria or bacteria. At one time it was thought that bacteria and other prokaryotes were essentially "bags of enzymes" with no inherent cellular architecture. The development of the electron microscope in the 1950s revealed the distinct anatomical features of bacteria and confirmed that they lacked a nuclear membrane. A prokaryotic cell has five essential structural components: a nucleoid (DNA), ribosomes, cell membrane, cell wall, and some sort of surface layer, which may or may not be an inherent part of the wall. Apart from general structure specialized cell structure including endospore, heterocysts and akinetes, conidia, spheroplast and protoplast. The endospores are made against harsh environmental situations. Antibiotics are the drugs which can be used to target towards the activities of bacterial structural components.

On the other hand viruses are the microscopic entities which are not visible through light microscope. They can only be seen through electron microscope. Viruses are completely different from bacteria as they are living entities when they are present inside the living host cell which can be a plant, animal or a bacterial cell. The virus become non-living when they are present outside the host because they depend on the host for their replication and reproduction. For this they have been classified separately in a classification system and their structural components are also different from the bacteria. The methods of detection of virus includes a living host cell where it reproduces, whereas in case of bacteria it can be detected easily as it reproduces by its own. Though most of the viruses are harmful adenovirus is used in gene therapy.

The course is divided into two units. The first unit includes the structural organization of Bacterial cell and its components, bacterial systematic, types of reproduction in bacteria, Bacteriological techniques, growth and nutrition, microscopy along with the practical demonstration of various staining techniques. The second unit will give the concept of viruses, their classification and morphology, bacteriophage and the assay methods to detect the viruses. The unit will also discuss the different types of viral diseases and the application of virology. This course is designed in such a way that students from any disciplines of biology will find the course content interesting and will get the satisfaction of learning the subjects of Bacteriology and Virology. After completion of the course, the students can automatically apply this knowledge in their fields of research and higher education.

The 37 modules of this course will be delivered over a period of 12 weeks roughly covering the working days of a semester. Each week, 3/4 modules will be uploaded and each module has the following four quadrants:

· A video lecture of roughly 25 - 30 minutes duration delivered by the faculty.

· An in depth write up of the same topic

· References for further study

· MCQs for self-assessment,

In order to assimilate the topic in a perfect manner, the student is expected to devote two hours and will adhere to the submission deadline of the assignment provided by the faculty.

Thus like all other MOOCs, this particular MOOC is a self-learning module and the students are expected to devote 10 hours approximately per week, which will include thorough understanding of the modules in the course, participation in the discussion with the subject expert and also going through the list of papers and other references.

Course Objectives:

The objectives of this course are to acquaint students with:

the structural organization of Bacterial cell and its component
the development of bacterial phylogeny and systematics.
the various Bacteriological techniques
Bacterial growth kinetics and nutrition along with the types of reproduction in bacteria.
the microscopic techniques and principles along with the practical demonstration of various staining techniques
the concept of viruses, their classification and morphology,
the bacteriophage and the assay methods to detect the viruses.
The different types of viral diseases and the application of virology.
This course will enable them to apply the acquired knowledge in the fields of other biological science.
It will enable them to write a review on allied field and that may be suitable for publication.

Course Coordinator Name:

Dr. Madhumita Maitra

Assistant Professor

St. Xavier's College (Autonomous), Kolkata

Producer:

Dr. Moasunep Kichu

Summary

Course Status :	Upcoming
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Microbiology
Credit Points :	4
Level :	Undergraduate
Start Date :	14 Jul 2025
End Date :	31 Oct 2025
Enrollment Ends :	31 Aug 2025
Exam Date :
NCrF Level	4.5

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1 14/7/2025 - 20/7/2025

Module 1. Structure of prokaryotic cell

Module 2. Diversified cell structure and function in prokaryotes

Module 3. Structure and Function of Bacterial Cell wall [Gram +ve and Gram –ve Bacteria]

Week 1 Assessment Due date: 20/7/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 2 21/7/2025 - 27/7/2025

Module 4. Structure and Function of Bacterial Cell wall [Other prokaryotes]

Module 5. Biosynthesis and degradation of Bacterial Cell wall

Module 6. Bacterial Cell Wall Inhibitors:ß-Lactam Family of Antibiotics

Week 2 Assessment Due date: 27/7/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 3 28/7/2025 - 3/8/2025

Module 7. Antibiotics Preventing Cell Wall Synthesis (Other than ß-Lactam)

Module 8. Sterilization Techniques – I

Module 9. Sterilization Techniques - II

Week 3 Assessment Due date: 3/8/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 4 4/8/2025 - 10/8/2025

Module 10. Pure culture Techniques

Module 11. Microscopy-I

Module 12. Microscopy-II

Week 4 Assessment Due date: 10/8/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 5 11/8/2025 - 17/8/2025

Module 13. Microscopy-III

Module 14. Microscopy-IV

Module 15. Culture Media

Week 5 Assessment Due date: 17/8/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 6 18/8/2025 - 24/8/2025

Module 16. Types of Culture Media

Module 17. Asexual Reproduction in Bacteria (Part-1)

Module 18. Asexual Reproduction in Bacteria (Part-2)

Week 6 Assessment Due date: 24/8/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 7 25/8/2025 - 31/8/2025

Module 19. Asexual Reproduction in Bacteria (Part-3)

Module 20. Sexual reproduction in Bacteria- I

Module 21. Sexual reproduction in Bacteria- II

Week 7 Assessment Due date: 31/8/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 8 1/9/2025 - 7/9/2025

Module 22. Sexual reproduction in Bacteria-III

Module 23. Classification of Bacteria (Early Approaches)

Module 24. Classification of Bacteria (Modern Approaches)

Week 8 Assessment Due date: 7/9/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 9 8/9/2025 - 14/9/2025

Module 25. Classification of Bacteria (Overview of Domain Bacteria)

Module 26. Simple staining

Module 27. Differential staining

Week 9 Assessment Due date: 14/9/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 10 15/9/2025 - 21/9/2025

Module 28. Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria

Module 29. Antibiotic Sensitivity Assay Artificial

Module 30. Classification of Viruses (Part-1)

Week 10 Assessment Due date: 21/9/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 11 22/9/2025 - 28/9/2025

Module 31. Classification of Viruses (Part-2)

Module 32. Classification of Viruses (Part-3)

Module 33. T4 Bacteriophage

Week 11 Assessment Due date: 28/9/2025, 23:59 IST

Week 12 29/9/2025 - 5/10/2025

Module 34. Bacteriophage ØX174

Module 35. Determination of Phage Titre (T4) by Plating Method Using E.coli

Module 36. Isolation and Characterization of E.Coli

Module 37. Isolation of Rhizobium & Frankia from Soil

Week 12 Assessment Due date: 5/10/2025, 23:59 IST

Books and references

1. Atlas RM. (1997). Principles of Microbiology. 2nd edition. WM.T.Brown Publishers.

2. Black JG. (2008). Microbiology: Principles and Explorations. 7th edition. Prentice Hall

3. Madigan MT, and Martinko JM. (2014). Brock Biology of Micro-organisms. 14th edition. Parker J.

Prentice Hall International, Inc.

4. Pelczar Jr MJ, Chan ECS, and Krieg NR. (2004). Microbiology. 5th edition Tata McGraw Hill.

5. Srivastava S and Srivastava PS. (2003). Understanding Bacteria. Kluwer Academic Publishers,

Dordrecht

6. Stanier RY, Ingraham JL, Wheelis ML and Painter PR. (2005). General Microbiology. 5th edition

McMillan.

7. Tortora GJ, Funke BR, and Case CL. (2008). Microbiology: An Introduction. 9th edition Pearson

Education.

8. Willey JM, Sherwood LM, and Woolverton CJ. (2013). Prescott’s Microbiology. 9th edition.

McGraw Hill Higher Education.

9. Cappucino J and Sherman N. (2010). Microbiology: A Laboratory Manual. 9th edition. Pearson

Education Limited

10. Dimmock, NJ, Easton, AL, Leppard, KN (2007). Introduction to Modern Virology. 6th edition,

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

11. Carter J and Saunders V (2007). Virology: Principles and Applications. John Wiley and Sons.

12. Flint SJ, Enquist, LW, Krug, RM, Racaniello, VR, Skalka, AM (2004). Principles of Virology,

Molecular biology, Pathogenesis and Control. 2nd edition. ASM press Washington DC.

13. Levy JA, Conrat HF, Owens RA. (2000). Virology. 3rd edition. Prentice Hall publication, New

Jersey.

14. Wagner EK, Hewlett MJ. (2004). Basic Virology. 2nd edition. Blackwell Publishing.

15. Mathews. (2004). Plant Virology. Hull R. Academic Press, New York.

16. Nayudu MV. (2008). Plant Viruses. Tata McGraw Hill, India.

17. Bos L. (1999) Plant viruses-A text book of plant virology by. Backhuys Publishers.

18. Versteeg J. (1985). A Color Atlas of Virology. Wolfe Medical Publication.

Instructor bio

Dr. Madhumita Maitra

St. Xavier's College (Autonomous), Kolkata

Dr. Madhumita Maitra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata. Professionally being an educator & researcher, she wishes to create a world of human with moral characters exploiting academic knowledge for the better evolution of life and life forms. She completed her masters in Botany, when she came to know about the invisible living world. She is interested in various fields of Life Sciences, specially the invisible world of microorganisms that includes Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi etc. They have a great diversifications and therefore we are still gathering the information about them. Having a background of the subjects like Microbiology, Bacteriology, Virology, Medical Microbiology, Cell signalling and Immunology, it gives her a great support in teaching Under Graduate, Post Graduate and PhD students. After completing her Doctoral Degree from Jadavpur University, Kolkata (W.B), she completed her Post Doctoral research work in Bose Institute, Kolkata and later joined the same as a CSIR Pool Officer. She joined the teaching field from the year 2004 onwards and still enjoying her role as an educator in colleges.

Course certificate

- Internal Assessment- Weekly assessments released in the course shall be considered for Internal Marks and will carry 30 percent for the Overall Result. Out of all weekly assignments, the best/top five scores will be considered for the final Internal Assessment marks.

- End-term Assessment - The final exam shall be conducted by NTA, and will carry 70 percent for the overall Result.

- All students who obtain 40% marks in the internal assessment and 40% marks in the end-term proctored exam separately will be eligible for the SWAYAM Credit Certificate.

Please take note of the following eligibility criteria if you are pursuing this course for certification or credit transfer:

For SWAYAM Exam (conducted by NTA): A minimum of 40% Marks in Internal Assessments is required to be eligible for the SWAYAM Certificate. The Best/Top five scores from the weekly assignments will be considered while calculating your final internal assessment marks.

For University-Conducted Exam: You must complete at least 75% of the Internal Assessments to qualify for the university’s end-term examination.