Having defined Microbiology and some other things that are related to the beautiful course, today, we will take a look at the major fields in Microbiology.

Due to its vastness, branches of Microbiology has been classified into two which are
1.Pure Microbiology and
2.Applied Microbiology
This writeup emphasizes the pure aspects of microbiology and I am going to give a briefing on just about 6 of them. Even though there are more than that.

So under Pure Microbiology, we have

1.Bacteriology:- This is no doubt the most studied and most popular field of microbiology. As the name implies, it is the study of bacteria, their structure, classification, behavior and metabolism.
Popular disease-causing bacteria like Staphylococcus, Salmonella typhimurim which causes typhoid fever, Vibrio Cholerae which is notorious for causing the deadly cholera disease, free living bacteria and beneficial bacteria like the intestinal Escherichia coli are all studied under Bacteriology.



2.Mycology:- Mycology is the study of fungi. Don't know what fungi is? Relax. You have probably seen mushrooms before and even eaten them, do you know that all mushrooms are fungi? And technically Microorganisms? Yes.
Have you ever fetched water in a bucket and after some time you touch the base of the bucket and it feels slimy to touch? Yes, that's as a result of fungal growth (slime molds).
Also, Yeast(Saccharomyces sp) is used in production of beer and in bakeries to produce bread. Yeast too is a fungi. All these are studied under Mycology.


3.Virology:- This is also an interesting aspect of microbiology. Virology is the study of viruses -biological viruses -.
From the common cold which is a more of a nuisance, to measles, to Herpes, to the dreaded HIV infection to the swift killer Ebola disease and also Rabies. All these aforementioned diseases are caused by - yes you got it- Viruses. Virologists work with these tiny parasites which we fear so much, study their behavior and even look for ways we can use them to our own advantage e.g to kill cancer cells(oncoviruses).



4.Protozoology:- This is the study of protozoa. Protozoa are mostly free-living eukaryotic unicellular microorganisms. Free-living means they cause no disease, eukaryotic means their cells are a bit more complex and unicellular means they have just a single cell.
A good example of protozoa is the popular Amoeba, which is free living but can cause opportunistic infection. Another good example is the causative organism of Sleeping sickness, Trypanosoma. The lethal malaria disease is also caused by a protozoan, Plasmodium.


5.Parasitology:- Parasitology is simply the study of parasites. A parasite is an organism which depends on another organism either partially or completely for survival. It encompasses all the aforementioned fields. Only that it studies the parasitic strains of the groups.
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6.Immunology :- In immunology, ("immune" meaning protected against and "logy" which means study.) we study the way the body system fights against these microorganisms. Here, we look at how various body cells organize themselves to fight off invading pathogenic microorganisms. Your body encounters thousands to millions of - name it- bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa and their toxins in less than an hour and yet you fall sick only rarely.
This interesting feature of humans is studied in immunology. One of the most intriguing aspects of microbiology too.


There are more interesting branches of Microbiology like Nematology(study of nematodes), Algology/Phycology (Study of algae), Microbial ecology, Microbial genetics, Nanos microbiology etc.


Next, I will discuss the various aspects of Applied Microbiology. Where things get really interesting.