546-0110/01 – Environmental Microbiology (EMB)

The target competences lie in gaining new knowledge and its application in dealing with problems, observations, experiments and in communication: - to characterize phenotypic and genotypic features of basic microorganism groups - to understand the status of microorganisms in the ecosystems, to be familiar with natural systems and understand the phylogenetic and biotic relations of the different groups - to understand the role of microorganisms within the species diversity and factors affecting its stability within an ecosystem - to understand the significance of microorganisms in the circulation of substances in the environment - to be able to evaluate the suitability of a particular microorganism for specific biotechnological procedure with regard to ecological consequences of such a decision - to be able to apply the gained knowledge in doing practical tasks in seminars, to evaluate the consequences of a particular feature from the ecological, sanitary and economic points of view; to build a positive attitude to nature - to be able to work independently on the set tasks, to observe and objectively record the experiment results, to adhere to safe (aseptic) work principles when working with biological material and technical equipment - to be able to synthetize the obtained experimental data and to justify own approach to dealing with a biological problem

The course builds on the knowledge gained within the Bachelor general and specialised microbiology courses and expands it via a generalisation of the microorganisms’ status in nature, species diversity and relations among the microorganisms’ populations within the ecosystems. The specialisation of the course mirrors the role of modern microbiology, i.e. a multi-disciplinary field on the boundary of ecological, biological and technical sciences. The course focuses on the microbiology of ecosystems. Students learn about the significance of microorganisms in a wider ecological context, the typology of microorganisms as for their phenotypes and genotypes, including modern databases, modern information sources, the options of their practical application in modern biotechnologies; some lectures will be dedicated to practical applications of microorganisms to detect mutagens in the environment and their role in environmental technologies and biotechnological methods.

ALBERTS, Bruce et al. Essential Cell Biology. New York: Garland Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8153-4130-7 GLAZER, Alexander N. a Hiroshi NIKAIDO. Microbial Biotechnology: Fundamentals of Applied Mikrobiology. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xvii, 554 s. ISBN 978-0-521-84210-5 MIMS, Cedric A. (ed.) Medical Microbiology. 3rd ed. Edinburgh: Elsevier, 2004. ix, 660 s. ISBN 0-323-03575-2 MOAT, Albert G., John W. FOSTER a Michael P. SPECTOR. Microbial Physiology. New York: Wiley-Liss, 2002. 714 s. ISBN 978-0-471-39483-9

Ongoing checks of students’ work are ensured via discussing the lecture topics; the practical competences are observed when working in the laboratory. To gain credits, students hand in records and completed tasks from the laboratory assignments. The course is completed by an examination, which may be scheduled having gained the initial credit. The examination is divided into a written and oral part.