Introduction

CHARACTERIZATION, CLASSIFICATION AND TAXONOMY OF MICROBES

INTRODUCTION

Microbiology is an integral part of ‘biological sciences’, and hence essentially encompasses the three cardinal objectives, namely: characterization, classification, and identification. The entire ‘microbial world’ enjoys the reputation for being an extremely complex and extraordinarily diversified domain with respect to their morphological, physiological, and genetical characteristic features. In the light of the said glaring facts, it became almost necessary to afford a broad and critical classification as a means of bringing order to the puzzling diversity as well as variety of organisms in nature. Therefore, once the characteristic features of the various microbes existing in this universe have been duly established, one may compare it with other organisms quite conveniently in order to draw a line amongst their similarities and dissimilarities in particular. It would be a lot easier task to segregate the microbes having the same features and subsequently group them together under a specific classified head or group known as ‘classification’.

Based upon the enormous volume of researches made in the study of microorganisms, one has to know their characteristics prior to their legitimate identification and classification. Because of the extremely minute and microscopical size of the microorganism, it may not be quite feasible to carry out an elaborated study of the characteristics of a single microorganism. In order to circumvent the above difficulties, one may conveniently study the characteristics of a culture i.e., a population of microor-ganisms or the propogation of microorganisms. Therefore, the meticulous investigation of the charac-teristics of a culture comprising a host of microorganisms,* it is as good as exploring the characteristics of a single organism. Pure Culture [Axenic Culture] : It refers to a ‘culture’ that essentially be composed of a single type of microorganism, irrespective of the number of individuals, in a surrounding absolutely free of other living microbes (organisms). Summarily, the process of establishing the ‘char-acteristics’ of microorganisms is not only a cardinal prerequisite for classification but also play a vari-ety of vital, indeed essential, roles in nature.