The course is designed for students in the fields of microbiology, microbial ecology, environmental microbiology, food microbiology, human- and veterinary microbiology.

LECTURES: Introduction to the principles of how to describe the bacterial diversity with special emphasis on modern molecular biological and bioinformatic analyzes. Furthermore, the major groups of microorganisms in different environments will be described. Some important microbial communities with focus on communities associated with humans and animals will be reviewed.

LABORATORY EXERCISES: Focus on the description of bacterial diversity in selected model environments. The cultivation independent techniques will focus on the use of second generation DNA sequencing technology, and analytical tools to interpret such data. By using culture-based techniques, an assessment of the cultivable bacteria will be made. By culture independent methods it will be determined how this corresponds with the total number of bacteria in the samples. In addition, both microscopy- and DNA-based techniques will be evaluated, to investigate the living but not-culturable bacteria. Properties of culturable bacteria will be studied biochemically, whereas the properties of the non-culturable bacteria will be determined by the gene composition.

Students will get insight into both the description and significance of microorganisms in some central environments such as drinking water, gut and sewage, as well as insight into the ecological principles and biotechnological use of complex microorganism communities. 

Students will learn methods to describe the composition of microorganisms, microbial properties, and microbial processes. 

Students will get an understanding of how traditional culture based techniques can be combined with modern DNA techniques to describe a microbial community. 

There will be special emphasis on how to write scientific reports based on experimental data.

Textbook: Latest edition of Environmental Microbiology, Elsevier Science & Technology.

Laboratory Practice booklets and other written material handed out.

Skills for interpretation of experimental data is evaluated by the filing of journals.
The journal counts 1/3.

Evaluation of student learning will be based on their theoretical knowledge and understanding, being tested in a final written exam of 3.5 hours. Grade Weight 2/3.