Prescott's Microbiology 8th Edition by Joanne Willey, Linda Sherwood, Christopher J. Woolverton, Lansing Prescott, John Harley, Donald Klein

Exercise 1

Discuss the contributions of Lister, Pasteur, and Koch to the germ theory of disease and the treatment or prevention of diseases. What other contributions did Koch make to microbiology?

Step 1 of 3

Pasteur showed that microbes could ferment alcohol. Fermentation is the utilization of organic compounds for energy in the absence of oxygen. The end result of fermenting beet sugar is alcohol. Wine makers were unable to understand why their wine was going sour.

Pasteur demonstrated that some yeast and bacteria are capable of alcohol fermentation. He also discovered that the overgrowth of bacteria was causing the sour wine. He suggested heating the wine to kill any bacteria and then adding the yeast to allow for fermentation. This process was later known as pasteurization.