Microbiology is a general term for the study of microorganisms and it can be divided into basic and applied sciences. As a basic science, microbiology provides some of the most accessible research tools for probing the nature of life processes. Since all cells have much in common, our understanding of the chemical and physical basis of life heavily relies on studies on microorganisms and especially on bacteria. As applied science microbiology deals with many important issues in medicine, agriculture, and industry. In this course, we will focus on the basic aspects of microbiology. We will utilize our knowledge from studies on bacteria to uncover a variety of biological processes including evolution, transcription regulation, stress response, and chemotaxis. We will study current topics in microbial genomes and deal with advanced experimental methods applied in microbiology studies.