ASM Press

Methods for general and molecular microbiology, 3d ed.

With this laboratory manual, Reddy (microbiology and molecular genetics, Michigan State University) offers a complement to traditional microbiology textbooks, intended to serve as a first source for traditional methods of microbiology as well as modern molecular biological methods commonly used with microbial cells. Chapters are grouped in sections on morphology and ultrastructure, growth, metabolism, and molecular genetics. Sections on community and genomic analysis and mycology are new to this edition. Each chapter presents background on the method, followed by step-by-step procedures, common problems, and precautions. In many cases, commercial sources for equipment and materials are given. Coverage encompasses methods for microbes representing Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya, but aside from a chapter on bacteriophages, the manual does not cover viruses, algae, or protozoa. The audience for the book includes microbiologists in academic, industrial, governmental, and clinical laboratories, as well as undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students. The book is a revised, updated, and expanded version of its predecessor, Methods in General and Molecular Bacteriology (1994), containing 16 additional chapters. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Molecular biology and biotechnology; a guide for students, 3d ed.

For this third edition of an undergraduate text formerly known as Recombinant DNA and Biotechnology, Kreuzer (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) and Massey, a biotechnology policy consultant, have added a new chapter on cell biology, a new section on genomics, with new activities and readings, and expanded material on societal issues. All of the material has been updated to reflect advances in biology and biotechnology. The first part of the book provides a foundation on biotechnology and the science underlying its development. The second part of the book contains a wealth of both wet- and dry-lab activities for teaching both the basic science of molecular genetics, and the hands-on techniques of DNA- and protein-based technologies. The activities are presented in lesson-plan format. Most groups of activities are accompanied by readings. The third part of the text provides discussion tools for rationally analyzing biotechnology issues. With its reader-friendly writing style and color and b&w art program, the text can be used in high school and undergraduate courses. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Molecular biology and biotechnology; a guide for teachers, 3d ed. (CD-ROM included)

For this teacher's guide for the third edition of a text formerly known as Recombinant DNA and Biotechnology, Kreuzer (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) and Massey, a biotechnology policy consultant, have added a CD-ROM containing graphics, worksheets, and templates required for certain activities. The CD-ROM also contains appendices from the second edition that are essential for conducting the wet laboratories. This teacher's guide includes all of the information contained within the student volume, plus answers to student questions, advanced student activities, and further suggestions for activities. It also includes material on running a molecular biology lab. With its reader-friendly writing style and color and b&w art program, the text can be used in high school and undergraduate courses. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Sex in fungi; molecular determination and evolutionary implications.

Sexual reproduction accelerates adaptation and removed deleterious mutations, figuring significantly in the question of whether a species is to survive. The contributors of these 32 articles are of course well aware of this, and take it several steps farther, showing how research in this are leads to paradigms for how organisms establish cell identity and maintain it, how they sense and respond to extracellular cells, how they figure in genetic rearrangements in generating changes in cell identity and fate,, and how genomics regions governing sexual identity evolve and get organized. They start with general principles of mating and cell identity, then move to ascomycetes as model yeasts and pathogens for humans and plants, the Candida MAT locus, the role of the mushrooms, plant and animal pathogenic yeasts, zygomycetes and other frontiers of knowledge, and the implications of sex. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Superantigens; molecular basis for their role in human diseases.

Microbial superantigens have the ability to simultaneously activate cells involved in innate immunity as well as T cells and thus have the capacity to stimulate large numbers of immune cells to release inflammatory mediators that, if uncontrolled, can inflict serious damage upon the host. In this volume, Kotb (U. of Tennessee Health Science Center, US) and Fraser (School of Medical Sciences, U. of Auckland, New Zealand) present 16 papers describing recent advances in the study of superantigens. The papers address superantigen structure and function, superantigens and human diseases, experimental models for superantigen-mediated diseases, and therapeutic interventions in superantigen-mediated diseases. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Twelve diseases that changed our world.

In highly detailed and accessible accounts Sherman (The Scripps Research Institute) describes how porphyria and hemophilia figured so prominently in the royal families of Europe and led, respectively, to the madness of one king and the murder of another. He explains the biological and political roots of the Irish potato blight, the devastation wrought by cholera and smallpox in crowded cultures struggling to urbanize, the influenza that killed 22 million of the most healthy, the bubonic plague that killed 80 to 100 million but resulted in a seller's labor market, the tuberculosis and syphilis that felled great and low alike, and the scourges called malaria, yellow fever, and AIDS that also raised social awareness. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Virulence mechanisms of bacterial pathogens, 4th ed.

Brogden (dentistry, University of Iowa) offers a review of current work in the pathogenesis of bacterial diseases and mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions, for nonspecialists and students in bacteriology and immunology. Major aspects covered are virulence genes, microbial interactions in health and disease, bacterial attachment and colonization, bacterial effects on host cells, innate and adaptive resistance to pathogens, and the future of the field. The book will serve as a source of information on the virulence mechanisms of bacterial pathogens and as a text for graduate courses on bacterial pathogenesis. The audience for the book includes specialists in bacterial pathogenicity, as well as physician scientists, dental scientists, veterinarians, molecular biologists, and researchers. Material in this fourth edition originated at the 2006 fourth International Symposium on Virulence Mechanisms of Bacterial Pathogens, held at Iowa State University. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)