The new book on Bacillus edited by Peter Graumann will be available for dispatch within the next 2 or 3 read more ...

from Motomitsu Kitaoka , Takane Katayama, and Kenji Yamamoto writing in Lactic Acid Bacteria and Bifidobacteria: Current Progress in Advanced Research : It has long been considered that human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are the growth-promoting factors for bifidobacteria, which makes bifidobacteria the predominant intestinal microbiota in breast-fed infants. However, the mechanism responsible for the selective growth of bifidobacteria has not yet been identified because of the difficulty caused by the complicated content of HMOs, which read more ...

Metabolite-sensing Riboswitches as Antibacterial Drug Targets from Elaine R. Lee, Kenneth F. Blount and Ronald R. Breaker writing in Emerging Trends in Antibacterial Discovery: Answering the Call to Arms : The need for new antibacterial drug targets increases as antibiotic resistant pathogens continue to arise. Researchers have recently begun to investigate whether structured noncoding RNAs such as riboswitches can be exploited as targets for new classes of antimicrobial compounds. Riboswitches are gene control elements made entirely of RNA, read more ...

Metagenomics analysis of belowground microbial communities using microarrays from Joy D. Van Nostrand, Zhili He and Jizhong Zhou writing in Metagenomics: Current Innovations and Future Trends : The use of microarrays has revolutionized the field of microbiology. While many types of microarrays are available, the functional gene arrays (FGAs) afford a way to link environmental processes with microbial communities. FGAs probe for a wide range of genes involved in functional activities of interest to microbial ecology (e.g. carbon degradation, read more ...

Metagenomics and beyond: current approaches and integration with complementary technologies from Tracy L. Meiring, Rolene Bauer, Ilana Scheepers, Colin Ohlhoff, Marla I. Tuffin and Donald A. Cowan writing in Metagenomics: Current Innovations and Future Trends : Metagenomics is the cultivation independent analysis of the collective genomes of microbes within a given environment, using sequence- and function-based approaches. Early metagenomic studies, aimed at cataloguing the phylogenetic diversity of different habitats, revealed the vast read more ...

Metagenomics and integrative "-omics" technologies in microbial bioremediation: current trends and potential applications from Varun Shah, Kunal Jain, Chirayu Desai and Datta Madamwar writing in Metagenomics: Current Innovations and Future Trends : Implementation of efficacious bioremediation strategies relies heavily on intrinsic microbial community dynamics, structure and function. Any one particular microorganism is incapable of processing all the metabolic reactions to degrade environmental pollutants, however a group of diverse read more ...

Metagenomics applied to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities from Valeria Bianciotto, Erica Lumini, Alberto Orgiazzi, Roberto Borriello and Paola Bonfante writing in Metagenomics: Current Innovations and Future Trends : Metagenomics studies have recently offered new approaches that shed light on microbial communities in a variety of environments. In this context, DNA pyrosequencing is being used more and more to investigate prokaryotic assemblages in soil environment. Fungi, which are crucial components of soil microbial communities, read more ...

Metagenomics for the identification of novel viruses from Vincent Montoya, Eunice C. Chen, Charles Y. Chiu and Patrick Tang writing in Metagenomics: Current Innovations and Future Trends : Viruses are the most abundant and genetically diverse biological entities on Earth and the vast majority is yet to be discovered. Therefore, systematic surveillance for viruses requires techniques that have both broad specificity and high sensitivity. Conventional laboratory techniques in virology often fail to detect a specific etiology in many syndromes read more ...

Metal acquisition by Brucella strains from R. Martin Roop II, Eric Anderson, Jenifer Ojeda, David Martinson, Evan Menscher and Daniel W. Martin writing in Brucella : Molecular Microbiology and Genomics : Like most other living organisms, Brucella strains require a variety of metals as micronutrients to serve as co-factors and structural components of enzymes and other cellular proteins. Genetic studies have shown that the efficient transport of iron, magnesium, manganese, and zinc are essential for the virulence of Brucella strains in read more ...

Metapneumoviruses from James E. Crowe, Jr. and John V. Williams writing in The Biology of Paramyxoviruses : The metapneumoviruses were discovered more recently than most paramyxoviruses, because of the difficulty in isolating lives viruses in cell culture from clinical materials. Nevertheless, rapid progress has been made in identifying the salient features of the epidemiology and biology of these viruses. Remarkably, human metapneumovirus appears to be one of the most common causes of severe lower respiratory tract illness in infants and read more ...

Methods for the Analysis of Microbial Lipid-Linked Oligosaccharides By Mass Spectrometry from Christopher W. Reid writing in Bacterial Glycomics: Current Research, Technology and Applications : Bacteria and Archaea produce a variety of glycoconjugates such as capsular polysaccharides, lipopolysaccharides, and glycoproteins that are assembled on a polyisoprenyl-phosphate lipid in the cytoplasmic membrane. Traditional methods to analyze the membrane-associated steps of glycan biosynthesis involved the use of metabolic radio-labeling or the read more ...

Methylation-sensitive High Resolution Melting for the Rapid Analysis of DNA Methylation from Thomas Mikeska and Alexander Dobrovic writing in Epigenetics: A Reference Manual : Methylation-sensitive high resolution melting (MS-HRM) is an inexpensive and robust closed tube screening methodology that enables rapid analysis of locus specific DNA methylation for multiple samples. MS-HRM is based on the differential melting behaviour of PCR amplification products derived from methylated and unmethylated templates after bisulfite treatment. The read more ...

Microarray Mapping of Nucleosome Position from Brian Spetman, Sarah Lueking, Brooke Roberts and Jonathan H. Dennis writing in Epigenetics: A Reference Manual : The location and density of nucleosomes in the eukaryotic genome plays a role in regulating nuclear processes including transcription, replication, recombination, and repair. Microarray mapping of nucleosomally protected DNA has emerged as a powerful, cost-effective, high-throughput method to analyze the relationship between nucleosome position and genomic regulation. In this chapter read more ...

from Nazia Mojib, Jack T. Trevors and Asim K. Bej writing in Microbial Bioremediation of Non-metals: Current Research : Bioremediation is an attractive, generally low cost, innovative technology that is a fundamental and sustainable approach to clean up non-metal or organic compounds from contaminated environments. These pollutants include hydrocarbons- principal components of petroleum and fossil fuels, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - broad family of man-made organic chemicals also known as chlorinated hydrocarbons, polyaromatic read more ...

from Luo et al (2011) in Microbial Population Genetics A variety of specialized data resources manage the results of microbial genome data processing and interpretation at different stages. These stages correspond to different levels of microbial genome characterization. Draft and finished microbial genome data are continuously incorporated in various microbial genome data resources. Below are brief descriptions to the main microbial genome data resources. GOLD Genomes Online Database GOLD (Genomes Online Database) is a World Wide Web read more ...

Ernesto Abel-Santos (Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA) presents a new book on Bacterial Spores: Current Research and Applications In this book expert authors from around the world contribute comprehensive, up-to-date reviews on the current state of our knowledge of bacterial endospores. Topics covered include: gene regulation of sporulation, fruiting body development in Myxococcus xanthus, sporulation in Streptomyces, structure and composition of the bacterial spore, mechanisms of spore survival, germination of read more ...

from Lyudmila Boyanova writing in Helicobacter pylori : H. pylori are Gram-negative spiral and microaerophilic bacteria that undergo coccoid transformation under hostile conditions. The coccoids and bacterial biofilms may participate in the transmission of infection. Specific H. pylori characteristics such as its enormous genomic diversity, helical morphology, acid acclimation, Krebs cycle and lipopolysaccharide indicate the extreme adaptation of the bacteria to the gastric mucosa. Modern methods such as comparative genomics, transcriptomics read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Recent Advances in Plant Virology : "a valuable source for PhD students and an excellent opportunity to refresh the knowledge of advanced scientists ... This book should find a place in every library of the faculties of natural sciences, agriculture and material sciences as well as on the bookshelves of the above-mentioned advanced scientists. Students may utilize some information of single chapters for their examinations. " from Holger Jeske (University of Stuttgart, Germany) writing in J. Plant Phys. (2011) read more ...

Microbiology of Piezophiles in Deep-sea Environments from Chiaki Kato writing in Extremophiles: Microbiology and Biotechnology : Piezophilic microorganisms, which are defined as "pressure-loving" microorganisms, are isolated and characterized from high pressure environments. They grow better at high-hydrostatic pressures than at atmospheric pressures, and only exist at deeper water column environments, particularly in the deep-sea bottoms. Therefore, piezophilic microorganisms are typical deep-sea microorganisms that are well adapted to read more ...

from Theron et al. in Nanotechnology in Water Treatment Applications Advances in microfluidics and microfabrication technologies have contributed greatly to the miniaturization of biological and chemical analytical systems, allowing the handling of low volume samples, as well as reductions in reagent consumption, waste generation, costs and assay time. Micro-total analysis systems (micro-TAS), sometimes called "lab-on-a-chip", are microfabricated devices capable of performing the functions of large analytical devices in small units. These read more ...

Mining Bacterial Cell Division for New Antibacterial Drugs from Leigh G. Monahan, Michael A. D'Elia and Elizabeth J. Harry writing in Emerging Trends in Antibacterial Discovery: Answering the Call to Arms : The alarming rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria in hospitals and the community has exposed a critical need for new drugs that are not merely variants of older antibiotics, but target previously unexploited proteins and pathways. The wealth of available knowledge on the process of bacterial cell division implicates the division pathway read more ...

The new book on Microbial Biofilms edited by Gavin Lear and Gillian D. Lewis will be available for dispatch within the next 2 or 3 read more ...

Models for Studying Bacterial Pathogenesis from Richard W. Titball and Olivia L. Champion writing in Bacterial Pathogenesis: Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms : Research into mechanisms of virulence underpins work to devise improved control measures for infectious diseases. However, the ability of a pathogen to cause disease is implicitly dependent not only on the bacterial species but also on the host. Without the availability of a suitable experimental host, studies on mechanisms of virulence either cannot proceed or cannot be interpreted read more ...

December 1 - 3, 2011 MicroBiotec11 Braga, Portugal Further information MicroBiotec11. The Portuguese Society for Microbiology and the Portuguese Society for Biotechnology announce the National Congress MicroBiotec11. Suggested reading: | Microbiology read more ...

November 2 - 14, 2011 Imaging infection: from single molecules to animals Pretoria, South Africa Further information EMBO Practical Courses. European Molecular Biology Organization. November 6 - 9, 2011 RAFT IX. Recent Advances in Fermentation Technology Marco Island, FL, USA Further information RAFT IX 2011. Recent Advances in Fermentation Technology Suggested reading: | Molecular Biology books November 7, 2011 Symposium of The Danish Microbiological Society Copenhagen, Denmark Further information 2011 Symposium of The Danish Microbiological read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of The Biology of Paramyxoviruses : "This is a broad, expert overview of new information on paramyxoviruses ... a very comprehensive book on paramyxoviruses that will be a great source of information for many years" from Rebecca T. Horvat (University of Kansas Medical Center, USA) writing in read more ...

Molecular and Chemical Approaches to Brucella Vaccine Development from Thomas A. Ficht and Allison C. Rice-Ficht writing in Brucella : Molecular Microbiology and Genomics : Development of improved Brucella vaccines has focused on the identification of the genes that support intracellular survival and those encoding antigens capable of stimulating immune protection. Evaluation of live, attenuated vaccines and subunit vaccines expressed using numerous vector-based systems has provided two general results: i) vaccines providing little read more ...

Molecular biology of hantavirus infection from Christina Spiropoulou writing in Bunyaviridae : Molecular and Cellular Biology : Hantaviruses are mainly rodent-borne human pathogens with worldwide distribution and mortality rates among infected individuals of up to 40%. Members of the Hantavirus genus can be broadly divided into the Old World hantaviruses, which cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), and the New World hantaviruses, which cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). The virus life cycle with few exceptions is very read more ...