Excerpt from a book review of Emerging Trends in Antibacterial Discovery: Answering the Call to Arms : "... excellent volume ... This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in antibiotic resistance or discovery but also contains interesting chapters on the human microbiota and on current strategies for vaccine development. I highly recommend that you add this to your shelves." from Matt Hutchings (University of East Anglia, UK) writing in Microbiology Today read more ...

Expression of Recombinant Proteins Using Bacillus subtilis Spores from Luis Carlos de Souza Ferreia and Wolfgang Schumann writing in Bacterial Spores: Current Research and Applications : Surface display of peptides and proteins on recombinant phages and bacterial cells has developed into a powerful technique to identify proteins with desired properties with multiple applications. This technique is of utmost importance as a tool for fundamental and applied research in the fields of microbiology, biotechnology and vaccination. Another read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Microbial Biofilms: Current Research and Applications : "Highly recommended is the chapter on interactions between plants and biofilms" from Hans-Curt Flemming (Duisburg, Germany) writing in Biospektrum (2012) 18: read more ...

from Luo et al (2011) in Microbial Population Genetics CFGP CFGP (Comparative Fungal Genomics Platform) is a web-based multifunctional informatics workbench. The CFGP comprises three layers, including the basal layer, middleware and the user interface. The data warehouse in the basal layer contains standardized genome sequences of 65 fungal species. The middleware processes queries via six analysis tools, including BLAST, ClustalW, InterProScan, SignalP 3.0, PSORT II and a newly developed tool named BLASTMatrix. The BLASTMatrix permits the read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Bacterial Glycomics: Current Research, Technology and Applications : "This book covers a topic in bacterial pathogenesis that is not often covered ... should be essential to any scientist working in the area of bacterial pathogenesis." from Rebecca T. Horvat (University of Kansas, USA) writing in read more ...

Lesley A. Ogilvie and Penny R. Hirsch present a new book on Microbial Ecological Theory: Current Perspectives Written for graduate students and academic researchers, the book aims to encourage cross-disciplinary thinking and provide direction and perspective on the still fledgling field of microbial ecological theory. This volume is highly recommended for all microbiology read more ...

Evolution of Sendai Virus: The Journey from Mouse Pathogen to a State-of-the-Art Tool in Virus Research and Biotechnology from Yoshiyuki Nagai, Akira Takakura, Takashi Irie, Yoshikazu Yonemitsu and Bin Gotoh writing in The Biology of Paramyxoviruses : Sendai virus (SeV) is not just an old mouse pathogen. SeV has been an irreplaceable tool in basic research to understand paramyxovirus replication and pathogenesis. SeV has further made an entrance into the scene of technological innovation in delivering foreign genes of interest to target read more ...

Evolution of DNA-binding Transcription Factors and Regulatory Networks in Prokaryotes from Ernesto Perez-Rueda, Nancy Rivera-Gomez, Mario Alberto Martinez-Nuñez and Silvia Tenorio-Salgado writing in Bacterial Regulatory Networks : The capabilities of organisms to contend with environmental changes depend on their repertoire of genes and their ability to regulate their expression. DNA-binding transcription factors have a fundamental role in this process, because they regulate transcription positively or negatively as a consequence of read more ...

from Christopher F. Basler and Gaya K. Amarasinghe writing in Viruses and Interferon: Current Research : Viral hemorrhagic fever, a clinical syndrome characterized by fever, shock and bleeding, can be caused in humans by members of several RNA virus families, including filoviruses, bunyaviruses, arenaviruses and flaviviruses. None of the hemorrhagic fever viruses uniformly cause hemorrhage in humans. However, some viruses show greater propensity to cause severe, life threatening disease than do others. Because of their potential to cause read more ...

Epigenetic Memory in Plants: Polycomb-group Regulation of Responses to Low Temperature from Sandra N. Oliver and E. Jean Finnegan writing in Epigenetics: A Reference Manual : Polycomb-group (PcG) complexes are essential regulators of plant development. These multiprotein complexes repress gene expression by establishing and maintaining trimethylation of lysine 27 at histone H3, a modification that is associated with repressive chromatin. Recent studies have indicated that plant PcG complexes regulate key genes involved in responses to low read more ...

from Lyudmila Boyanova writing in Helicobacter pylori : H. pylori causes the second most common chronic bacterial infection in humans. As a result of the childhood-acquired and usually life-long (unless eradicated) infection, about 12-24% of the H. pylori positive subjects develop severe diseases e.g. peptic ulcers or gastric malignancy. In developed countries, the infection usually spreads intrafamilially; however, in developing countries or underdeveloped rural areas, it can be acquired often extrafamilially or via environmental read more ...

Enzyme Activities and Biotechnological Applications of Cold-active Microfungi from Helena Nevalainen, Ron Bradner, Sania Wadud, Suja Mohammed, Christopher McRae and Junior Te'o writing in Extremophiles: Microbiology and Biotechnology : Fungi are eukaryotic organisms and considered to be less adaptable to extreme environments when compared to bacteria. While there are no thermophilic microfungi in a strict sense, some fungi have adapted to life in the cold. Cold-active microfungi have been isolated from the Antarctic and their enzyme read more ...

Enzymatic Approaches for Genome DNA Methylation Profiling from Benjamin Chanrion, Yurong Xin and Fatemeh Haghighi writing in Epigenetics: A Reference Manual : DNA methylation plays an essential role in normal human development, where abnormalities in proper establishment and maintenance of DNA methylation patterns result in human disease. Many experimental approaches have been developed for assaying DNA methylation patterns, including enzymatic-based approaches. In this chapter, we highlight some of these approaches and describe their read more ...

from Michel Sylvestre and Jean-Patrick Toussaint writing in Microbial Bioremediation of Non-metals: Current Research : The fate of PCBs in soil and sediments is driven by a combination of interacting processes including several known biological processes. Under anaerobic conditions some bacteria use organohalides (including PCBs) as terminal acceptors. This process is responsible for the depletion of highly chlorinated congeners. Under aerobic conditions, PCBs are oxidized and mineralized by fungi through various pathways involving read more ...

from Kei Nanatani and Keietsu Abe writing in Lactic Acid Bacteria and Bifidobacteria: Current Progress in Advanced Research : In bacteria, many biological reactions are sustained by metabolic energy present in the form of phosphoester bonds, in compounds such as ATP and phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP), or in the form of ion gradients, such as the proton motive force (PMF) and the sodium motive force. The two forms of metabolic energy can be interconverted by FoF1-ATPases, which catalyze the translocation of H+ (or Na+) concomitant with either the read more ...

Energy from Slime? Power from Microbial Fuel Cells from Koichi Nishio, Atsushi Kouzuma, Souichiro Kato and Kazuya Watanabe writing in Microbial Biofilms: Current Research and Applications : Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are devices that exploit microbial catabolic activities to generate electricity from a variety of starting materials, including complex organic waste and renewable biomass. The use of these energy sources provides MFCs with a great advantage over chemical fuel cells that utilize only purified reactive fuels (e.g., hydrogen). In read more ...

from Theron et al. in Nanotechnology in Water Treatment Applications Currently, the detection of microorganisms is largely based on time-consuming culture methods. However, newer enzymatic, immunological and genetic methods are being developed to replace and/or support classical approaches to microbial detection. Moreover, innovations in nanotechnology and nanosciences are having a significant impact in biodiagnostics, where a number of nanoparticle-based assays and nanodevices have been introduced for biomolecular detection. Accordingly, read more ...

Efflux Pumps from Gram-negative Bacteria: From Structure and Function to Inhibition from Olga Lomovskaya and Helen I. Zgurskaya writing in Emerging Trends in Antibacterial Discovery: Answering the Call to Arms : Multidrug efflux pumps adversely affect both the clinical effectiveness of existing antibiotics as well as the discovery process to find new ones. In this chapter, we summarize recent advances in structural and functional analyses of multi-component efflux pumps from Gram-negative bacteria with the focus on transporters belonging to read more ...

from Toshitaka Odamaki, Noriyuki Iwabuchi and Jin-zhong Xiao writing in Lactic Acid Bacteria and Bifidobacteria: Current Progress in Advanced Research : Studies on probiotic bacteria in the treatment or prevention of allergic rhinitis have shown encouraging results such as improved symptoms, reduced use of relief medication and modulated immunological parameters. Bacterial cells were shown to be sampled by intestinal immunocompetent cells and hence exerted diverse immunomodulatory effects on the hosts. Clinical studies using Bifidobacterium read more ...

Educational Resources for Epigenetics from Yuk Jing Loke and Jeffrey M. Craig writing in Epigenetics: A Reference Manual : Epigenetics can appear as an impenetrable subject; not just to those encountering it for the first time, but to those within the field too. However, epigenetics, like any subject can be made easier to understand using a combination of clear language, creative illustrations and even animations and film clips. This chapter aims to point readers of all experiences towards helpful and easy-to-read resources that educate read more ...

ECF Sigma Factors: from Stress Management to Iron Uptake from Karlijn C. Bastiaansen, Wilbert Bitter and María A. Llamas writing in Bacterial Regulatory Networks : Gene expression in bacteria is mainly controlled at the level of transcription initiation. To achieve this process a number of different mechanisms have evolved, one of which is the utilization of alternative sigma factors. Sigma factors are small proteins that associate with the RNA polymerase core enzyme (RNAPc) and direct it to specific promoter sequences, where they read more ...

Early Life Environment, DNA Methylation and Behavior from Moshe Szyf writing in Epigenetics: A Reference Manual : The DNA molecule contains within its chemical structure two layers of information. The DNA sequence that bears the ancestral genetic information and the pattern of distribution of covalently bound methyl groups to cytosines in DNA. While the genetic information is similar in all tissues in the individual, the pattern of distribution of methylation across the genome is cell-type specific. DNA methylation is an important regulator read more ...

E6 Oncoproteins: Structure and Associations from Scott B. Vande Pol writing in Small DNA Tumour Viruses : Papillomavirus E6 oncoproteins are small zinc-binding proteins with a bewildering array of biological activities, including modulation of apoptosis, cellular transcription, host cell differentiation, growth factor dependence, DNA damage responses, and cell cycle progression. How can such a tiny protein do so much? This review examines insights from studies of oncogenic human papillomavirus E6 and bovine papillomavirus E6 to illuminate read more ...

Dynamics of DNA Double-strand Break Repair in Bacillus subtilis from Begoña Carrasco, Paula P. Cardenas, Cristina Cañas, Tribuhwuan Yadav, Carolina E. César, Silvia Ayora and Juan C. Alonso writing in Bacillus : Cellular and Molecular Biology (Second edition) : All organisms have developed a variety of DNA repair mechanisms to cope with DNA lesions. Homologous recombination (HR), which uses a homologous template to restore lost information at the break site, is the ultimate step for repair of one- or two-ended double read more ...

Dynamics and Robustness of Metabolic Networks: a Systems Biology Review of Escherichia coli Metabolism from Eivind Almaas, Per Bruheim, Rahmi Lale and Svein Valla writing in Systems Microbiology: Current Topics and Applications : The functional repertoire of an organism's metabolic network is closely linked to its phenotype and potential for utility in metabolic engineering applications. In this chapter, we discuss a systems biology view of Escherichia coli metabolism by integrating current genome-scale computational modelling approaches read more ...