Mathematical Models for Systems Biology and How to Construct Them from Chris P. Barnes, Maxime Huvet, Nathan Harmston and Michael P.H. Stumpf writing in Systems Microbiology: Current Topics and Applications : Modelling methodologies in the life- and biomedical sciences are hampered by the complexity of the processes and systems at work. Modelling studies into prokaryotic systems require the elucidation of the mechanistic model. In this chapter we introduction modelling methodologies and discuss the problem of model (and parameter) inference. read more ...

Mechanisms Involved in Low-temperature Adaptation in Bacillus cereus from Julien Brillard and Véronique Broussolle writing in Stress Response in Microbiology : Among the soil bacteria of the spore former genus Bacillus , the human pathogens mostly belong to the B. cereus group. This species is divided in seven phylogenetic groups, with particular traits in virulence, and particular growth temperature ranges, where each of these seven phylogenetic groups corresponds to a specific "thermotype", showing clear differences in ability to read more ...

Mechanisms of Bacterial Spore Survival from Mario Pedraza-Reyes, Norma Ramírez-Ramírez, Luz E. Vidales-Rodríguez and Eduardo A. Robleto writing in Bacterial Spores: Current Research and Applications : Sporulation is the process by which a spore is formed and is generally induced when microorganism of the Bacilli and Clostridia genus are challenged by nutritional stress. Spores of Bacillus species contaminate food and other products of human consumption compromising health. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the read more ...

Take It Or Leave It: Mechanisms Underlying Bacterial Bistable Regulatory Networks from Jeroen Siebring, Robin A. Sorg, Martijn Herber, Oscar P. Kuipers writing in Bacterial Regulatory Networks : Bistable switches occur in regulatory networks that can exist in two distinct stable states. Such networks allow distinct switching of individual cells. In bacteria these switches coexist with regulatory networks that respond gradually to environmental input. Bistable switches play key roles in high investment processes such as cellular read more ...

Mercury in the Chlor-alkali Electrolysis Industry from Pawel Gluszcz, Katarzyna Fürch and Stanislaw Ledakowicz writing in Bioremediation of Mercury: Current Research and Industrial Applications : This report is based on all publicly available information sources, technical reports and analyses of international consortia. Its task is to provide up to date data on chlor-alkali plants, in particular those using the mercury cell process, in the most comprehensive way. Except the global analyses of chlor-alkali industry some fundamental read more ...

Mercury: A Global Pollutant of Rising Concern from Irene Wagner-Döbler writing in Bioremediation of Mercury: Current Research and Industrial Applications : Mercury toxicity, industrial uses, and current status of bioremediation technologies are highlighted. The various book chapters are then put into a conceptual framework ranging from laboratory research to full scale industrial application. Further reading: Bioremediation of Mercury: Current Research and Industrial read more ...

Edward W. Yu, Qijing Zhang and Melissa H. Brown present a new book on Microbial Efflux Pumps: Current Research Infectious diseases caused by bacteria remain a leading cause of death worldwide. Many of the antibiotics developed to combat bacterial infections have been rendered almost impotent due to the rapid evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance. A common and major resistance mechanism, the efflux system, enables bacteria to extrude structurally diverse antimicrobials, facilitating survival in toxic environments. The pumps also have read more ...

Microbial Biogeography: Is Everything Small Everywhere? from Diego Fontaneto and Joaquín Hortal writing in Microbial Ecological Theory: Current Perspectives : The distribution of microscopic organisms (that is, those smaller than 2 mm) has been historically considered non relevant for biogeography, because of the idea that due to their small size, dispersal abilities, resting stages and quick reproductive rates, the presence of microscopic organisms in any place was not limited by geographical barriers and distances. Recent studies read more ...

Studying Microbial Gene Expression in Complex Environmental Matrices Using RT-qPCR from Vijay J. Gadkar and Martin Filion writing in Quantitative Real-time PCR in Applied Microbiology : Environmental matrices are highly diverse in their composition and range from simple (e.g. water) to highly complex (e.g. organic soils/biosolids). Analysis of microbial gene expression from such substrates is done for variety of purposes which could range from bio-surveillance to elucidation of biological function of a target microbe. Quantitative real-time read more ...

Microbiological Treatment of air Scrubber Solutions From a Waste Incineration Plant and Other Mercury Contaminated Waste-Water: A Technology in Search of an Application from Johannes Leonhäuser, Wolf-Dieter Deckwer and Irene Wagner-Döbler writing in Bioremediation of Mercury: Current Research and Industrial Applications : A microbiological treatment system comprising three consecutive stages of packed bed bioreactors inoculated with mercury reducing bacteria was operated in laboratory scale. The efficiency of this system for read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Small DNA Tumour Viruses : "... this book brings our knowledge of the molecular biology of this group of viruses up to date ... written by leading researchers ... high quality and up to date... I particularly enjoyed the chapter on adenoviruses ... Papillomaviruses are dealt with on several levels, including the function of individual proteins, as well as mechanisms of viral genome replication and how the virus induces host genome instability. The inclusion of a chapter on the isolation of virions from different read more ...

Molecular Aspects of Pathogenesis and Drug Resistance in Salmonella Species from Indrani Karunasagar, Patit Paban Bhowmick and Deekshit Vijaya Kumar writing in Foodborne and Waterborne Bacterial Pathogens: Epidemiology, Evolution and Molecular Biology : Foodborne and waterborne infections due to Salmonella species are a major concern worldwide. Several virulence genes have been identified in Salmonella and located in clusters called Salmonella Pathogenicity Island (SPI). There are 17 Pathogenicity Islands of Salmonella reported to date. read more ...

Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution of Fish Novirhabdoviruses from Gael Kurath writing in Rhabdoviruses: Molecular Taxonomy, Evolution, Genomics, Ecology, Host-Vector Interactions, Cytopathology and Control : The genus Novirhabdoviridae contains several of the important rhabdoviruses that infect fish hosts. There are four established virus species: Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV), Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV), Hirame rhabdovirus (HIRRV), and Snakehead rhabdovirus (SHRV). Viruses of these species vary in host and read more ...

Molecular Mechanism of Bacterial Two-component Signal Transduction Networks via Connectors from Yoko Eguchi, Eiji Ishii and Ryutaro Utsumi writing in Two-Component Systems in Bacteria : Two-component system (TCS) connectors are proteins that connect different TCSs. By connecting TCSs, they integrate the signals to which each TCS responds, and enable the cell to respond flexibly to the fluctuating environment. A number of auxiliary proteins of TCSs, which bind to the components of TCSs for modification, have been reported. When the expression read more ...

Molecular Pathogenesis, Epidemiology and Drug Resistance of Shigella species from G. P. Pazhani and T. Ramamurthy writing in Foodborne and Waterborne Bacterial Pathogens: Epidemiology, Evolution and Molecular Biology : Shigella species are often associated with diarrhoea/dysentery among children in developing countries of Asia-African regions and also cause foodborne infections in developed countries. During infection, this pathogen secretes a number of effectors via the type III secretion system. Recently, Shigella -infected cases have read more ...

Morphology, Genome Organization, Transcription and Replication of Rhabdoviruses from Ralf G. Dietzgen writing in Rhabdoviruses: Molecular Taxonomy, Evolution, Genomics, Ecology, Host-Vector Interactions, Cytopathology and Control : Rhabdoviruses have large enveloped virions with bullet-shaped or bacilliform morphology. They are composed of an infectious nucleocapsid enveloped by a host-derived lipid membrane containing glycoprotein spikes. Their genomes consist of a non-segmented, negative-sense ssRNA which encodes at least five structural read more ...

Mutagen Response and Repair from Shin Hatakeyama writing in Neurospora : Genomics and Molecular Biology : George Wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum chose Neurospora crassa as a model organism to uncover the role of the gene in biochemical synthesis pathways. Their studies led them to propose the famous, one gene-one enzyme hypothesis, by generating Neurospora mutants by the treatment with the mutagen (X-ray irradiation) to asexual spores (Beadle and Tatum, 1941; Beadle and Tatum, 1945). This artificial mutagenesis was originally reported read more ...

Mutualism: Plant-microorganism Interactions from Penny R Hirsch and Tim H. Mauchline writing in Microbial Ecological Theory: Current Perspectives : Mutualism is responsible for the genesis of green plants and is implicated in their colonisation of land. Current knowledge of plant-microorganism symbioses includes a range of associations with different degrees of intimacy and mutual dependence but the mutual benefits are not always clear. Complex signalling is involved when the plant immune system recognises beneficial endosymbionts although read more ...

Neurospora Duplications, and Genome Defense by RIP and Meiotic Silencing from Durgadas P. Kasbekar writing in Neurospora : Genomics and Molecular Biology : Repeat-induced point mutation (RIP) and meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA serve to prevent the accumulation of transposable elements and other repetitive DNA in the Neurospora genome. RIP occurs in the premeiotic dikaryon that forms following fertilization in a sexual cross, and induces G:C to A:T mutations in duplicated DNA, thus destroying any ORFs present in it. Meiotic silencing uses read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Quantitative Real-time PCR in Applied Microbiology : "reviews and illustrates the use of quantitative real-time PCR for a number of different purposes. It covers the basic process as well as the technology that has improved its performance, while also exploring the various scientific fields that use this technique routinely. It provides a complete description of what scientists need to design and perform a quantitative PCR ... useful to scientists in many different types of laboratories, including public health, read more ...

Neurospora Gene and Genome Analysis: Past Through Future from Aric Wiest, Scott E. Baker and Kevin McCluskey writing in Neurospora : Genomics and Molecular Biology : As modern biological research has developed, so has the analysis of Neurospora biology. From beginnings as a simple genetic system to the present where high throughput analysis enables questions in every area of biological inquiry, research on Neurospora continues to set a high standard for all filamentous fungal experimental systems. Analysis of materials developed over fifty read more ...

Neurospora : The Organism, its Genes and its Genome from A J F Griffiths writing in Neurospora : Genomics and Molecular Biology : The fungus Neurospora has been the subject of a large variety of types of research in genetics and other aspects of biology. This chapter provides a short overview of Neurospora genetics, both as an introduction for those not familiar with this fungus as a genetic tool, and as a general context for the diverse research described in the ensuing chapters. The overview consists of a description of the organism, how read more ...

North American Plague Models of Enzootic Maintenance, Epizootic Spread, and Spatial and Temporal Distributions from Rebecca J. Eisen and Kenneth L. Gage, writing in Yersinia : Systems Biology and Control : Plague is a severe, primarily flea-borne, rodent-associated zoonosis caused by Yersinia pestis . The majority of human infections are associated with epizootic periods that are defined by rapid transmission in rodent populations. In this chapter, we highlight how modeling has been used to integrate field- and laboratory-derived data to read more ...

The Art and Science of Obtaining Virion Stocks for Experimental Human Papillomavirus Infections from Michelle A. Ozbun and Michael P. Kivitz writing in Small DNA Tumour Viruses : Some human papillomaviruses (HPVs) have been propagated in the laboratory for ≈20 years; currently, there are multiple means for obtaining infectious virion stocks for experimental infections. Processes dependent upon epithelial differentiation for achieving virion production include natural warts, rodent xenografts, and cultured organotypic epithelial read more ...

Oxidative and Nitrosative Stress Responses in Pathogenic Neisseria from Isabel Delany and Kate L. Seib writing in Stress Response in Microbiology : Mechanisms to sense, avoid and scavenge oxidants as well as repair damaged biomolecules are important survival and virulence factors of the obligate human pathogens Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. These bacteria are routinely exposed to several forms of oxidative and nitrosative stress during colonisation and interaction with the host, of which superoxide, hydrogen peroxide and read more ...

Phosphatase Activity of Two-component System Transmitter Proteins from Alexander J. Ninfa writing in Two-Component Systems in Bacteria : Many of the two-component system transmitter proteins bring about both the phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of their cognate receiver proteins. While the mechanism of the transmitter protein kinase activity was relatively easy to discern biochemically, investigation of the phosphatase activity has proven more difficult owing to the involvement of widely dispersed portions of the transmitter protein in read more ...