Protective Humoral Immunity from Michael Mach, Anna-Katharina Wiegers, Nadja Spindler and Thomas Winkler writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : The generation of antibodies represents a powerful tool of the adaptive immune system in the battle against viral infections. Targets for antibodies with potential antiviral activity are glycoproteins in the viral envelope and/or on the surface of infected cells. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in our understanding of the protective antibody read more ...

Probiotics: a Possible Tool in Oral Health Care? from Christof Godts, Gitte Loozen, Marc Quirynen and Wim Teughels writing in Oral Microbial Ecology: Current Research and New Perspectives : The human oral cavity is colonized by a wide variety of bacteria, which form very complex and dynamic biofilms on hard and soft tissues. Certain members of these microbiological communities are associated with oral infections, such as caries and periodontal diseases. New treatment approaches are emerging that do not rely on conventional antibiotic read more ...

Pre-immediate Early Tegument Protein Functions from Robert F. Kalejta writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : As virions disassemble during viral entry, they must expertly navigate and manage the complex and unwelcoming environments they encounter in order to successfully infect host cells. Herpesviruses incorporate proteins into their virions in a layer between the capsid and envelope termed the tegument to assist in this hostile takeover. When delivered to infected cells subsequent to membrane fusion, read more ...

The new book on Microbial Efflux Pumps edited by Edward W. Yu, Qijing Zhang and Melissa H. Brown will be available for dispatch within the next 2 or 3 read more ...

Polyhydroxyalkanoate Inclusions: Polymer Synthesis, Self-assembly and Display Technology from Jenny Draper, Jinping Du, David O. Hooks, Jason Lee, Natalie Parlane and Bernd H.A. Rehm writing in Bionanotechnology: Biological Self-assembly and its Applications : Biopolyesters are a class of carbon storage polymers synthesized by a wide variety of bacteria in response to nutrient stress. Production of these polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs = polyesters) is catalyzed by PHA synthases, which polymerize ( R )-3-hydroxyacyl-CoA thioesters into read more ...

Plasmodium Genomics and the Art of Sequencing Malaria Parasite Genomes from Jane M. Carlton, Steven A. Sullivan and Karine G. Le Roch writing in Malaria Parasites: Comparative Genomics, Evolution and Molecular Biology : It may be a cliché to state, but obtaining the genome sequence of an organism is one of the most important – if not the most important – step towards interrogating its biology. The first two malaria parasite genome sequences ( Plasmodium falciparum and the rodent model Plasmodium yoelii yoelii ) were read more ...

The new book on Cytomegaloviruses edited by Matthias J. Reddehase will be available for dispatch within the next 2 or 3 read more ...

Plasmodium Experimental Genetic Crosses from Lisa C. Ranford-Cartwright, Karen l. Hayton and Michael T. Ferdig writing in Malaria Parasites: Comparative Genomics, Evolution and Molecular Biology : Experimental genetic crosses mimic the sexual reproduction process, and accompanying genetic recombination, that occurs between individuals of the same species during natural transmission. Experimental crosses performed using rodent and human species of Plasmodium have been used to link phenotype and genotype for a variety of traits, and have been read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Malaria Parasites: Comparative Genomics, Evolution and Molecular Biology : "timely and critical appraisal ... for PhD students and researchers working with malaria parasites, this text represents an essential and eminently accessible resource for their work." from Paul Horrocks (Keele University Medical School, UK) writing in Parasites and Vectors (2013) 6: read more ...

Plant Oil Bodies and Oleosins: Structure, Function and Biotechnological Applications from Anisha David, Sunita Yadav and Satish Chander Bhatla writing in Bionanotechnology: Biological Self-assembly and its Applications : Although oil bodies are present in a wide variety of tissues in plants, it is their abundance in the oilseed cotyledons that has been most extensively investigated for their biogenesis, structure, physiological roles, isolation and biotechnological applications. The phospholipid monolayer membrane of the oil bodies encasing read more ...

Periodontal Biofilm and Immunity: Immune Subversion by Select Pathogens as a Community Service from George Hajishengallis writing in Oral Microbial Ecology: Current Research and New Perspectives : The polymicrobial community that initiates periodontal disease does not represent a random compilation of bacteria. Rather, these bacteria form organized consortia that have evolved through mutually beneficial relationships. This review focuses on microbial immune subversion as a means by which select pathogens may contribute to the adaptive read more ...

Oral Biofilms as a Reservoir for Extra-oral Pathogens: Ventilator Associated Pneumonia from John G. Thomas writing in Oral Microbial Ecology: Current Research and New Perspectives : The link between oral flora and lung infections in mechanically ventilated (MV) patients (the 'Oral Systemic Link') has always been circumstantial, based on clinical and nursing practices and preventative care. At the turn of the 20th century, that began to change as molecular and imaging methods provided tools to better evaluate microbial exchange, refocusing on read more ...

Oral Biofilm as a Vehicle for Chemotherapeutic Agents from Marieke P.T. Otten, Henk J. Busscher, Chris G. van Hoogmoed, Frank Abbas and Henny C. van der Mei writing in Oral Microbial Ecology: Current Research and New Perspectives : An overview is presented on oral biofilm formation and recent developments in oral biofilm control using mechanical devices (manual or powered toothbrushes and interdental cleaning devices) and biofilm control based on oral chemotherapeutics (antibacterial toothpastes and mouthrinses). For clinical efficacy of read more ...

Operons and Prokaryotic Genome Organization from Sarath Chandra Janga and Gabriel Moreno-Hagelsieb writing in Bacterial Gene Regulation and Transcriptional Networks : An average of 60% of prokaryotic genes are organized into operons-polycistronic transcription units, making them a very important feature of their genomic organization. Operons most commonly contain genes whose products have functional associations and are abundant because they constitute an easy means for coregulation and the associated genes can act as a functional unit with read more ...

Operation of the Gene Regulatory Network in Escherichia coli from Agustino Martínez-Antonio writing in Bacterial Gene Regulation and Transcriptional Networks : Transcription factors function as sensory systems acting at the core of genetic regulatory switches. The transcriptional regulatory network in Escherichia coli can be studied as the integration of the whole of these genetic sensory systems. The operation of this regulatory system affect the expression of genes by interacting with the DNA at the promoter regions of transcription read more ...

Non-Human-Primate Models of Cytomegalovirus Infection, Prevention, and Therapy from Klaus Früh, Daniel Malouli, Kristie L. Oxford and Peter A. Barry writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : The last few years have witnessed significant expansion of the Non-Human-Primate (NHP) models of CMV persistence and pathogenesis. Progress in the utilization of the NHP CMV models has been highlighted by a better understanding of natural history, comparative genomic sequence analyses, and in vivo studies addressing read more ...

Natural Killer Cells and Human Cytomegalovirus from Gavin W. G. Wilkinson, Rebecca J. Aicheler and Eddie C. Y. Wang writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : The efficient downregulation of HLA-I by HCMV has the clear potential to render infected cells extremely vulnerable to NK cells. Moreover, the major IE genes activate cell responses that stimulate efficient transcription of multiple ligands for NK cell activating receptors. The capacity of HCMV to persist in vivo can clearly be ascribed to its ability read more ...

Respected international experts summarize the most important concepts and pioneering strategies currently being used to develop novel antibacterials. Cellular processes that could be used as novel antibacterial targets. Examples include cell division, efflux pumps, metabolite-sensing riboswitches and bacterial secretion systems. (Alita A. Miller and Paul F. Miller, Pfizer Worldwide) writing in: Emerging Trends in Antibacterial Discovery: Answering the Call to Arms Suggested reading: Emerging Trends in Antibacterial Discovery: Answering the read more ...

"As bacterial antibiotic resistance continues to exhaust our supply of effective antibiotics, a global public health disaster appears likely. Poor financial investment in antibiotic research has exacerbated the situation. A call to arms raised by several prestigious scientific organisations a few years ago rallied the scientific community, and now the scope of antibacterial research has broadened considerably. Multi-disciplinary approaches have yielded a wealth of new data on areas ranging from the identification of novel antibacterial read more ...

Myeloid Cell Recruitment and Function in Cytomegalovirus Dissemination and Immunity from Lisa P. Daley-Bauer and Edward S. Mocarski writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : Cytomegalovirus pathogenesis, dissemination and immunity are tied to the behaviour of myelomonocytic cells. Investigations of the roles of monocyte subsets in the dissemination of cytomegalovirus revealed that the MCMV-encoded chemokine, MCK2, controls recruitment patterns of the two major monocyte subsets (inflammatory and patrolling) read more ...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis Drug Efflux Pumps: An Update from Maria Rosalia Pasca, Silvia Buroni and Giovanna Riccardi writing in Microbial Efflux Pumps: Current Research : It is well known that drug efflux systems contribute to the development of multi-resistance patterns in several bacterial pathogens. The selection and diffusion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB), extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) and, more recently, totally drug-resistant (TDR) strains constitute a serious threat for tuberculosis global control. read more ...

Murine Model of Neonatal Cytomegalovirus Infection from William J. Britt, Djurdjica Cekinović and Stipan Jonjić writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : Congenital HCMV infection of developing CNS is a major cause of long-term neuronal morbidity. Prevention of neurological damage due to CNS infection is considered as the primary goal of vaccine strategies and passively administered biologics. Due to species specificity of CMVs animal models have been developed in order to paradigmatically analyze read more ...

Murine Model for Cytoimmunotherapy of CMV Disease after Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation from Rafaela Holtappels, Stefan Ebert, Jürgen Podlech, Annette Fink, Verena Böhm, Niels A.W. Lemmermann, Kirsten Freitag, Angélique Renzaho, Doris Thomas and Matthias J. Reddehase writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : Cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease is a clinically relevant complication in hematopoietic (stem) cell transplantation (HCT). The murine model of CMV infection in the phase of hematopoietic read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Rhabdoviruses: Molecular Taxonomy, Evolution, Genomics, Ecology, Host-Vector Interactions, Cytopathology and Control : "I found this book very useful and well written and referenced, and I think this is an excellent book for people interested in rhabdoviruses, virology, and veterinary medicine. This book is equally suited for people working in basic or translational science and likely provides even experts in this field with new or updated information, this book goes way beyond what can be found in other read more ...

Multifaceted Regulation of Human Cytomegalovirus Gene Expression from Marco Thomas, Nina Reuter and Thomas Stamminger writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : Research of the last two decades revealed that human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) developed a multitude of sophisticated mechanisms to usurp and manipulate the cellular gene expression machinery in order to achieve efficient viral protein synthesis. Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that the virus has to antagonize cellular restriction factors in read more ...

Multidrug Efflux Transporters in Campylobacter from Zhangqi Shen, Chih-Chia Su, Edward W. Yu and Qijing Zhang writing in Microbial Efflux Pumps: Current Research : As a major food-borne pathogen, Campylobacter is frequently exposed to antibiotics used for both animal production and human medicine. The increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistant Campylobacter has become a significant concern for public health. Among all known antibiotic resistance mechanisms, multidrug efflux systems play essential roles in the intrinsic and acquired read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Bacterial Regulatory Networks : "Written by leading scientists the 13 chapters of this book reflect a competent and current overview of the current state of knowledge ... high quality content " from Thorsten Mascher (Munich, Germany) writing in Biospektrum (2013) 19: read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Stress Response in Microbiology : "well-written and informative chapters on stress systems ... on high scientific level and with extensive references ... chapters of this book are worth reading" from Erhard Bremer (Marburg, Germany) writing in Biospektrum (2013) 19: read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Salmonella : From Genome to Function : "useful tables and overviews summarizing the state of knowledge on Salmonella pathogenesis ... great overviews and insights into Salmonella biology and useful frameworks for future studies." from James M. Slauch (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA) writing in ASM Microbe (2012) 7: read more ...

Morphogenesis of the Cytomegalovirus Virion and Subviral Particles from Wade Gibson and Elke Bogner writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : Formation and maturation of the cytomegalovirus capsid is reviewed. Recent information about protein-protein interactions involved in capsid assembly, molecular interactions relating to the mechanism of DNA packaging, and the sequence of events in primary envelopment is considered as it establishes similarities and reveals differences between CMV and other read more ...