Books

Microbes are extremely diverse, yet only a tiny fraction of organisms present in any given environment can be cultivated in the laboratory. Evaluating microbial diversity and identifying individual organisms responsible for specific processes in the environment are fundamental and challenging tasks in microbial ecology and applied microbiology. This comprehensive, judicious, and useful volume provides a complete overview of methods and approaches to studying microbial diversity. While emphasizing new innovative methods, the book also addresses established methods and provides “hands on” advice on how to isolate, cultivate, and study organisms.

Depending on the scope of a study, there are many different ways to assess the diversity of bacteria, fungi, and protists. This volume examines the variety of these approaches-and their advantages and drawbacks. From direct measurements of physical, chemical, and biological aspects of the environment to a wide array of molecular tools such as metagenomic and metaproteomic approaches, this volume thoroughly covers the range of assessment possibilities. It also details innovative methods such as the use of genetic information from environmental samples, enrichment cultures, and single cells. Additionally, the book offers practical, essential advice on how to put these methods into practice both within and outside of the laboratory environment.

Electronic Only, 308 pages, illustrations, index.

Antibiogram is the first English edition of the original French work published in 1985. Over the last twenty years, new categories of antibiotics have entered the market and numerous forms of resistance have appeared and multiplied. The revised volume comprehensively incorporates all of the major developments that have occurred in the field since the publication of the first edition.

The book is comprised of four sections: the antibiogram principles and methods, the antibiogram of the principal bacterial groups, technical specifications for antibiotics case studies, and appendixes and definitions.

With contributions made by more than fifty authors, this new volume is intended primarily for bacteriologists and biologists working in laboratory settings, for infectious disease specialists, for researchers in the pharmaceutical industry, and also for students.

Key Features

• Provides a comprehensive compendium for antibiotherapy
• Includes many chapters offering expanded coverage of new categories of antibiotics
• Offers numerous illustrations to help the reader easily understand the topics discussed
• Features contributions by more than fifty international experts working in the field
• Presents appendixes that include everything from definitions and acronyms to information on industry web sites and literature

Hardcover, 705 pages, full-color insert, illustrations, index.

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Antibiotics: Challenges, Mechanisms, Opportunities focuses on antibiotics as small organic molecules, from both natural and synthetic sourcFes. Understanding the chemical scaffold and functional group structures of the major classes of clinically useful antibiotics is critical to understanding how antibiotics interact selectively with bacterial targets.

This textbook details how classes of antibiotics interact with five known robust bacterial targets: cell wall assembly and maintenance, membrane integrity, protein synthesis, DNA and RNA information transfer, and the folate pathway to deoxythymidylate. It addresses the universe of bacterial resistance, from the concept of the resistome to the three major mechanisms of resistance: antibiotic destruction, antibiotic active efflux, and alteration of antibiotic targets. Antibiotics also covers the biosynthetic machinery for the major classes of natural product antibiotics.

Authors Christopher Walsh and Timothy Wencewicz provide compelling answers to these questions:

• What are antibiotics?
• Where do antibiotics come from?
• How do antibiotics work?
• Why do antibiotics stop working?
• How should our limited inventory of effective antibiotics be addressed?

Antibiotics is a textbook for graduate courses in chemical biology, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, microbiology and biochemistry courses. It is also a valuable reference for microbiologists, biological and natural product chemists, pharmacologists, and research and development scientists.

“This book provides all the information needed to understand antibiotic genetics, biochemistry, mechanism of action and resistance. Most importantly, Walsh and Wencewicz are optimistic of the prospects of the discovery of novel therapeutic agents obtained by the manipulation of strains and biosynthetic pathways. This beautifully written book deserves to be read and implemented by everyone, especially the pessimists who believe that the antibiotic era has ended. In Antibiotics: Challenges, Mechanisms, Opportunities, Walsh and Wencewicz provide the definitive, ultimate compendium of everything antibiotic.”

— Julian Davies, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Life Sciences Institute, University of British Columbia Vancouver

Hardcover, 477 pages, full-color illustrations, index.

Antimicrobial Agents: Antibacterials and Antifungals is a significant revision of an original French reference published by Ellipses in 1999. Featuring more than 1,200 illustrations, over 1,500 tables, and more than 3,000 references, this major new volume comprehensively covers the history, chemistry, synthesis, mechanisms of action, pharmacology, and efficacy of all antimicrobial agents.

Written by experts, Antimicrobial Agents opens with foundational material covering the history of antibacterial chemotherapy, the system of classifying antimicrobial agents, the epidemiology of resistance, and the development of an antibiotic. The body of the text is divided into antimicrobial classes, including new chapters that extensively cover Helicobacter pylori and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Also examined are antimicrobial agents that are in advanced states of development, products that are used on animals, agents that are as yet unexplored, and those for which development has ceased. All existing chapters have been thoroughly updated to reflect advances in technology and research since the publication of the first edition.

Unmatched in depth and scope of coverage, the new edition of Antimicrobial Agents: Antibacterials and Antifungals is the reference source for physicians, microbiologists, chemists, pharmacologists, research scientists, and all others involved in antimicrobial research and development.

Hardcover, 1,426 pages, illustrations, index.

Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacteria of Animal Origin comprehensively examines the current research on antimicrobial resistance in the main veterinary and zoonotic pathogens, including resistance to disinfectants and metals used in agriculture. Providing a broad overview from a global perspective, this new volume is an important reference for students, researchers, public health experts, veterinarians, and anyone with an interest in resistant bacteria in animals.

Written by experts in the field of antimicrobial resistance, the early chapters provide information on modes of action of antibiotics and mechanisms of bacterial resistance, in addition to exploring the history of antimicrobial use in agriculture. Several chapters are devoted to examination of antimicrobial resistance in specific bacteria, including: the family Pasteurellaceae, species of Campylobacter, pathogenic Escherichia coli, staphylococci, steptococci, and Enterococcus. Also detailed are phenotypic and molecular methods for susceptibility testing, regulatory mechanisms for usage of antibiotics, and methods for monitoring drug usage and resistance.

Electronic Only, 441 pages, illustrations, index.

The theory and practice of controlling and eliminating microorganisms

Antisepsis, Disinfection, and Sterilization: Types, Action, and Resistance, by Gerald E. McDonnell, is a detailed and accessible presentation of the current methods of microbial control. Each major category, such as physical disinfection methods, is given a chapter, in which theory, spectrum of activity, advantages, disadvantages, and modes of action of the methods are thoroughly and clearly presented. Sufficient background on the life cycles and general anatomy of microorganisms is provided so that the reader who is new to microbiology will better appreciate how physical and chemical biocides work their magic on microbes. Other topics in the book include:

• Evaluating the efficacy of chemical antiseptics and disinfectants, and of physical methods of microbial control and sterilization.
• Understanding how to choose the proper biocidal product and process for specific applications.
• Classic physical and chemical disinfection methods, such as heat, cold, non-ionizing radiation, acids, oxidizing agents, and metals.
• Newer chemical disinfectants, including, isothiazolones, micro-and nano-particles, and bacteriophages as control agents.
• Antisepsis of skin and wounds and the biocides that can be used as antiseptics.
• Classic methods of physical sterilization, such as, moist heat and dry heat sterilization, ionizing radiation, and filtration, along with newer methods, including, the use of plasma or pulsed light.
• Chemical sterilization methods that use ethylene oxide, formaldehyde, or a variety of other oxidizing agents.
• A detailed look at the modes of action of biocides in controlling microbial growth and disrupting microbial physiology.
• Mechanisms that microorganisms use to resist the effects of biocides.

The second edition of Antisepsis, Disinfection, and Sterilization: Types, Action, and Resistance is well suited as a textbook and is outstanding as a reference book for facilities managers and application engineers in manufacturing plants, hospitals, and food production facilities. It is also essential for public health officials, healthcare professionals, and infection control practitioners.

Hardcover, 432 pages, full-color illustrations, index.

Since the discovery in 1977 that they constitute a distinct branch of the biological world, archaea have expanded and altered the field of microbiology. Archaea can thrive in some of the most extreme environments of the planet, from extremely alkaline or acid waters to high-temperature environments near thermal vents in the deep sea. This exceptional ability to survive and prosper has led scientists to speculate that archaea played a significant role in shaping all life on Earth and may provide valuable keys to the search for extra-terrestrial life.

This path-breaking book fully describes the molecular cell biology of the archaea in one accessible and readable volume. With twenty-three chapters by the world’s leading experts, this book emphasizes each author’s individual research expertise, while also being a general guide to the latest knowledge on archaea. The core of the book describes the key cellular processes such as DNA replication, transcription, translation, lipids and metabolism. It also explains their unique features including aminoacyl-tRNA synthesis, signal transduction, and post-translational modification. Above all, this volume details the latest discoveries of the twenty-first century and anticipates new progress expected in the future.

This volume is a timely and essential reference for researchers, instructors, practitioners in the field, and students of the unique qualities of Archaea. Archaea: Cellular and Molecular Biology will remain the authoritative reference source for the many disciplines interested in the archaea for years to come.

Hardcover, 523 pages, full-color insert, illustrations, index.

Bacillus subtilis has become the principle paradigm for analysis of the physiology of gram-positive bacteria, bacterial differentiation, and useful applications of bacterial products. Sequencing of whole bacterial genomes and the experimental approaches made possible by accessibility to the sequences have brought a new perspective to microbiology.

Focusing on issues of gene organization, regulation, and evolution in the context of the whole life of the cell, this new volume complements the editors' classic 1993 volume Bacillus subtilis and Other Gram-Positive Bacteria. Building upon the previous edition, Bacillus subtilis and Its Closest Relatives contains an updated annotation of the complete B. subtilis genome and includes a unique compilation of major pathways of metabolism and macromolecular synthesis, correlating genes and proteins and assigning new functions to many genes. It also provides clear explanations of the major regulatory mechanisms that are unique to gram-positive bacteria as well as an overview of their special properties.

This essential reference offers detailed, current information and is valuable reading for microbiologists, biotechnologists, and students.

Electronic only, 629 pages, illustrations, color insert, index.

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Designed as an introductory text on antibacterial agents, this new volume provides a clear, comprehensive and concise overview of the subject, including the most recent and significant developments in antibacterial agents with novel modes of action.

The basics of bacterial structure and function are reviewed, describing the basis for understanding mechanisms of antibacterial action, as well as the mechanisms developed by bacteria to overcome the action of antibacterial agents. The volume also covers the characteristic features of bacterial pathogenicity, the genetic basis of resistance to antibacterial drugs, the biochemical mechanisms of action of antibacterial drugs, how antibacterial drugs reach their targets in gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, and the wide range of human immune responses against bacterial infections.

Recent advances in research and development of new classes of antibacterial drugs are examined, as are improved analogs of penicillin, cephalosporins, carbapenems, aminoglyosides, tetracyclines, etc.

Hardcover, 393 pages, illustrations, index.

The Bacterial Chromosome is a state-of-the art examination of the mechanisms governing genetic inheritance, a timely update to the 1990 publication of the same name. Advances in evolutionary theory have been stimulated by the availability of complete bacterial sequences, while recent biochemical research has revealed how protein machines control chromosome function.

Incorporating section overviews provided by eminent geneticists and biochemists, the book provides a link between classical experiments in chromosome physiology and new developments in genetic research. From the first section, “Genetic and Physical Structure,” to the last, “Nonhomologous Recombination,” The Bacterial Chromosome comprehensively covers the fundamental systems required for all bacterial cells to replicate chromosomes and organize genetic information. Complex biochemical reactions, including DNA replication, genetic recombination, and RNA transcription, are presented from both genetic and physical perspectives. The implications of the DNA sequence database are incorporated with information on horizontal gene transfer and the impact of phage genes on bacterial genomes.

Hardcover, 559 pages, full-color insert, illustrations, index.