Prokaryotic Cytoskeletons

Prokaryotic Cytoskeletons
Author: Jan Löwe
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 457
Release: 2017-05-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 331953047X

This book describes the structures and functions of active protein filaments, found in bacteria and archaea, and now known to perform crucial roles in cell division and intra-cellular motility, as well as being essential for controlling cell shape and growth. These roles are possible because the cytoskeletal and cytomotive filaments provide long range order from small subunits. Studies of these filaments are therefore of central importance to understanding prokaryotic cell biology. The wide variation in subunit and polymer structure and its relationship with the range of functions also provide important insights into cell evolution, including the emergence of eukaryotic cells. Individual chapters, written by leading researchers, review the great advances made in the past 20-25 years, and still ongoing, to discover the architectures, dynamics and roles of filaments found in relevant model organisms. Others describe one of the families of dynamic filaments found in many species. The most common types of filament are deeply related to eukaryotic cytoskeletal proteins, notably actin and tubulin that polymerise and depolymerise under the control of nucleotide hydrolysis. Related systems are found to perform a variety of roles, depending on the organisms. Surprisingly, prokaryotes all lack the molecular motors associated with eukaryotic F-actin and microtubules. Archaea, but not bacteria, also have active filaments related to the eukaryotic ESCRT system. Non-dynamic fibres, including intermediate filament-like structures, are known to occur in some bacteria.. Details of known filament structures are discussed and related to what has been established about their molecular mechanisms, including current controversies. The final chapter covers the use of some of these dynamic filaments in Systems Biology research. The level of information in all chapters is suitable both for active researchers and for advanced students in courses involving bacterial or archaeal physiology, molecular microbiology, structural cell biology, molecular motility or evolution. Chapter 3 of this book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Actin-based Motility

Actin-based Motility
Author: Marie-France Carlier
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2010-09-23
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 904819301X

Since the discovery of actin by Straub in the 1950’s and the pioneering work of Oosawa on actin self-assembly in helical laments in the 1960’s, many books and conference proceedings have been published. As one of the most essential p- teins in life, essential for movement in organisms rangingfrom bacteria to higher eukaryotes, it is no surprise that actin has fascinated generations of scientists from many different elds. Actin can be considered as a “living treasure” of biology; the kinetics and thermodynamics of self-assembly, the dissipative nature of actin po- merization, the molecular interactions of monomeric and polymerized actin with regulators, the mechanical properties of actin gels, and more recently the force p- ducing motile and morphogenetic processes organized by the actin nanomachine in response to signaling, are all milestones in actin research. Discoveries that directly derive from and provide deeper insight into the fundamental properties of actin are constantly being made, making actin an ever appealing research molecule. At the same time, the explosion in new technologies and techniques in biological sciences has served to attract researchers from an expanding number of disciplines, to study actin. This book presents the latest developments of these new multiscale approaches of force and movement powered by self-assembly processes, with the hope to opening our perspectives on the many areas of actin-based motility research.

Pathogenesis of Shigellosis

Pathogenesis of Shigellosis
Author: P.J. Sansonetti
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 3642772382

Shigellosis is present all over the world. Anyone traveling in developing countries knows that the control of this invasive disease of the intestine is a priority task for physicians and public health authorities. Victims are essentially young children, and complications such as the hemolytic uremic syndrome make shigellosis a systemic disease rather than simply an infection of the colonic mucosa. However, "Westerners" should not consider shigeJlosis as an unlikely threat of the tropics. The disease arises in industrialized countries as soon as breaches in sanitation appear. A few months ago, at least 500 people developed shigellosis in northern France in an outbreak of Shigella sonnei infection due to accidental contamination of an urban water delivery system. The pathogenesis of shigellosis is an extraordinary topic of research because study of the invasion of the colonic mucosa addresses fundamental questions on. the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which a bacterial pathogen can pene trate non phagocytic cells, survive, multiply, spread in the intra cellular compartment, and eventually kill host cells. Further development of the infection within subepithelial tissues as well as the mechanisms that contribute to the eradication of this process have barely been studied.

Intracellular Niches of Microbes

Intracellular Niches of Microbes
Author: Ulrich E. Schaible
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009-11-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9783527322077

The book describes the different and exciting pathways which have been developed by pathogenic microbes to manage living inside host cells. It covers intracellular life styles of all relevant pathogenic but also symbiotic microorganisms with respect to the cell biology of the host-microbe interactions and the microbial adaptations for intracellular survival. It features intracellular trafficking pathways and characteristics of intracellular niches of individual microbes. The book also asks questions on the benefits for the microbe with regard to physiological needs and nutritional aspects such as auxotrophy, effects on genome sizes, and consequences for disease and host response/immunity (and the benefits for the host in the cases of symbionts). Additionally, the book includes those pathogens that are medically less important but represent distinct intracellular niches, trafficking behaviours and virulence traits. The individual chapters also point out future challenges of research for the respective organism.

The Prokaryotes

The Prokaryotes
Author: Edward F. DeLong
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 567
Release: 2014-10-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9783642301193

The Prokaryotes is a comprehensive, multi-authored, peer reviewed reference work on Bacteria and Achaea. This fourth edition of The Prokaryotes is organized to cover all taxonomic diversity, using the family level to delineate chapters. Different from other resources, this new Springer product includes not only taxonomy, but also prokaryotic biology and technology of taxa in a broad context. Technological aspects highlight the usefulness of prokaryotes in processes and products, including biocontrol agents and as genetics tools. The content of the expanded fourth edition is divided into two parts: Part 1 contains review chapters dealing with the most important general concepts in molecular, applied and general prokaryote biology; Part 2 describes the known properties of specific taxonomic groups. Two completely new sections have been added to Part 1: bacterial communities and human bacteriology. The bacterial communities section reflects the growing realization that studies on pure cultures of bacteria have led to an incomplete picture of the microbial world for two fundamental reasons: the vast majority of bacteria in soil, water and associated with biological tissues are currently not culturable, and that an understanding of microbial ecology requires knowledge on how different bacterial species interact with each other in their natural environment. The new section on human microbiology deals with bacteria associated with healthy humans and bacterial pathogenesis. Each of the major human diseases caused by bacteria is reviewed, from identifying the pathogens by classical clinical and non-culturing techniques to the biochemical mechanisms of the disease process. The 4th edition of The Prokaryotes is the most complete resource on the biology of prokaryotes. The following volumes are published consecutively within the 4th Edition: Prokaryotic Biology and Symbiotic Associations Prokaryotic Communities and Ecophysiology Prokaryotic Physiology and Biochemistry Applied Bacteriology and Biotechnology Human Microbiology Actinobacteria Firmicutes Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria Gammaproteobacteria Deltaproteobacteria and Epsilonproteobacteria Other Major Lineages of Bacteria and the Archaea

Molecular Biology and Pathogenicity of Mycoplasmas

Molecular Biology and Pathogenicity of Mycoplasmas
Author: Shmuel Razin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 574
Release: 2007-05-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0306476061

was the result of the efforts of Robert Cleverdon. The rapidly developing discipline of molecular biology and the rapidly expanding knowledge of the PPLO were brought together at this meeting. In addition to the PPLO specialists, the conference invited Julius Marmur to compare PPLO DNA to DNA of other organisms; David Garfinkel, who was one of the first to develop computer models of metabolism; Cyrus Levinthal to talk about coding; and Henry Quastler to discuss information theory constraints on very small cells. The conference was an announcement of the role of PPLO in the fundamental understanding of molecular biology. Looking back 40-some years to the Connecticut meeting, it was a rather bold enterprise. The meeting was international and inter-disciplinary and began a series of important collaborations with influences resonating down to the present. If I may be allowed a personal remark, it was where I first met Shmuel Razin, who has been a leading figure in the emerging mycoplasma research and a good friend. This present volume is in some ways the fulfillment of the promise of that early meeting. It is an example of the collaborative work of scientists in building an understanding of fundamental aspects of biology.

Cellular Microbiology

Cellular Microbiology
Author: Pascale Cossart
Publisher:
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2000
Genre: Medical
ISBN:

This text links the fields of microbiology and cell biology. Cellular Microbiology is a new upper-level textbook which describes the.