You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
GTPases are molecular switches that are used to control biochemical pathways. This book describes the properties and cellular roles of all the major families of GTPases. All cells use GTPases to regulate the delivery of amino acids to the ribosome during protein synthesis, but eukaryotes, with their complex and compartmentalized environment, have exploited the versatility of GTPases to a much greater extent. In particular, GTPases play a central role in regulating signal transduction pathways activated by extracellular signals and in regulating the trafficking of proteins beetween different organelles. It is not surprising, therefore, that GTPases have become a center of attention for those studying the control of proliferation, differentiation, cell polarity, cell movement, and vesicle and protein trafficking. This book provides a complete guide to this area and should be essential reading for cell and molecular biologists, biochemists and geneticists interested in these contemporary problems.
Strict and Facultative Anaerobes: Medical and Environmental Aspects reviews all aspects of anaerobic bacteria, highlighting their environmental and medical importance. The first three chapters focus on taxonomy, anaerobic metabolism and the genetic regulation of anaerobic processes in strict and facultative anaerobes. The next section includes an examination of the physiological traits of anaerobic bacteria that enable them to be beneficial in one situation but hazardous to human and animal health in others. Other topics include the anaerobic nature of infections, latency, anaerobic biofilms, and toxin production. The final section reviews iron, selenate, and arsenate reduction, as well as oxidation of halogenated organics, ammonium oxidation, and acetogenesis. This important book provides detailed coverage of the wide-ranging capabilities of anaerobic bacteria. It examines their basic biology and chemistry, medical importance, and applications in biotechnology and environmental science. It is an essential reference for everyone interested in anaerobic bacteria, environmental biology, medical microbiology, and industrial bacteriology.
The field of bacterial genetics has been restricted for many years to Escherichia coli and a few other genera of aerobic or facultatively anaerobic bacteria such as Pseudomonas, Bacillus, and Salmonella. The prevailing view up to recent times has been that anaerobic bacteria are interesting organisms but nothing is known about their genetics. To most microbiologists, anaerobic bacteria appeared as a sort of distant domain, reserved for occasional intrusions by taxonomists and medical microbiologists. By the mid-1970s, knowledge of the genetics and molecular biology of anaerobes began to emerge, and then developed rapidly. but also im This was the result of advances in molecular biology techn...
The clostridia are a group of bacteria of considerable medical and economic importance and include species responsible for generating the most potent toxins known to humans. The Clostridia: Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis is a unique work, comprising the most complete reference on the clostridia for over 20 years, bringing together the results from some of the most innovative and exciting research in the past decade. Using a principle-oriented rather than taxonomic approach, the results from molecular biology research are placed in the context of their clinical significance, and the disease process as a whole. This state-of-the-art work is truly comprehensive, covering and integrating the...
This volume describes the mechanisms which bacteria have created to secure their survival, proliferation and dissemination by subverting the actin cytoskeleton of host cells. Bacteria have developed a veritable arsenal of toxins, effector proteins and virulence factors that allow them to modify the properties of the intracellular actin cytoskeleton for their own purposes. Bacterial factors either modify actin directly as the main component of this part of the cytoskeleton or functionally subvert regulatory or signalling proteins terminating at the actin cytoskeleton. In short, this volume provides an overview of the various tricks bacteria have evolved to “act on actin” in order to hijack this essential host cell component for their own needs. As such, it will be of interest to scientists from many fields, as well as clinicians whose work involves infectious diseases.
Actins are a highly conserved family of proteins found in virtually all eukaryotic cells. They have prolific roles in cell motility - from the contraction of striated muscle to the movement of organelles within cells, and are known to interact with a diverse number of proteins families from myosins to gelsolins. This up-to-date edition gives a comprehensive account of actin sequence, mutation and structure as well as providing insight into ligand-binding sites and drug and toxin binding. Illustrated throughout, this modern text also contains an extensive bibliography for the interested reader.
This book outlines the currently available clinical, epidemiological and experimental data on Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) with special emphasis on studies and results achieved in Europe. The incidence and severity of CDI has increased significantly over the last decade, and the book explains why C. difficile, recently reclassified as Clostridioides difficile, remains a significant challenge, also from economic perspective, to health care systems all over the world. The different reservoirs of this ubiquitous microorganism are reviewed as well as the different factors contributing to its virulence, such as toxins and biofilm formation. The rapid evolution of antibiotic resistance is...
Actin is one of the most abundant proteins and ubiquitously expressed in all eukaryotes. In recent years, the analysis of structure and function of such complexes has shed new light on actin's role in cellular and tissue morphogenesis, locomotion and various forms of intracellular motility, but also on its role in nuclear processes like chromatin architecture and transcription. Progress in understanding these different physiological phenomena, but also in unravelling the basis of actin-based pathophysiological processes has been made by combining video microscopy, molecular biology, genetics and biochemistry. Thus, the current research on actin, as ongoing in many international laboratories, is a "hot spot" in basic and translational research in life sciences. In this book on "The Actin Cytoskeleton", twelve internationally renowned authors present specific chapters that cover their recent work concerned with the various roles of actin mentioned above. This comprehensive volume is therefore an attractive handbook for teachers and students in many fields of medicine and pharmacology.
This volume describes the structure and function of bacterial toxins and presents a comprehensive review of virulence factors, providing recent information concerning cell physiology and biochemistry, as well as new toxin tools for experimental studies and clinical therapy. A wide variety of toxic proteins, including the toxins that cause diptheria, cholera, pertussis, shigellosis, tetanus, botulism and anthrax, are discussed.;The work is aimed at microbiologists, biochemists, endocrinologists, toxicologists, infectious disease specialists, pathologists, public health officials, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines.
Clostridia have a high biotechnological potential, although they are generally still regarded more as a group of pathogenic microorganisms. They undertake a broad variety of biocatalytic reactions some of which are unique and of use in the chemical and biotechnology industry for the production of chemicals or for biopharmaceutical purposes. Even some of the clostridial toxins are of medical relevance and can be used as therapeutic agents; The book presents the biology, pyhsiology, and genetics, including genome projects of Clostridia and highlights their potential for industrial and medical applications. It is mostly based on research during the last decade which has brought significant progress in the field and outlines future perspectives of industrial interest.