Molecular microbiology is a rapidly expanding area of contemporary science: the application of molecular biology has opened up the microbial world in many remarkable ways. The attraction of microbes is that they are self-contained and that they offer complete solutions to understanding the phenomenon of life.
This book provides a concise introduction to current research in the field. Four major areas are introduced and explained:

• Bacterial Biochemistry
• Bacterial Genomes
• Gene Expression
• Microbial Cell Biology

Provides essential background information for anyone recently recruited to or about to enter molecular microbiology Focuses on the background and principles of the subject rather than on the details Will have lasting value as an introduction to this exciting area of research

Inhalt
1 Bacterial Biochemistry.- Life and Death in Stationary Phase.- The Citric Acid Cycle and Oxygen-Regulated Gene Expression in Escherichia coli.- 2 Genomes and their Survival.- Gene Transfer by Bacterial Conjugation: Establishment of the Immigrant Plasmid in the Recipient Cell.- Bacteriophage Mu.- Regulation of Bacteriophage ? Replication.- Replication and Maintenance of Bacterial Plasmids.- 3 Expression.- Bacterial Gene Regulatory Proteins: Organisation and Mechanism of Action.- Bacterial Two-Component Regulatory Systems.- Metal Regulation of Gene Expression in Bacterial Systems.- Regulation of Prespore-Specific Transcription During Sporulation in Bacillus subtilis.- Quorum Sensing: Bacterial Cell-Cell Signalling from Bioluminescence to Pathogenicity.- Studying Protein Synthesis Factors in Yeast: Structure, Function and Regulation.- 4 Microbial Cell Biology.- The Roles of Molecular Chaperones in the Bacterial Cell.- Protein Traffic in Bacteria.- Oxygen Toxicity, Oxygen Starvation and the Assembly of Cytochrome c-Dependent Electron Transfer Chains in Escherichia coli.- Aspects of the Molecular Genetics of Antibiotics.- Interactions of the Bacterial Pathogen Listeria monocytogenes with Mammalian Cells.- The Behaviour of Bacterial Pathogens in vivo.