Lyme disease (Lyme borreliosis) is the most prevalent vector-borne illness in the United States and Europe and a growing threat to global health. In addition Lyme disease is considered a model system of emerging infectious diseases. The book Borrelia: Molecular Biology, Host Interaction and Pathogenesis published in 2010 was the first state-of-the-art reference work covering the myriad, interlaced facets of the enzootic disorders caused by pathogenic Borrelia. This current volume, by the same editors, builds on the previous work and contains a vast amount of new information, a wider scope, and increased coverage of genomics, genetics, evolutionary biology, vector biology, physiology, pathogenicity, immune response, and immune evasion. Written by renowned scientists who have made seminal contributions to the field, this book contains an expansive treatment of the options to track live spirochetes and evaluate gene expression in ticks and mice, provides insights into the workings of the flagellar motor, presents up-to-date research on the modulation of gene expression, and reviews recent studies on the Lyme disease spirochete's networks of regulatory pathways. The volume highlights and describes in detail the tremendous advances in understanding of the Borrelia genus at the molecular and cellular levels as well as the pathogenesis of Lyme disease and relapsing fever. This comprehensive volume is indispensable for anyone involved in Borrelia and Lyme disease research and is highly recommended for microbiologists, immunologists, and physicians with an interest in spirochetes, vector-borne illness, or emerging infectious diseases. The book is a recommended reference volume for all microbiology libraries.

Approx.417 pages

Biology of Parasitic Spirochaetes ...

Immunological Methods in Microbiology, Volume 47 in the Methods in Microbiology series, highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters on Immunological Techniques in the Clinical laboratory, Immunologic Diagnosis of HIV and Opportunistic Infections, Combining Antigen Detection and Serology for the Diagnosis of Selected Infectious Diseases, Immunologic Detection of Lyme Disease and Related Borrelioses, Immunodetection of Bacteria Causing Brucellosis, Immunological Diagnostic Techniques Used to Identify and Type Pasteurella, Immunological Tests for Diarrhea caused by Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli Targeting Their Main Virulence Factors, and much more.

This book summarizes the current state of knowledge concerning bacteria that use halogenated organic compounds as respiratory electron acceptors. The discovery of organohalide-respiring bacteria has expanded the range of electron acceptors used for energy conservation, and serves as a prime example of how scientific discoveries are enabling innovative engineering solutions that have transformed remediation practice. Individual chapters provide in-depth background information on the discovery, isolation, phylogeny, biochemistry, genomic features, and ecology of individual organohalide-respiring genera, including Dehalococcoides, Dehalogenimonas, Dehalobacter, Desulfitobacterium and Sulfurospirillum, as well as organohalide-respiring members of the Deltaproteobacteria. The book introduces readers to the fascinating biology of organohalide-respiring bacteria, offering a valuable resource for students, engineers and practitioners alike.

How small can a free-living organism be? On the surface, this question is straightforward-in principle, the smallest cells can be identified and measured. But understanding what factors determine this lower limit, and addressing the host of other questions that follow on from this knowledge, require a fundamental understanding of the chemistry and ecology of cellular life. The recent report of evidence for life in a martian meteorite and the prospect of searching for biological signatures in intelligently chosen samples from Mars and elsewhere bring a new immediacy to such questions. How do we recognize the morphological or chemical remnants of life in rocks deposited 4 billion years ago on another planet? Are the empirical limits on cell size identified by observation on Earth applicable to life wherever it may occur, or is minimum size a function of the particular chemistry of an individual planetary surface? These questions formed the focus of a workshop on the size limits of very small organisms, organized by the Steering .Group for the Workshop on Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms and held on October 22 and 23, 1998. Eighteen invited panelists, representing fields ranging from cell biology and molecular genetics to paleontology and mineralogy, joined with an almost equal number of other participants in a wide-ranging exploration of minimum cell size and the challenge of interpreting micro- and nano-scale features of sedimentary rocks found on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system. This document contains the proceedings of that workshop. It includes position papers presented by the individual panelists, arranged by panel, along with a summary, for each of the four sessions, of extensive roundtable discussions that involved the panelists as well as other workshop participants.