This book compiles various methodologies used in understanding interactions within the rhizosphere. An in-depth understanding of the rhizosphere is essential to developing successful strategies for future sustainable agriculture. The book summarizes methods and techniques used to study the mechanisms involved in mutualistic symbioses and pathogenic interactions of plants with various microbial organisms including fungi, bacteria, and oomycetes. Each chapter discusses different methodologies used in rhizosphere biology, while also providing real-world experimental data and trouble-shooting tips. Interested researchers will also find a wealth of literature references for further research. As the first comprehensive manual and compilation of methods and techniques used in rhizosphere biology, the book represents an essential resource for all researchers who are newcomers to soil microbiology experimentation.

This meditative prose conveys the essence of the human place in the world -- past and present.

This book focuses on the importance of human antimicrobial peptides (AMP) in keeping the host healthy and preventing infectious diseases. The first chapters deal with several examples of the role of AMP in different epithelial organs (skin and wound healing, eye, lung, genito-urinary tract, gut), which are exposed to different kinds of infectious microorganisms and as a result produce different patterns of AMP. Examples of the dysregulation of AMP expression and function promoting infections are discussed. The capacity of AMP to restrict the availability of essential metals to bacteria as an efficient antibacterial strategy in nutritional immunity is discussed in the next chapter. Our current understanding of how vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, influences AMP-expression and how this can affect our health is also addressed. Last but not least, the role of AMP in HIV infection and the immunomodulatory properties of AMP highlight the diverse facets of AMP in host immunity. AMP’s specific functions, including in fighting multi-resistant bacteria, suggest that they may offer therapeutic benefits – a question that is discussed in the final chapter.