Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) events encompass processes as varied as the exchange of genetic material between microbes coexisting in the same environment, between symbiotic bacteria and their eukaryotic hosts, and the evolution of organelles by symbiosis, in which whole genomes are acquired. In Horizontal Gene Transfer: Genomes in Flux, expert researchers contribute an overview of HGT concepts as well as specific case histories that highlight the most current progress to inspire future work. Divided into three sections, the volume begins with an overview of terminology, concepts and the implications of HGT on current evolutionary thought and philosophy, and continues with methods involving computer and bioinformatics analyses of genomic data as well as molecular biology techniques for identifying, quantifying, and differentiating instances of HGT. A section of case studies follows, which provides detailed accounts of how HGT has shaped evolution across the diversity of organisms and organismal lineages. As a volume of the highly successful Methods in Molecular BiologyTM series, this work provides the kind of detailed description and implementation advice that is crucial for getting optimal results. Cutting-edge and thoroughly detailed, Horizontal Gene Transfer: Genomes in Flux examines how HGT has contributed to genome evolution and how understanding HGT impacts our ability to accurately reconstruct and comprehend the web-like evolutionary history in order to aid scientists in furthering their own research.

This book presents a thorough and authoritative overview of the multifaceted field of antibiotic science – offering guidance to translate research into tools for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases. Provides readers with knowledge about the broad field of drug resistance Offers guidance to translate research into tools for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases Links strategies to analyze microbes to the development of new drugs, socioeconomic impacts to therapeutic strategies, and public policies to antibiotic-resistance-prevention strategies

AN AUTHORITATIVE SURVEY OF CURRENT RESEARCH INTO CLINICALLY USEFUL CONVENTIONAL AND NONCONVENTIONAL ANTIBIOTIC THERAPEUTICS Pharmaceutically-active antibiotics revolutionized the treatment of infectious diseases, leading to decreased mortality and increased life expectancy. However, recent years have seen an alarming rise in the number and frequency of antibiotic-resistant "Superbugs." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that over two million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the United States annually, resulting in approximately 23,000 deaths. Despite the danger to public health, a minimal number of new antibiotic drugs are currently in development or in clinical trials by major pharmaceutical companies. To prevent reverting back to the pre-antibiotic era—when diseases caused by parasites or infections were virtually untreatable and frequently resulted in death—new and innovative approaches are needed to combat the increasing resistance of pathogenic bacteria to antibiotics. Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics – From Molecules to Man examines the current state and future direction of research into developing clinically-useful next-generation novel antibiotics. An internationally-recognized team of experts cover topics including glycopeptide antibiotic resistance, anti-tuberculosis agents, anti-virulence therapies, tetracyclines, the molecular and structural determinants of resistance, and more. Presents a multidisciplinary approach for the optimization of novel antibiotics for maximum potency, minimal toxicity, and appropriated degradability Highlights critical aspects that may relieve the problematic medical situation of antibiotic resistance Includes an overview of the genetic and molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance Addresses contemporary issues of global public health and longevity Includes full references, author remarks, and color illustrations, graphs, and charts Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics – From Molecules to Man is a valuable source of up-to-date information for medical practitioners, researchers, academics, and professionals in public health, pharmaceuticals, microbiology, and related fields.

Antibiotic Resistance: Origins, Evolution, Selection and Spread Chairman: Stuart B. Levy, 1997 Over the last 50 years, the rapid increase in the use of antibiotics, not only in people, but also in animal husbandry and agriculture, has delivered a selection unprecedented in the history of evolution. Consequently, society is facing one of its gravest public health problems-the emergence of infectious bacteria with resistance to many, and in some cases all, available antibiotics. This book brings together a multidisciplinary group of experts to discuss this problem. It begins by examining the origins of resistance and goes on to look at how the use of antibiotics in human medicine and farming/agriculture has selected for resistant bacteria. Separate chapters describe the evolution of resistance determinants and how these are spread both within and between bacterial species. Finally, the book contains discussions on strategies for countering the threat of antibiotic resistance. A major re-thinking of our approach to the treatment of infectious diseases is proposed-that antibiotic resistance should be seen as a problem created by the disruption of normal microbial ecology. To restore efficacy to earlier antibiotics, and to maintain the success of new antibiotics that are introduced, we need to use these drugs in a way that ensures an ecological balance that favours the predominance of susceptible bacteria.

This book explains how to translate biological assumptions into mathematics to construct useful and consistent models, and how to use the biological interpretation and mathematical reasoning to analyze these models. It shows how to relate models to data through statistical inference, and how to gain important insights into infectious disease dynamics by translating mathematical results back to biology.