Structural and Functional Relationships in Prokaryotes

The philosophy used in the preparation of this book is to focus on the fundamental features of prokaryotic physiology and to use these features as the basis for comparative physiology. This new textbook on bacterial physiology is aimed at senior level students pursuing a one-semester course in the biology or microbiology curriculum. The text takes a balanced view of prokaryotic physiology, discussing both bioenergetics and bacterial metabolism in a way that establishes general principles and concepts and emphasizes throughout the information gained from model systems. The book also covers some experimental design issues, giving students an appreciation of the practical aspects and consequences of bacterial metabolism. It also stimulates students’ interests in future developments in the field by including discussions by five world-famous bacterial physiologists about future developments in the field. This new textbook on bacterial physiology is aimed at senior level students pursuing a one-semester course in the biology or microbiology curriculum. The text takes a balanced view of prokaryotic physiology, discussing both bioenergetics and bacterial metabolism in a way that establishes general principles and concepts and emphasizes throughout the information gained from model systems. The book also covers some experimental design issues, giving students an appreciation of the practical aspects and consequences of bacterial metabolism. It also stimulates students interests in future developments in the field by including discussions by five world-famous bacterial physiologists about future developments in the field.

This book is designed to be used as textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses of microbial physiology and biochemistry, with a specific focus on the physiological processes in bacteria and archaea. This emphasis provides for the basis to explore bacterial and archaeal growth, as well as the response of these cells to the environment and to evaluate the enzymology used to support life at the cellular level. Building on the success of the first edition, the topics have been strengthened by the addition of new information and a reorganization which has resulted in condensed chapters to enable instructors to more readily adapt the various units of this book to their class schedules. A set of questions is provided for each chapter and these questions can serve as in-class discussions or homework projects. Through an extensive use of references, the reader is able to readily identify the source for material presented and this approach enables the book to also serve as a reference for research scientists. Through the use of updated figures and tables, details in the text are provided for the reader. It is the hope that this book will summarize the current understanding of structure-function relationships in prokaryotes and to serve as a bridge to future developments in this area of microbiology.