© 2011 • 264 pp., illus. (58 color, 17 b/w), index
Trim size: 7” x 10”
Hardcover • $135 • ISBN  978-0-879699-07-9

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Until recently, bacteria were frequently depicted as “bags of enzymes” in which proteins and DNA were distributed relatively haphazardly compared with animal and plant cells. Research performed over the past decade has revolutionized our understanding of bacterial cells, however, revealing that they are in fact highly organized and contain numerous subcompartments.

Written and edited by experts in the field, this volume includes contributions discussing the three dimensional organization of the bacterial cell, various subcellular structures found in bacteria, membrane bounded organelles such as magnetosomes, and the organization of the cell membrane. Other chapters examine the recently identified bacterial cytoskeletal filaments which turn out to be remarkably similar to their eukaryotic counterparts as well as the roles of these filaments in morphogenesis and cytokinesis.

Also covered are the extraordinary organization of the bacterial genome and the dynamic mechanisms that couple its replication and partitioning at cell division. In addition, the book reviews the various different multicellular structures bacteria can form, such as biofilms, along with new imaging techniques that promise to reveal even more about their subcellular machinery. It is thus of interest to microscopists and biochemists, as well as all microbiologists and cell biologists interested in how bacteria and other prokaryotes function.

Preface

Bacterial Chromosome Organization and Segregation

Esteban Toro and Lucy Shapiro

Synchronization of Chromosome Dynamics and Cell Division in Bacteria

Martin Thanbichler

The Structure and Function of Bacterial Actin Homologs

Joshua W. Shaevitz and Zemer Gitai

Protein Subcellular Localization in Bacteria

David Z. Rudner and Richard Losick

Poles Apart: Prokaryotic Polar Organelles and Their Spatial Regulation

Clare L. Kirkpatrick and Patrick H. Viollier

The Bacterial Cell Envelope

Thomas J. Silhavy, Daniel Kahne, and Suzanne Walker

Cell Biology of Prokaryotic Organelles

Dorothee Murat, Meghan Byrne, and Arash Komeili

Bacterial Nanomachines: The Flagellum and Type III Injectisome

Marc Erhardt, Keiichi Namba, and Kelly T. Hughes

Membrane-associated DNATransport Machines

Briana Burton and David Dubnau

Myxobacteria, Polarity, and Multicellular Morphogenesis

Dale Kaiser, Mark Robinson, and Lee Kroos

Cyanobacterial Heterocysts

Krithika Kumar, Rodrigo A. Mella-Herrera, and James W. Golden

Biofilms

Daniel López, Hera Vlamakis, and Roberto Kolter

Electron Cryotomography

Elitza I. Tocheva, Zhuo Li, and Grant J. Jensen

Single-Molecule and Superresolution Imaging in Live Bacteria Cells

Julie S. Biteen and W.E. Moerner

Automated Quantitative Live Cell Fluorescence Microscopy

Michael Fero and Kit Pogliano

Index