Anaerobic Bacteria

This book is appropriate for advanced undergraduate students of micro biology and biological sciences in universities and colleges, as well as for research workers entering the field and requiring a broad contemporary view of anaerobic bacteria and associated concepts. Obligate anaerobes, together with microaerophils, are characterized by their sensitivity to oxygen. This dictates specialized laboratory methods a fact which has led to many students being less familiar with anaerobes than their distribution and importance would warrant The metabolic strategies such as methanogenesis, an oxygenic photosynthesis and diverse fermenta tive pathways which do not have equivalents in aerobic bacteria also make anaerobes worthy of attention. In these limited pages an attempt has been made to cover the varied aspects of anaerobic bacteria, and a bibliography has been included, which will allow individual topics to be pursued in greater detail. We are grateful to Mrs Winifred Webster and Mrs Hilary Holdsworth for typing the manuscript and to the Leeds University Audio Visual Service for preparing the figures. Finally, our thanks go to the students, postgradu ates and wives who read and criticized the manuscript.

Seeming sometimes more like science fiction than science, anaerobic bacteria have been at the center of a number of exciting new discoveries. This volume discusses and explains the diversity of metabolism, modes of protein transport, molecular biology and physiology of these unusual microbes. It has practical applications ranging from wastewater treatment to clinical diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions.

The field of bacterial genetics has been restricted for many years to Escherichia coli and a few other genera of aerobic or facultatively anaerobic bacteria such as Pseudomonas, Bacillus, and Salmonella. The prevailing view up to recent times has been that anaerobic bacteria are interesting organisms but nothing is known about their genetics. To most microbiologists, anaerobic bacteria appeared as a sort of distant domain, reserved for occasional intrusions by taxonomists and medical microbiologists. By the mid-1970s, knowledge of the genetics and molecular biology of anaerobes began to emerge, and then developed rapidly. but also im This was the result of advances in molecular biology techniques, portantly because of improvements in basic techniques for culturing anaerobes and for understanding their biochemistry and other areas of in terest. Investigations in this field were also stimulated by a renewal of interest in their ecology, their role in pathology and in biotransformations, and in the search for alternative renewable sources of energy. The initial idea for this book came from Thomas D. Brock. When Dr. Brock requested my opinion about two years ago on the feasibility of publishing a book on the genetics of anaerobic bacteria, as a part of the Brock/Springer Series in Contemporary Bioscience, I answered positively but I was apprehen sive about assuming the role of editor. However, I was soon reassured by the enthusiastic commitment of those I approached to contribute. Eventually, thanks to the caring cooperation of the contributors, the task became relatively easy.

This book Periprosthetic Joint Infection is a portable guide to the practical management of surgical site infections following orthopedic procedures. It designed to help answer clinician's questions regarding the prevention and treatment of periprosthetic infections. It organized for rapid review, featuring evidence reviews, pitfalls, Rothman Institute Current Practices and Controversies. The guide is being included in the course materials for the 29th Annual Current Concepts in Joint Replacement® (CCJR) meeting thanks to a generous educational grant from 3M Health Care.

Starting with an introduction to anaerobic bacteria, it then goes on to discuss the cultivation of anaerobes by describing anaerobic jars, cabinets and roll-tube techniques. The beginning chapter ends with a discussion of preservation and identification of anaerobes. Subsequent chapters refer to the taxonomy, ecology and biochemistry of these organisms, and the last two chapters address the problems of anaerobes in medical and veterinary situations and the industrial importance of obligate anaerobes. Also includes recent references and an index.

A symposium seems an appropriate vehicle to review recent, as well as new, data on important topics. It is therefore our goal to present a symposium on selected topics of importance every three years. Some topics will be updated and new topics will be presented. A vast amount of information has been accumulated over the past ten years on the significance of anaerobic bacteria in infectious diseases. This symposium was organized to discuss laboratory aspects, normal flora, pathogenicity, serology, and the patients' immune re sponse to anaerobic infection. Important imformation on the patients' immune response and serology of anaerobes which has accumulated over the last few years made these topics an important part of the sympo sium. Development of serological diagnostic tests undoubtedly will provide quicker and less expensive identification of certain anaerobic species in the future. Utilization of the patients' immune response to anaerobic septicemia has the potential of providing a diagnosis of the causative agent within 24 hours after onset of symptoms. The development of such diagnostic methods and the use of these methods in the clinical laboratory in the future would provide rapid diag nostic information to the clinician on these life-threatening infec tions. Campylobacter was included in the symposium to emphasize the important role of this organism in human acute gastroenteritis. The pathogenesis of Campylobacter in gastroenteritis has been recognized in certain European countries since 1972, although we have recognized the importance of Campylobacter gastroenteritis in the United States only within the past two years.