Diversity Dynamics And Functional Role Of Actinomycetes On European Smear Ripened Cheeses

Cheese is a significant part of European culture and its production, both industrial and artisanal, is a significant economic activity. Smear cheeses are one element of that diverse cultural and economic activity. And they are an ecological niche which illustrates the diversity of, especially, though not exclusively, actinomycetes. Mainstream ecology looks at the oceans, soil, rhizosphere, human microbiomes and plant, insect and marine animal symbionts which influence the climate, agriculture, human health and the ecology of higher organisms. But food microbiology can influence human well-being and nutrition and, as an ecological niche, illustrates the same broad principles in action as other ecological studies, but, in many ways offers a more controlled and controllable environment to study. The bacterial diversity present on smear cheese surfaces is like a model system which will provide the vehicle for developing a research strategy for food-environment microbiology. In this book we take a look at food-based ecological niche by focusing on the actinomycetes. This book presents many of the aspects, from the taxonomy of the cheese flora and its interaction with the ‘house flora’ to the functional manipulation of the organoleptic properties of the dairy product to the pathogenic risk. Modern methods of taxonomic characterization provide significant data in understanding the functional roles of members of the microbial flora including their enzymatic potential, the presence of virulence genes or probiotic factors. Taxonomy guided high throughput metagenome analysis is a generic approach to systems level analysis of microbial ecosystems, such as those found in the food chain. The data generated by metagenomic analysis will require extensive bioinformatic support which will provide the data not only for taxonomic characterization, community analysis and ecosystem dynamics but the data will also provide a foothold into the evolution and ecosystem function of the community. The ultimate understanding of the metabolome and the regulation of such a complex ecosystem will provide the framework for further technological advances in solid state fermentation.

Today, microbiology is a rapidly growing discipline in the life sciences, and the technologies are evolving on a virtually daily basis. Next-generation sequencing technologies have revolutionized microbial analysis, and can help us understand the biology and genomic diversity of various bacterial species with significant impacts on agro-ecosystems. In addition, advances in molecular biology and microbiology techniques hold the potential to improve the productivity and sustainability of agriculture and forestry. This new volume addresses the role of microbial genomics in understanding the living systems that exist in the soil and their interactions with plants, an aspect that is also important for crop improvement. The topics covered focus on a deeper and clearer understanding of how microbes cause diseases, the genome-based development of novel antibacterial agents and vaccines, and the role of microbial genomics in crop improvement and agroforestry. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers and students of agriculture and infectious biology.

This book examines the commercial role of various microbial polysaccharides and recent advances in their production. Offering an overview of the physiological role, biosynthetic pathways and regulatory mechanisms, it also explores the current challenges regarding bioprocessing for the production of polysaccharides.

Essential Microbiology 2nd Edition is a fully revised comprehensive introductory text aimed at students taking a first course in the subject. It provides an ideal entry into the world of microorganisms, considering all aspects of their biology (structure, metabolism, genetics), and illustrates the remarkable diversity of microbial life by devoting a chapter to each of the main taxonomic groupings. The second part of the book introduces the reader to aspects of applied microbiology, exploring the involvement of microorganisms in areas as diverse as food and drink production, genetic engineering, global recycling systems and infectious disease. Essential Microbiology explains the key points of each topic but avoids overburdening the student with unnecessary detail. Now in full colour it makes extensive use of clear line diagrams to clarify sometimes difficult concepts or mechanisms. A companion web site includes further material including MCQs, enabling the student to assess their understanding of the main concepts that have been covered. This edition has been fully revised and updated to reflect the developments that have occurred in recent years and includes a completely new section devoted to medical microbiology. Students of any life science degree course will find this a concise and valuable introduction to microbiology.

The first edition of Advances in the Microbiology and Biochemistry of Cheese and Fermented Milk was aimed at the gap in the literature between the many excellent technical texts on the one hand, and the widely scattered scientific literature on the other. We tried to present the state of the art in pre competitive research in a predigested, yet scientifically coherent form, and relate it to the marketable properties of fermented dairy products. In this way, researchers could use the book to mentally step back from their specializations and see how far they had progressed as a community; at the same time we hoped that R&D-based companies could use it to assess the utility (or lack of it) of the research output in setting out their research acquisition strategy for product improvement and innovation. In a sense, the first edition could claim to have initiated Technology Foresight in its limited field before Government caught the idea, and it certainly gave the science base an opportunity to display its talents and resources as a potential source of wealth creation, well before this became an 'official' function of publicly funded science and technology. Thus, the first edition was intended as a progressive move within the growing science and technology literature, and judged by its market success, it seems to have served precisely that purpose.

Detailed information dealing with the ecology of mycobacteria is derived from a variety of different scientific fields such as botany, biochemistry, genetics, immunology, microbiology and epidemiology. This text attempts to evaluate this information from an ecological point of view and to develop a strategy for the prevention of tuberculosis and other mycobacterioses based on the ecological behaviour of mycobacteria, especially the potentially pathogenic species capable of either growth in the environment or provoking disease. Regarding the interests of the developing countries, special attention is paid to the ecology of Mycobacterium leprae and to the supporting effect of accompanying mycobacteria in its pathogenicity. On a more positive side, environmental mycobacteria play an important role in the ecology of moorland dragonflies.

With the launch of its first electronic edition, The Prokaryotes, the definitive reference on the biology of bacteria, enters an exciting new era of information delivery. Subscription-based access is available. The electronic version begins with an online implementation of the content found in the printed reference work, The Prokaryotes, Second Edition. The content is being fully updated over a five-year period until the work is completely revised. Thereafter, material will be continuously added to reflect developments in bacteriology. This online version features information retrieval functions and multimedia components.

The Prokaryotes is a comprehensive, multi-authored, peer reviewed reference work on Bacteria and Achaea. This fourth edition of The Prokaryotes is organized to cover all taxonomic diversity, using the family level to delineate chapters. Different from other resources, this new Springer product includes not only taxonomy, but also prokaryotic biology and technology of taxa in a broad context. Technological aspects highlight the usefulness of prokaryotes in processes and products, including biocontrol agents and as genetics tools. The content of the expanded fourth edition is divided into two parts: Part 1 contains review chapters dealing with the most important general concepts in molecular, applied and general prokaryote biology; Part 2 describes the known properties of specific taxonomic groups. Two completely new sections have been added to Part 1: bacterial communities and human bacteriology. The bacterial communities section reflects the growing realization that studies on pure cultures of bacteria have led to an incomplete picture of the microbial world for two fundamental reasons: the vast majority of bacteria in soil, water and associated with biological tissues are currently not culturable, and that an understanding of microbial ecology requires knowledge on how different bacterial species interact with each other in their natural environment. The new section on human microbiology deals with bacteria associated with healthy humans and bacterial pathogenesis. Each of the major human diseases caused by bacteria is reviewed, from identifying the pathogens by classical clinical and non-culturing techniques to the biochemical mechanisms of the disease process. The 4th edition of The Prokaryotes is the most complete resource on the biology of prokaryotes. The following volumes are published consecutively within the 4th Edition: Prokaryotic Biology and Symbiotic Associations Prokaryotic Communities and Ecophysiology Prokaryotic Physiology and Biochemistry Applied Bacteriology and Biotechnology Human Microbiology Actinobacteria Firmicutes Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria Gammaproteobacteria Deltaproteobacteria and Epsilonproteobacteria Other Major Lineages of Bacteria and the Archaea