Download or read book Horizontal Gene Pool written by Christopher M. Thomas and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bacteria are the most ubiquitous of all organisms. Responsible for a number of diseases and for many of the chemical cycles on which life depends, they are genetically adaptable. Vital to this adaptability is the existence of autonomous genetic elements-plasmids-which promote genetic exchange and recombination. The genes carried by any particular plasmid may be found in only a few individuals of any species but can also be shared with other species and thus constitute a horizontal gene pool. This book explains the various contributions that plasmids make to this pool: the replication, stable inheritance and transfer modules, the phenotypic markers they carry, the way they evolve, the ways they contribute to their host population and the approaches that we use to study and classify them. It also looks at what we know about their activity in natural communities and the way that they interact with other mobile elements to promote bacterial evolution.
Download or read book The Horizontal Gene Pool written by Christopher M. Thomas and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bacteria are the most ubiquitous of all organisms being responsible not only for a number of diseases but also for many of the chemical cycles on which life on earth depends. Vital to their genetic adaptability is the existence of autonomous genetic elements-plasmids-which promote genetic exchange and recombination. The genes carried by any particular plasmid may be found only in few individuals of any species but can also be shared with other species and thus constitute a horizontal gene pool. This book deals with the various contributions that plasmids make to this pool-the replication, stab.
Download or read book Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1999-10-13 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How small can a free-living organism be? On the surface, this question is straightforward-in principle, the smallest cells can be identified and measured. But understanding what factors determine this lower limit, and addressing the host of other questions that follow on from this knowledge, require a fundamental understanding of the chemistry and ecology of cellular life. The recent report of evidence for life in a martian meteorite and the prospect of searching for biological signatures in intelligently chosen samples from Mars and elsewhere bring a new immediacy to such questions. How do we recognize the morphological or chemical remnants of life in rocks deposited 4 billion years ago on another planet? Are the empirical limits on cell size identified by observation on Earth applicable to life wherever it may occur, or is minimum size a function of the particular chemistry of an individual planetary surface? These questions formed the focus of a workshop on the size limits of very small organisms, organized by the Steering .Group for the Workshop on Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms and held on October 22 and 23, 1998. Eighteen invited panelists, representing fields ranging from cell biology and molecular genetics to paleontology and mineralogy, joined with an almost equal number of other participants in a wide-ranging exploration of minimum cell size and the challenge of interpreting micro- and nano-scale features of sedimentary rocks found on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system. This document contains the proceedings of that workshop. It includes position papers presented by the individual panelists, arranged by panel, along with a summary, for each of the four sessions, of extensive roundtable discussions that involved the panelists as well as other workshop participants.
Download or read book Mobile DNA III written by Michael Chandler and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-07-24 with total page 1321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the raw power of genetic material to refashion itself to any purpose... Virtually all organisms contain multiple mobile DNAs that can move from place to place, and in some organisms, mobile DNA elements make up a significant portion of the genome. Mobile DNA III provides a comprehensive review of recent research, including findings suggesting the important role that mobile elements play in genome evolution and stability. Editor-in-Chief Nancy L. Craig assembled a team of multidisciplinary experts to develop this cutting-edge resource that covers the specific molecular mechanisms involved in recombination, including a detailed structural analysis of the enzymes responsible presents a detailed account of the many different recombination systems that can rearrange genomes examines the tremendous impact of mobile DNA in virtually all organisms Mobile DNA III is valuable as an in-depth supplemental reading for upper level life sciences students and as a reference for investigators exploring new biological systems. Biomedical researchers will find documentation of recent advances in understanding immune-antigen conflict between host and pathogen. It introduces biotechnicians to amazing tools for in vivo control of designer DNAs. It allows specialists to pick and choose advanced reviews of specific elements and to be drawn in by unexpected parallels and contrasts among the elements in diverse organisms. Mobile DNA III provides the most lucid reviews of these complex topics available anywhere.
Download or read book The Pangenome written by Hervé Tettelin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book offers the first comprehensive account of the pan-genome concept and its manifold implications. The realization that the genetic repertoire of a biological species always encompasses more than the genome of each individual is one of the earliest examples of big data in biology that opened biology to the unbounded. The study of genetic variation observed within a species challenges existing views and has profound consequences for our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underpinning bacterial biology and evolution. The underlying rationale extends well beyond the initial prokaryotic focus to all kingdoms of life and evolves into similar concepts for metagenomes, phenomes and epigenomes. The book’s respective chapters address a range of topics, from the serendipitous emergence of the pan-genome concept and its impacts on the fields of microbiology, vaccinology and antimicrobial resistance, to the study of microbial communities, bioinformatic applications and mathematical models that tie in with complex systems and economic theory. Given its scope, the book will appeal to a broad readership interested in population dynamics, evolutionary biology and genomics.
Download or read book Horizontal Gene Transfer as a Cohesive Force in Microbial Populations written by Philip Alexander Arevalo and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Populations are the central unit of evolution and ecology. In the context of evolution, populations are commonly defined as groups of organisms with a shared gene pool in which adaptive genes can spread freely through natural selection. Ecology takes a less abstract view of populations and conceives of them as members of a single species that occupy the same geographical area. Among sexual eukaryotes, gene pools are easily defined in terms of reproductive isolation and the geographical scales relevant for populations are well-matched to everyday human experience. Microbiologists, however, have faced a great challenge in applying these concepts to the microbial realm. Can closed gene pools form in the face of apparently rampant horizontal gene transfer? What exactly is a microbial species? And does the famous maxim that '"everything is everywhere" mean that the entire globe is to E. coli what Galapagos is to a finch? In this thesis, I hope to move closer to an answer to these large scale questions by asking two smaller ones. First, can ecologically cohesive microbial populations be identified using genomic information alone? Second, once such populations are identified, what are the relevant factors driving population-level differentiation? Horizontal gene transfer plays a central role in answering both of these questions, acting both as a force that allows cohesive microbial populations to form and as a means by which new functions and capabilities are introduced into and spread within populations.
Download or read book Marine Metagenomics written by Takashi Gojobori and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-24 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the state-of-art marine metagenome research and explains the method of marine metagenomic analysis in an easy-to-understand manner. Changes in the marine environment due to global warming and pollution have become a major global problem. Maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem requires advanced environmental monitoring and assessment systems. As such, the book presents a novel metagenomic monitoring method, which has been developed for comprehensive analyses of the DNA of microorganisms living in seawater to further our understanding of the dynamics of the marine environment. The book can be used as a primer for new researchers and as a manual on experimental methods.
Download or read book The Society of Genes written by Itai Yanai and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-11 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly four decades ago Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene, famously reducing humans to “survival machines” whose sole purpose was to preserve “the selfish molecules known as genes.” How these selfish genes work together to construct the organism, however, remained a mystery. Standing atop a wealth of new research, The Society of Genes now provides a vision of how genes cooperate and compete in the struggle for life. Pioneers in the nascent field of systems biology, Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher present a compelling new framework to understand how the human genome evolved and why understanding the interactions among our genes shifts the basic paradigm of modern biology. Contrary to what Dawkins’s popular metaphor seems to imply, the genome is not made of individual genes that focus solely on their own survival. Instead, our genomes comprise a society of genes which, like human societies, is composed of members that form alliances and rivalries. In language accessible to lay readers, The Society of Genes uncovers genetic strategies of cooperation and competition at biological scales ranging from individual cells to entire species. It captures the way the genome works in cancer cells and Neanderthals, in sexual reproduction and the origin of life, always underscoring one critical point: that only by putting the interactions among genes at center stage can we appreciate the logic of life.
Download or read book Inferring Phylogenies written by Joseph Felsenstein and published by Sinauer Associates Incorporated. This book was released on 2004-01 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phylogenies, or evolutionary trees, are the basic structures necessary to think about and analyze differences between species. Statistical, computational, and algorithmic work in this field has been ongoing for four decades now, and there have been great advances in understanding. Yet no book has summarized this work. Inferring Phylogenies does just that in a single, compact volume. Phylogenies are inferred with various kinds of data. This book concentrates on some of the central ones: discretely coded characters, molecular sequences, gene frequencies, and quantitative traits. Also covered are restriction sites, RAPDs, and microsatellites.
Download or read book Horizontal Gene Transfer written by Tomás G. Villa and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book focuses on the evolutionary impact of horizontal gene transfer processes on pathogenicity, environmental adaptation and biological speciation. Newly acquired genetic material has been considered as a driving force in evolution for prokaryotic genomes for many years, with recent technical developments advancing this field further. However, the extent and implications of gene transfer between prokaryotes and eukaryotes still raise controversies. This multi-authored volume introduces various means by which DNA can be exchanged, covers gene transfer between prokaryotes and their viruses as well as between bacteria and eukaryotes, such as fungi, plants and animals, and addresses the role of horizontal gene transfer in human diseases. Aspects discussed also include the relevance for virulence and drug resistance development on one hand, and for the occurrence of naturally derived antibiotics and other secondary metabolites on the other hand. This book offers new insights to anyone interested in genome evolution and the exchange of DNA between the different domains of life, the genetic toolkit for adaptation and the emergence of multidrug resistant bacteria.
Download or read book Gene Drives on the Horizon written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-08-28 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research on gene drive systems is rapidly advancing. Many proposed applications of gene drive research aim to solve environmental and public health challenges, including the reduction of poverty and the burden of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue, which disproportionately impact low and middle income countries. However, due to their intrinsic qualities of rapid spread and irreversibility, gene drive systems raise many questions with respect to their safety relative to public and environmental health. Because gene drive systems are designed to alter the environments we share in ways that will be hard to anticipate and impossible to completely roll back, questions about the ethics surrounding use of this research are complex and will require very careful exploration. Gene Drives on the Horizon outlines the state of knowledge relative to the science, ethics, public engagement, and risk assessment as they pertain to research directions of gene drive systems and governance of the research process. This report offers principles for responsible practices of gene drive research and related applications for use by investigators, their institutions, the research funders, and regulators.
Download or read book Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants Volume 1 written by Aditya Pratap and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Genetic engineering and biotechnology along with conventional breeding have played an important role in developing superior cultivars by transferring economically important traits from distant, wild and even unrelated species to the cultivated varieties which otherwise could not have been possible with conventional breeding. There is a vast amount of literature pertaining to the genetic improvement of crops over last few decades. However, the wonderful results achieved by crop scientists in food legumes’ research and development over the years are scattered in different journals of the World. The two volumes in the series ‘Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants’ address this issue and offer a comprehensive reference on the developments made in major food crops of the world. These volumes aim at bringing the contributions from globally renowned scientists at one platform in a reader-friendly manner. The 1st volume entitled, ‘Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants: Innovations, Methods and Risk Assessment” will deal exclusively with the process and methodology. The contents of this volume have been designed to appraise the readers with all the theoretical and practical aspects of wide hybridization and gene transfer like processes and methods of gene transfer, role of biotechnology with special reference to embryo rescue, genetic transformation, protoplast fusion and molecular marker technology, problems such as cross incompatibility and barriers to distant hybridization and solutions to overcome them. Since wild and weedy relatives of crop plants may have negative traits associated with them, there are always possibilities of linkage drag while transferring alien alleles. Therefore, problems and limitations of alien gene transfer from these species will also be discussed in this series. Further, the associated risks with this and assessment of risks will also be given due weightage.
Download or read book Horizontal Gene Transfer written by Michael Syvanen and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2001-12-19 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of Horizontal Gene Transfer has been organized to provide a concise and up-to-date coverage of the most important discoveries in this fascinating field. Written by the most prominent gene transfer and genome analytical scientists, this book details experimental evidence for the phenomenon of horizontal gene transfer and discusses further evidence provided by the recent completion of genomic sequences from Archea, Bacteria, and Eucarya members. The relevance of horizontal gene transfer to plant and metazoan taxonomy, GM foods, antibiotic resistance, paleontology, and phylogenetic reconstruction is also explored. Horizontal Gene Transfer is essential for microbiologists, geneticists, biochemists, evolutionary biologists, infectious disease specialists, paleontologists, ecologists, and researchers working in plant/animal systematics and agriculture with an interest in gene transfer. This includes scientific researchers from government and industry concerned with the release of genetically modified organisms. Up-to-the-minute reviews, maps, conclusions, urls to relevant websites and colour figures Unique chapters, for example one written by paleontologists presents data for horizontal gene transfer from fingerprints form the fossil record
Download or read book The Vibrionaceae Horizontal Gene Pool written by Li Pan and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-28 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology Ergebnisse der Mikrobiologie und Immunit tsforschung written by W. Arber and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-08 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When we give a definition it is for the purpose of using it". HENRI POINCARE in Science and Method A. Objectives The first version of this paper was written to introduce new students and fellows of my laboratory to the mysteries of herpesviruses. Consonant with this design sections dealing with well documented data were trimmed to the bone whereas many obscure phenomena, controversial data and seemingly trivial observations were discussed generously and at length. There is some doubt as to whether it was meant to be published, but it was not a review. The objective of reviews is frequently to bring order. But alas, even the most fluent summation of credible data frequently makes dull reading and too much plausible order, like very little entropy in chemical reactions, is not the most suitable environment on which to nurture the urge to discover. This version is more charitable but not less inbalanced. The bibliography reflects the intent of the paper and was updated last in December of 1968. It should be obvious without saying that no single account such as this can do justice or injustice, as the case may be, to the several hundred papers published on herpesviruses each year or to the many thousand papers published on herpesviruses since the first of the members of the family was experimentally transmitted to a heterologous host more than half a century ago (GRUTER, 1924). B. Definition 1.
Download or read book Managing Global Genetic Resources written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1993-02-01 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anchor volume to the series Managing Global Genetic Resources examines the structure that underlies efforts to preserve genetic material, including the worldwide network of genetic collections; the role of biotechnology; and a host of issues that surround management and use. Among the topics explored are in situ versus ex situ conservation, management of very large collections of genetic material, problems of quarantine, the controversy over ownership or copyright of genetic material, and more.
Download or read book Plasma Lipids and Their Role in Disease written by Philip Barter and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume gives up-to-date information on plasma lipid transport, the various categories of plasma lipid disorders and the relationship between plasma lipids, lipoproteins, and atherosclerotic disease.
