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The birth and the development of molecular biology and, subsequently, of genetic engineering and biotechnology cannot be separated from the advancements in our knowledge of the genetics, biochemistry and physiology of bacteria and bacter- phages. Also most of the tools employed nowadays by biotechnologists are of bacterial (or bacteriophage) origin and the playground for most of the DNA manipulations still remains within bacteria. The relative simplicity of the bacterial cell, the short gene- tion times, the well defined and inexpensive culturing conditions which characterize bacteria and the auto-catalytic process whereby a wealth of in-depth information has been accumulated throughout the years have significantly contributed to generate a large number of knowledge-based, reliable and exploitable biological systems. The subtle relationships between phages and their hosts have produced a large amount of information and allowed the identification and characterization of a number of components which play essential roles in fundamental biological p- cesses such as DNA duplication, recombination, transcription and translation. For instance, to remain within the topic of this book, two important players in the or- nization of the nucleoid, FIS and IHF, have been discovered in this way. Indeed, it is difficult to find a single fundamental biological process whose structural and functional aspects are better known than in bacteria.
List of contents
Structure and Organization of the Bacterial Chromosome.- Ultrastructure and Organization of Bacterial Chromosomes.- Imaging the Bacterial Nucleoid.- The Chromosome Segregation Machinery in Bacteria.- Extrachromosomal Components of the Nucleoid: Recent Developments in Deciphering the Molecular Basis of Plasmid Segregation.- Nucleoid Structure and Segregation.- Polymer Physics for Understanding Bacterial Chromosomes.- Molecular Structure and Dynamics of Bacterial Nucleoids.- Nucleoid-Associated Proteins: Structural Properties.- Dps and Bacterial Chromatin.- Chromatin Organization in Archaea and Eukaryotes.- Archaeal Chromatin Organization.- The Topology and Organization of Eukaryotic Chromatin.- Regulation by Nucleoid-Associated Proteins.- Bacterial Chromatin and Gene Regulation.- H-NS as a Defence System.- FIS and Nucleoid Dynamics upon Exit from Lag Phase.- LRP: A Nucleoid-Associated Protein with Gene Regulatory Functions.- Extreme DNA Bending: Molecular Basis of the Regulatory Breadth of IHF.- Role of HU in Regulation of gal Promoters.- Transcriptional Regulation by Nucleoid-Associated Proteins at Complex Promoters in Escherichia coli.- Erratum.
Summary
The birth and the development of molecular biology and, subsequently, of genetic engineering and biotechnology cannot be separated from the advancements in our knowledge of the genetics, biochemistry and physiology of bacteria and bacter- phages. Also most of the tools employed nowadays by biotechnologists are of bacterial (or bacteriophage) origin and the playground for most of the DNA manipulations still remains within bacteria. The relative simplicity of the bacterial cell, the short gene- tion times, the well defined and inexpensive culturing conditions which characterize bacteria and the auto-catalytic process whereby a wealth of in-depth information has been accumulated throughout the years have significantly contributed to generate a large number of knowledge-based, reliable and exploitable biological systems. The subtle relationships between phages and their hosts have produced a large amount of information and allowed the identification and characterization of a number of components which play essential roles in fundamental biological p- cesses such as DNA duplication, recombination, transcription and translation. For instance, to remain within the topic of this book, two important players in the or- nization of the nucleoid, FIS and IHF, have been discovered in this way. Indeed, it is difficult to find a single fundamental biological process whose structural and functional aspects are better known than in bacteria.
