Table of Contents

Contributors

Preface

I. General Overview of The Bacillaceae and Clostridia

1. Genome Diversity of Spore-Forming Firmicutes

2. Evolution in the Bacillaceae

3. Ecology of Bacillaceae

4. Sporulation in Bacteria: Beyond the Standard Model

II. The Bacillaceae: Bacillus Subtilis

5. Chance and Necessity in Bacillus subtilis Development

6. Bacillus subtilis Systems Biology: Applications of -Omics Techniques to the Study of Endospore Formation

7. Protein Targeting during Bacillus subtilis Sporulation

8. Spore Peptidoglycan

9. The Spore Coat

10. Spore Resistance Properties

11. Spore Germination

III. The Bacillaceae: Bacillus Anthracis

12. The Phylogeny of Bacillus cereus sensu lato

13. The Bacillus anthracis Exosporium: What’s the Big “Hairy” Deal?

14. Animal Models for the Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention of Infection by Bacillus anthracis

IV. The Clostridia

15. Physiology and Sporulation in Clostridium

16. Clostridium perfringens Sporulation and Sporulation-Associated Toxin Production

V. Practical Technologies

17. Spore Surface Display

18. The Role of Bacterial Spores in Metal Cycling and Their Potential Application in Metal Contaminant Bioremediation

Index

About the Author

Adam Driks is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University, in the laboratory of Dr. David DeRosier, where he analyzed the composition and assembly of bacterial flagella. He performed Postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Losick at Harvard University, where he initiated his work on assembly and composition of the Bacillus spore coat.

Reviews

“The Bacterial Spore: From Molecules to Systems is an ambitious effort at consolidating this body of research in a way that highlights the biological diversity of bacterial spore formers, their industrial and medical applications, and fundamental mechanistic insights gained from their study in a way that is accessible to both the novice and expert microbiologist.”