The successful functioning of eukaryotic cells is dependent upon a highly organized intracellular cooperation and interaction between the numerous compartments which are present in them. In recent years unicellular algae have become increasingly recognized as favoured objects for studies on struc- tural, biochemical and developmental aspects of compartmentation. Promp- ted by these facts, Professor A. Pirson, former Directior of the Plant Physio- logy Institute in Gottingen, suggested organizing a symposium entitled Com- partments in Algal Cells and Their Interaction. This was then organized under the auspices of the Akademie der Wissen- schaften in Gottingen with the fmancial support of the Stiftung Volkswa- genwerk. The meeting took place in Gottingen in September of 1983 and was attended by a number of internationally renowned colleagues. The re- stricted size of the meeting, together with the convivial atmosphere, led to an optimal exchange of views between the participants. This book presents the proceedings of this meeting and contains all the papers presented. We feel, however, that it contains information of use to a much larger circle of scientists than to phycologists alone. We should like to take this opportunity to express our thanks to all those involved in the convention, support and in day-to-day operation of the meeting. We also thank the contributors for their quick and effective co- operation and, last but not least, the editorial staff of Springer Verlag, who enabled this book to appear only 9 months after the meeting took place, thus ensuring its up-to-date nature.

From 1965 through 1975, I conducted an extensive field and laboratory research project on thermophilic microorganisms. The field work was based primarily in Yellowstone National Park, using a field laboratory we set up in the city of W. Yellowstone, Montana. The laboratory work was carried out from 1965 through 1971 at Indiana University, Bloomington, and subsequently at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Although this research project began small, it quickly ramified in a wide variety of directions. The major thrust was an attempt to understand the ecology and evolutionary relationships of thermophilic microorganisms, but research also was done on biochemical, physiologic, and taxonomic aspects of thermophiles. Four new genera of thermophilic microorganisms have been discovered during the course of this 10-year period, three in my laboratory. In addition, a large amount of new information has been obtained on some thermophilic microorganisms that previously had been known. In later years, a considerable amount of work was done on Yellowstone algal bacterial mats as models for Precambrian stromatolites. In the broadest sense, the work could be considered geomicrobiological, or biogeochemi cal, and despite the extensive laboratory research carried out, the work was always firmly rooted in an attempt to understand thermophilic microorga nisms in their natural environments. Indeed, one of the prime motivations for initiating this work was a view that extreme environments would provide useful models for studying the ecology of microorganisms. As a result of this 10-year research project, I published over 100 papers."

Presented here are recent findings on bacteriocins: plasmid-encoded toxins produced by bacteria, which differ from traditional antibiotics in killing only bacteria that are closely related to the producing strain. Included are introductory chapters on bacteriocins, microcins (low molecular weight bacteriocins), and lantibiotics (peptide antibiotics containing lanthionine), further, contributions on pore forming bacteriocins, the mechanisms of immunity to bacteriocins, uptake and secretion, as well as evolution of bacteriocins. It is of particular interest that the lantibiotic nisin is approved for use as food preservative and another lantibiotic, epidermin, has potential as a therapeutic drug against acne.

The Plant Root and the Rhizosphere was a major topical feature of the first International Symposium on Factors Determining the Behavior of Plant Pathogens in Soil held at the University of California, Berkeley in 1963. The symposium was edited by K. F. Baker and W. C. Snyder and published under the title Ecology of Soil-Borne Plant Pathogens. Since that time, several other international efforts, either on the root-soil interface specifically or on topics relating to the root environment, have provided"a wealth of valuable information basic to promoting the culture of healthier, more productive plants. For the writing of this book, inspiration has come, in large part, from 10 years of cooperative rhizosphere research in association with leading scientists participating in a regional effort within the southern United States. We have attempted to bring together in this work the major aspects of rhizosphere research and the principles of rhizosphere ecology for the benefit of developing young scientists and technologists, as well as for the established professional researcher and teacher. A prime objective and hope is that this volume might generate ideas that will bring forth new approaches and methodology leading to further advances in our understanding of rhizosphere interactions and their implications for agriculture. ' Because of the enormous complexity of the chemical, physical, and microbiological environment of roots, the methods used by various workers are rarely standardized, but must be devised or modified for each experiment.

The present volume contains 17 lectures of the 41 st Mosbach Colloquium of the Gesellschaft fiir Biologische Chemie, held from April 5-7, 1990 on the topic "The Molecular Basis of Bacterial Metabolism". From the beginning it was not the intention of the organizers to present a comprehensive account, but rather to select new, exciting progress on sometimes exotic reactions of specifically bacterial, mainly anaerobic metabolism. Members of our society had contributed to this progress to an extent that greatly stimulated the scientific exchange with international colleagues during the days in Mosbach. The editors hope that this stimulation will be conveyed to the readers of the articles, which reach from the biochemistry of methanogenesis, via anaerobic radical reactions, metal biochemistry in hydrogen and nitrogen metabolism, conversions of light - and redox energy, to the regulation of metabolic adaptation, and the attempts to bioengineer novel pathways for the degradation of xenobiotica. We believe that the book represents a highly progressive field of over lapping disciplines, comprising microbiology and molecular genetics, chemistry of biomimetic interest, and biophysics, and that it gives insight into the impact modern technologies have on microbiological research today. The colloquium was generously supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Paul-Martini-Stiftung, and the Fonds fiir Biologische Chemie. A. Trebst, G. Schafer, and D. Oesterhelt were a great help in preparing the program and we wish to thank them for their advice.

usage of the terms substrate and substratum. A substrate (pI.: substrates) is a material utilized by microorganisms, generally as a source of energy. A substratum (pI.: substrata) is asolid surface to which a microorganism mayattach. REFERENCES (1) Marshall, K.C. 1976. Interfaces in Microbial Ecology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (2) ZoBell, C.E. 1943. The effect of solid surfaces upon bacterial activity. J. Bacteriol. 46: 39-56. Standing, left to right: Paul Rutter, Rolf Freter, Mike Silverman, lan Robb, Hinrich Mrozek, Frank Dazzo, David Gingell Seated, left to right: Garth Jones, Stanislawa Tylewska, Staffan Kjelleberg, Ellen Rades-Rohkohl, Kevin Marshall Microbial Adhesion and Aggregation, ed. K.C. Marshall, pp. 5-19. Dahlem Konferenzen 1984. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo: Springer-Verlag. Mechanisms of Adhesion Group Report P.R. Rutter, Rapporteur F.B. Dazzo H. Mrozek R. Freter E. Rades-Rohkohl D. GingeIl I.D. Robb G.W. Jones M. Silverman 8. Kjelleberg 8. Tylewska K.C. Marshall INTRODUCTION The subject, Mechanisms of Microbial Attachment, has proved to be a fertile sour ce of argument between both microbiologists and physical chemists. In order to find common ground for discussion, the group endeavored to come to a consensus regarding a number of definitions pertinent to the subject. Some of these are described in the text and others will be found at the end of this report.

It is not certain that the editors of Antibiotics I (1967), Drs. GOTTLffiB and SHAW, fully realized that they were laying the foundation for an entire series of which we present here Vol. VI. For some time to come, this will be the last volume of the Antibiotics series. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the discovery of medicinally useful antibiotics has leveled off, because the number of microbiological products with antimicrobial properties is not infinite. In 1972 some 2500 antibiotic substances were known, of which approximately one per cent are clinically useful. Further search for antibiotics has led to increasing frequency of rediscoveries and drasti cally decreasing frequency of discoveries of new antibiotics. As the search for antibiotics with a standard methodology in conventional ecological niches has exhausted itself, there is a paucity of new and interesting substances on which to undertake modes/mechanisms of action studies. Secondly, the mechanism of action field has come of age and its results are now academic knowledge. This also holds true for synthetic chemothera peutic drugs and becomes the case rapidly for toxic substances with anti-eukar yotic action. The study of mechanisms of action was undertaken for two reasons: one was the basic scientific desire to know how antimicrobial substances inter fered with microbial biochemistry; the second one was the hope that such infor mation would be useful in the premeditated design of synthetic antimicrobials."

Metabolic engineering is the practice of genetically optimizing metabolic and regulatory networks within cells to increase production and/or recovery of certain substance from cells. In Microbial Metabolic Engineering: Methods and Protocols expert researchers in the field detail many of the methods which are now commonly used to study metabolic engineering. These include methods and techniques to engineer genes and pathways, use of modern biotechnology tools in microbial metabolic engineering, and examples of metabolic engineering for real world applications such as whole cell biosensors and acetate control in large scale fermentation. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology (TM) series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and key tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Microbial Metabolic Engineering: Methods and Protocols seeks to provide researchers with an overview of key topics on microbial metabolic engineering.

The last decade has seen an explosion in our understanding of how bacterial pathogens trick, cajole, usurp and parasitize their various hosts. This renaissance is due to the convergence of molecular and cellular techniques with the power of microbial genetics. The purpose of this volume is to introduce recent advances in understanding selected systems chosen from both plant and animal hosts of bacterial pathogens. This somewhat nonobvious choice of topics was spurred by the recent findings, detailed by several conributors to this volume, of common systems used to secrete virulence factors from pathogens of both plants and animals. These serendipitous findings underscored the importance of basic research approaches to parallel problems in biology. More importantly, they brought together investigators who may not have otherwise become conversant with each other's experimental systems. I, for one, find the kinds of synergism reflected in a volume of this sort to be one of the most pleasant aspects of science and hope that the reader, whether a newcomer to the field or an expert, can find a new slant to old problems in the reviews contained h, E: lre. It was, however, necessary to limit volume length, and this has forced the exclusion of a number of fascinating bacterial pathosystems.

Aquatic hyphomycetes were discovered 50 years ago by C.T. Ingold. They remained a relatively obscure group until their role as intermediaries between deciduous leaves and stream invertebrates was established some 20 years ago. This book, for the first time, provides a comprehensive summary and critical evaluation of the biology and ecology of these organisms. Aspecial effort was made to evaluate the potential and actual insight that have been or will be derived from work in related disciplines such as the ecology of other fungal groups, stream ecology, or population ecology. The topics treated include the basic life history of the fungi and the potential role of wood, a discussion of how the fungi have adjusted to life in running water, their interactions with invertebrates, the attachment and germination of their spores, what is known about sexual reproduction, how water chemistry may influence their distribution and activity, how they react to human degradation of their environment, and a summary of the research done on the Indian subcontinent. The volume is of special interest to mycologists and stream ecologists and should facilitate the entry of new workers into this exciting area.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Molecular Signals in Microbe-Plant Symbiotic and Pathogenic Systems, held at Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands, May 21-26, 1989

In 1898, an Austrian microbiologist Heinrich Winterberg made a curious observation: the number of microbial cells in his samples did not match the number of colonies formed on nutrient media (Winterberg 1898). About a decade later, J. Amann qu- tified this mismatch, which turned out to be surprisingly large, with non-growing cells outnumbering the cultivable ones almost 150 times (Amann 1911). These papers signify some of the earliest steps towards the discovery of an important phenomenon known today as the Great Plate Count Anomaly (Staley and Konopka 1985). Note how early in the history of microbiology these steps were taken. Detecting the Anomaly almost certainly required the Plate. If so, then the period from 1881 to 1887, the years when Robert Koch and Petri introduced their key inventions (Koch 1881; Petri 1887), sets the earliest boundary for the discovery, which is remarkably close to the 1898 observations by H. Winterberg. Celebrating its 111th anniversary, the Great Plate Count Anomaly today is arguably the oldest unresolved microbiological phenomenon. In the years to follow, the Anomaly was repeatedly confirmed by all microb- logists who cared to compare the cell count in the inoculum to the colony count in the Petri dish (cf., Cholodny 1929; Butkevich 1932; Butkevich and Butkevich 1936). By mid-century, the remarkable difference between the two counts became a universally recognized phenomenon, acknowledged by several classics of the time (Waksman and Hotchkiss 1937; ZoBell 1946; Jannasch and Jones 1959).

There is suf?cient need to document all the available data on biological control of rice diseases in a small volume. Part of this need rests on the global importance of rice to human life. In the ?rst chapter, I have tried to show that rice is indeed life for most people in Asia and shortages in production and availability can lead to a food crisis. While rice is cultivated in most continents, biological disease management attains special relevance to rice farmers of Africa, Asia, and also perhaps, Latin America. These farmers are resource-poor and might not be able to afford the cost of expensive chemical treatments to control devastating rice pathogens such as Magnaporthe oryzae (blast), Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (bacterial leaf blight), Rhizoctonia solani (sheath blight) and the virus, rice tungro disease. In an earlier volume that I developed under the title, Biological Control of Crop Diseases (Dekker/CRC Publishers, 2002), I included transgenic crops generated for the management of plant pathogens as biological control under the umbrella of a broad de?nition. Dr Jim Cook who wrote the Foreword for the volume lauded the inclusion of transgenic crops and induced systemic resistance (ISR) as a positive trend toward acceptance of host plant resistance as part of biocontrol. I continue to subscribe to this view.

Endophytic prokaryotes can invade the tissue of the host plant without triggering defense reactions or disease symptoms. Instead, they promote the growth of the host plant due to their ability to fix atmospheric dinitrogen and/or to produce plant growth-promoting substances.

This Microbiology Monographs volume presents up-to-date findings on the interactions between plants and beneficial prokaryotes, including the use of genomics for the analysis of plant-prokaryote symbioses and their evolution. Rhizobia-legume, actinorhizal and cyanobacterial symbioses are presented.

This volume includes contributions by the leading experts in the field of yeast aging. Budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and other fungal organisms provide models for aging research that are relevant to organismic aging and to the aging processes occurring in the human body. Replicative aging, in which only the mother cell ages while the daughter cell resets the clock to zero is a model for the aging of stem cell populations in humans, while chronological aging (measured by survival in stationary phase) is a model for the aging processes in postmitotic cells (for instance, neurons of the brain). Most mechanisms of aging are studied in yeast. Among them, this book discusses: mitochondrial theories of aging, emphasizing oxidative stress and retrograde responses; the role of autophagy and mitophagy; the relationship of apoptosis to aging processes; the role of asymmetric segregation of damage in replicative aging; the role of replication stress; and the role of the cytoskeleton in aging. Modern methods of yeast genetics and genomics are described that can be used to search for aging-specific functions in a genome-wide unbiased fashion. The similarities in the pathology of senescence (studied in yeast) and of cancer cells, including genome instability, are examined.

This book is a collection of data on the tenacity in the environment of bacteria and some rickettsiae important in medicine and veterinary medicine. These data are of fundamental importance to physicians, veterinarians, epidemiologists and others when, in their practices, they are confronted with epidemics of contagious diseases or outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. At such times prompt answers are often needed to limit the problem, and thus to protect the public's health. Since data needed for such a purpose are widely distributed in the internatio nal scientific literature, the occasional desperate literature search is likely to miss some of the information that is available. This book seeks to fill that void. It lies in the nature of a compilation such as this is that it can never be totally complete. The compilation requires continual up-dating to include new information, and some currently acceptable information may have to be corrected as new data become available. However, most of the information in this compilation will never be out-of-date. The authors are always thankful for suggestions from others. Collection of the data in this book resulted from, first, several decades of studying the literature, and, second, literature searches made by the Institut fUr Dokumentationswesen in Frankfurt a. M., the Biomedi zinische Datenbank of Hoechst A. G."

This book brings together various contributions aimed at the elucida tion of the structural and functional organization of the bacterial nucleoid. Most of these papers, spanning the fields of physical chemistry through biochemistry to genetics, were presented at the session on bac terial chromatin during the Symposium "Selected topics on chromatin structure and function" held at the University of Camerino, Italy, at the end of May 1985. Times when the bacterial DNA was regarded as "naked" or, at most, complexed with polyamines, and when the absence of histones and organized chromatin was considered to be a distinct feature of the pro karyotic cell, now appear remote. Our concepts of how DNA is packaged in bacteria are changing rapidly. Studies on the structure of the bacterial nucleoid are not new. Recently, however, investigations in this field have flourished again, leading to some important contributions such as the elucidation of the three-dimensional structure of what appears to be the major protein constituent of the bacterial nucleoid or the development of methods to titrate the extent of DNA supercoiling within the bacterial cell."

The intent of this publication is to bring together reviews and discussions from several disciplines, all treating the basidium and basidiocarp of the Basidiomy cotina (= basidiomycetes), a subdivision of the true or higher fungi. Because the workers who study the species of this group employ such a variety of techniques and publish in such diverse journals, we believe that bringing together these efforts in one publication will facilitate a synopsis of recent studies of several divergent disciplines. Correlation of such information may not only aid in the reevaluation of broad taxonomic and biological concepts but also provide a key to the specialists in the rethinking of the data available within the confines of the more restricted disciplines. We have attempted to cover the major areas of studies of species of the Basidiomycotina within the past decade or so with the exception of genetics and compatibility, which have recently been reviewed in several other works. A problem we have not been able to solve satisfactorily is the one of vocabulary. Each discipline tends to develop its own language as it becomes increasingly specialized, with time becoming unintelligible to the majority. We have tried to alleviate this problem of terms but can not claim to have been completely successful. We are indebted to a great many people, but especially to the contributors. They have been most patient and cooperative throughout."

Early approaches towards an understanding of transport at the tonoplast of higher plant cells were based on the kinetics of radio-isotope uptake (Torii and Laties. 1966) and exchange (Pitman, 1963). A variety of other methods became available in due course (reviewed by Clarkson and Luttge, 1984). But even with the most modern developments, the function of. the tonoplast remained in the dark. On the basis of Hitchell's chemiosmotic $heory (Hitchell, 1967), mechanisms of membrane-bound H -translocating ATPases and H -solute co-transport were conceived for the plasmalemma of fungi and plants, based on experiments with intact tissues, cells or protoplasts . With the onset of the era of membrane fractionation it seemed obvious that plasmalemma and tonoplast vlould cause the greatest problems due to the apparent lack of intrinsic markers. Again the situation for the plasmalemma appeared to be favorable; the periodic-phosphotungstic-acid reagent was considered as a specific stain. There was also the opportunity to bind externally applied markers to the plasmalemma prior to cell homogenization. Vacuoles were initially considered as compartments for intracellular excretion or at best as storage compart- ments, but were later understood to have important dynamic functions in cell physiology as a lytic compart- ment comparable to animal lysosomes (Hatile, 1966). The dynamics of molecular functions of the tonoplast itself remained obscure, however, with one exception. Hotivated by the search for a better understanding of latex production by the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis Hull. -Arg.

Although long known as a parasite of medical and veterinary importance, interest in Toxoplasma gondii has increased with its emergence as a major cause of death in immunosuppressed individuals, and with recognition of its suitability as a model system for molecular and cellular investigations of apicomplexan parasites. The NATO workshop brought together 32 scientists working in different areas of toxoplasmosis research to gain an overview of progress in the field. Molecular studies have been carried out on genomic and extrachromosomal DNA. They reveal that Toxoplasma is very highly conserved, genetic mapping is underway and preliminary linkage analysis suggests recombination is rare; moreover all virulent strains share the same isoenzyme markers and are seen to be essentially clonal by RFLP analysis [Boothroyd, Darde, Wilson]. Despite considerable structural homology between Toxoplasma and related apicomplexan parasites there is little direct overlap in gene sequence data. Good progress has been made in cloning functional genes and in elucidation of PI anchors [Cesbron-Delauw, Johnson, Mercereau-Puijalon, Striepen]. The structure of molecules on the surface and within dense granules, rhoptries and micronemes has in some cases been determined and provides clues as to the targetting and function of these proteins.

The Seventh Symposium on Ocular and Visual Development was held in October, 1982. The aim of the meeting was to develop a broad perspective on visual acuity. The subject was discussed initially in terms of molecular events of photoreception, and the metabolism of the photoreceptor ele ments. Subsequent papers presented the development and complexity of the neurocircuitry and transmitter systems in the retina that process the visual information prior to transfer to the brain. The meeting concluded with a series of papers on behavioral and physiological methods of mea surement of visual acuity in humans, particularly young children. This volume arose from the papers presented at the meeting. We feel that the juxtaposition of research of broadly differing methodologies will be stim ulating, rather than daunting, and will generate an enhanced understand ing of this complex subject. We are indebted to our colleagues: Dr. M. Mote from Temple University, and Drs. J. Siegfried, P. Dayhaw-Barker, and L. Press from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry for their expertise and assistance in the organization of the meeting; to the speakers for their presentations and contributions to this volume; and to the reviewers of the manuscripts for their helpful comments. This symposium could not have been held without the generous support of the Temple University College of Arts and Sciences and the Pennsyl vania College of Optometry. We also thank Merck, Sharp and Dohme, Inc. for their donation."

This volume comprises the lectures of the speakers at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop held at the Congress Centre The Flevohof at Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands, May 11-16, 1986. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together experts in symbiosis, plant pathology and plant molecular biology in order to discuss recent progress in the field of microbe -plant re cognition at the molecular level, to promote integration of various disciplines, and to define recommendations for future research and applications. Plants have developed a variety of sophisticated defence mechanisms to cope with an environment in which many different microbes live. Most microbes which colonize plant tissues are harmless. Some microbes have developed ways to attack plants successfully, resulting in enormous losses of crop yields. Other microbes have reached an agreement with the host plant which is beneficial for both: these microbes live in symbiosis with the plant and provide their host plant for example with substantial amounts of atmospheric nitrogen. Chemical protection of crops is a necessity in modern crop management but this treatment has some negative effects as well. Therefore scientists are looking for alternative, biological, ways to control crop pests. Against this background specialists from eleven countries discussed the results of their most recent work on the molecular background of microbe -plant interactions. It appeared that, in order to capitalize the recent rapid progress made in the mole cular genetical studies on Rhizobium-legume and pathogen-host plant interactions, a multidisciplinary approach is required."

Expression of an immune response is the net result of complex synergis tic and antagonistic activities performed by a variety of cell types. It includes macrophages, T and B populations which may interact in performance of a response, and suppressor cells interfering with it. Accordingly, a lack of res ponse may not necessarily indicate absence of immunocompetent cells, but rather nonexpression of competence. Thus, one should consider two possible situations, which are by no means mutually exclusive, to account for immuno logic unresponsiveness: (a) one or more of the cell populations composing the synergistic unit is absent or immature, and (b) an antagonistic unit which interferes with the response is dominating. In view of this, an approach to development of immune reactivity necessitates parallel surveys of development of cells with the potential to perform, as well as of cells which can suppress the response. Classification of the various cell types has been based so far on their phenotypic properties (e. g., membrane antigen markers, cell receptors, pro duction and secretion of immunoglobulins, etc. ). Genotypically, T and B cells may represent either separate, independent cell lines, or different stages of development within the same cell lineage."

1.1 Classification of Togaviruses The family, Togaviridae, is composed of the alphaviruses, the flaviviruses, rubella (a rubivirus), and the pestiviruses (Fenner, 1976). Of these four genera, two (the alpha- and flaviviruses) are transmitted by blood-sucking arthropods, specif ically mosquitoes and ticks. Among the togaviruses, extensive studies of defective interfering (DI) particles have so far been carried out only with Sindbis virus (SV) and Semliki Forest virus (SFV), both members of the alphavirus genus. Since these viruses are so similar, in most cases it will be assumed that what is true of one is also true of the other. 1.2 Definition of Defective Interfering (DI) Particles Defective interfering viral particles, as defined by Huang (1973), have the follow ing properties: (1) they are deletion mutants and therefore lack large amounts of the genetic material present in the standard virus; (2) they contain the same viral structural proteins as standard virus; (3) they are unable to replicate alone; however, they are replicated in cells co-infected with standard virions; and (4) at the same time as they require standard virus to replicate, they inhibit the replication of standard virus and hence are interfering."