Advances in Botanical Research publishes in-depth and up-to-date reviews on a wide range of topics in plant sciences. Currently in its 75th volume, the series features several reviews by recognized experts on all aspects of plant genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, physiology, and ecology.

Current and Emerging Technologies in Microbial Diagnostics, the latest volume in the Methods in Microbiology series, provides comprehensive, cutting-edge reviews of current and emerging technologies in the field of clinical microbiology. The book features a wide variety of state-of-the art methods and techniques for the diagnosis and management of microbial infections, with chapters authored by internationally renowned experts. This volume focuses on current techniques, such as MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy and molecular diagnostics, along with newly emerging technologies such as host-based diagnostics and next generation sequencing.

Antimicrobial Resistance and Food Safety: Methods and Techniques introduces antimicrobial resistant food-borne pathogens, their surveillance and epidemiology, emerging resistance and resistant pathogens. This analysis is followed by a systematic presentation of currently applied methodology and technology, including advanced technologies for detection, intervention, and information technologies. This reference can be used as a practical guide for scientists, food engineers, and regulatory personnel as well as students in food safety, food microbiology, or food science.

This book describes the various techniques for nondestructive quality assessment of fruits and vegetables. It covers the methods, measurements, operation principles, procedures, data analysis, and applications for implementing these techniques. The book presents the details of nondestructive approaches focusing on the present-day trends and existing future opportunities in the fresh food supply chain. First, it overviews different nondestructive techniques in food quality detection. Then it presents nondestructive methods: monochrome computer vision, imaging techniques, biospeckle laser technique, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, Raman spectroscopy, near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, X-ray computed tomography, ultrasound, acoustic emission, chemometrics, electronic nose and tongue. Selected applications of each method are also introduced. As a result, readers gain a better understanding of how to use nondestructive methods and technologies to detect the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables. With a wide range of interesting topics, the book will benefit readers including postharvest & food scientists/technologists, industry personnel and researchers involved in fresh produce quality detection. The book can also serve as a readily accessible reference material for postgraduate students.

This volume details methods and procedures used to detect and enumerate bacteria in food. Chapters guide readers through food and beverage matrices, techniques used to enumerate bacteria, mixed bacterial strains (naturally present or inoculated), yeast, viruses, protozoan in distinct food matrices, and freshwater. Authoritative and cutting-edge, Detection and Enumeration of Bacteria, Yeast, Viruses, and Protozoan in Foods and Freshwater aims to provide a basic understanding on detection and enumeration of microorganisms in foods.

This volume of Advances in Microbial Physiology continues the long tradition of topical and important reviews in microbiology

With one volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences.
The present volume includes reviews on genetics, cell biology, physiology, comparative morphology, ecology and vegetation science.

Brewing Microbiology discusses the microbes that are essential to successful beer production and processing, and the ways they can pose hazards in terms of spoilage and sensory quality. The text examines the properties and management of these microorganisms in brewing, along with tactics for reducing spoilage and optimizing beer quality. It opens with an introduction to beer microbiology, covering yeast properties and management, and then delves into a review of spoilage bacteria and other contaminants and tactics to reduce microbial spoilage. Final sections explore the impact of microbiology on the sensory quality of beer and the safe management and valorisation of brewing waste.

Yeasts are a versatile group of eukaryotic microorganisms, exhibiting heterogeneous nutritional profiles and an extraordinary ability to survive in a wide range of natural and man-associated ecosystems, including cold habitats. Cold-adapted yeasts inhabit numerous low-temperature environments where they are subjected to seasonal or permanent cold conditions. Hence, they have evolved a number of adaptation strategies with regard to growth and reproduction, metabolic activities, survival and protection. Due to their distinctive ability to thrive successfully at low and even subzero temperatures, cold-adapted yeasts are increasingly attracting attention in basic science and industry for their enormous biotechnological potential.

This book presents our current understanding of the diversity and ecology of cold-adapted yeasts in worldwide cold ecosystems, their adaptation strategies, and their biotechnological significance. Special emphasis is placed on the exploitation of cold-adapted yeasts as a source of cold-active enzymes and biopolymers, as well as their benefits for food microbiology, bioremediation and biocontrol. Further, aspects of food biodeterioration are considered.

This book focuses on agricultural waste treatment and renewable energy production from the perspective of anaerobic digestion. It covers topics on anaerobic digestion processes and practices in various types of biogas plant construction and management and systematically addresses the principle and main features of three kinds of anaerobic digestion systems: household digesters, biogas septic tanks, and biogas plants. Instructive, informative and easy to understand, the book offers a valuable asset for researchers, technicians, graduate students and managerial personnel working in the areas of renewable energy, agricultural ecological engineering and the treatment and utilization of agricultural wastes.

Sebacinales have emerged as a fascinating order with mutualistic plant-fungal symbionts that consists of exclusively beneficial fungi.

This volume of Soil Biology presents an overview of the current results in Sebacinales research with a focus on the potential of these fungi in crop improvement and stress tolerance. The authors demonstrate that Sebacinales are not only extremely versatile in their associations with roots, but are also almost universally present as symptomless endophytes. With this extraordinary diversity, Sebacinales with the key fungus "Piriformospora indica" might possess remarkable significance in natural ecosystems. Their biotechnological applications are expected to improve the quality of crops while maintaining ecologically and economically sustainable production systems.

This book provides a comprehensive description of theories and applications of high-solid and multi-phase bioprocess engineering, which is considered as an important way to address the challenges of "high energy consumption, high pollution and high emissions" in bio-industry. It starts from specifying the solid-phase matrix properties that contribute to a series of "solid effects" on bioprocess, including mass transfer restrictions in porous media, water binding effects, rheological changes. Then it proposes the new principles of periodic intensification which combines the normal force and physiologic characteristics of microorganism for the bioprocess optimization and scale-up. Further breakthroughs in key periodic intensification techniques such as periodic peristalsis and gas pressure pulsation are described in detail which provide an industrialization platform and lay the foundation for high-solid and multi-phase bioprocess engineering. This book offers an excellent reference and guide for scientists and engineers engaged in the research on both the theoretical and practical aspects of high-solid and multi-phase bioprocess.

The COVID-19 pandemic that swept the planet in the early 2020s killed more than six million, delivered unimaginable human suffering and $22 trillion in lost global growth. We weren't prepared and should have been.Unraveling the secrets of microbes, an invisible parallel universe of tiny life forms all around us, is central to managing the big twenty-first-century challenges of pandemics, bioterrorism, food security and climate change. Scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs and political leaders are racing to decode this biological realm with powerful new tools to extend human lifespans and make the world safer and more prosperous. Yet such technologies need to be handled with care. The price of getting this wrong will be unbearable.Man Versus Microbe is about humanity's competitive, symbiotic and precarious relationship with the microbial world. Brian Bremner (Senior Executive Editor, Bloomberg) offers a book on the exhilarating fields of synthetic biology and genetics, abundant with material on emerging technologies to deepen one's understanding of how virus hunters chase bugs or how geneticists unlock the workings of a microbe's constituent DNA. This book is for readers who want to learn more about humanity's fight to contain future pandemics and better understand the risks and opportunities of living in the world of microbes. After navigating through a disruptive pandemic, we are all amateur epidemiologists now.

The Argentinean Patagonia offers a great diversity of scarcely explored environments suitable for the bioprospection of biotechnological relevant microorganisms. This book provides readers with a concise and clearly illustrated treatment of outstanding topics of Patagonian microbiology and biotechnology. It covers a wide range of areas interesting to several audiences such as researchers, graduate students and professionals working on the industry food. Among the main topics we will discuss examples of environmental applications, such as heavy metal and hydrocarbon bioremediation, bioprospection of valuable molecules from extremophilic bacteria and yeasts, the use of Patagonian yeasts and lactic acid bacteria in fermented foods and beverages, aquaculture probiotics and yeasts for food biopreservation.

Interest in the field of microbial toxins is ever growing and spreading across a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines." "In an effort to supplement the available reference texts on toxins, "Microbial Toxins: Methods and Protocols" includes protocols on mold fungus toxins, with some focus on aflatoxins. Intended to support a wide variety of researchers, "Microbial Toxins: Methods and Protocols "presents the reader with biological, chemical, physical, and medical approaches, as well as state-of-the-art research techniques. Divided into three convenient sections, this detailed volume covers bacterial protein toxins, endotoxins, and mold fungus toxins. Written in the highly successful "Methods in Molecular Biology " series format, chapters contain introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and notes on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.

Authoritative and accessible, "Microbial Toxins: Methods and Protocols "seeks to serve both professionals and novices with its well-honed methodologies in an effort to further our knowledge of this essential field.

Nanotechnology progresses its concerts and suitability by improving its effectiveness, security and also reducing the impact and risk. Various chapters in this book are written by eminent scientists and prominent researchers in the field of nanotechnology across the world. This book is focused to put emerging techniques forward using nanoparticles for safe and nutritional food production, protecting crops from pests, increasing nutritional value and providing solutions for various environmental issues. The outcome of this book creates a path for wide usage of nanoparticles in food, agriculture and the environment fields. This book has clear and simple illustrations, tables and case studies to understand the content even by non-experts. This book especially deals with the nanotechnology for controlling plant pathogens, food packaging and preservation, agricultural productivity, waste water treatment and bioenergy production. Hence, this book can be adopted and used by many researchers and academicians in the fields of food, agriculture, environment and nanotechnology for catering the needs of sustainable future. The salient features of this book are * Describes nanotechnology as an interdisciplinary and emerging field in life sciences* Useful for researchers in the cutting edge life science related fields of nanoscience, nanobiology and nanotechnology* Deal with various problems in food, agriculture and environmental sector for sustainable solutions through the application of nanotechnology* Supported with illustrations in color, tables and case studies (wherever applicable), and * Contributed and well written by nanotechnology experts from across various disciplines

In the pursuit of technological advancement in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries to counteract health issues, bacterial infections remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The ability of bacterial pathogens to form biofilms further agglomerates the situation by showing resistance to conventional antibiotics. To overcome this serious issue, bioactive metabolites and other natural products were exploited to combat bacterial infections and biofilm-related health consequences. Natural products exhibited promising results in vitro, however; their efficacy in in vivo conditions remain obscured due to their low-solubility, bioavailability, and biocompatibility issues. In this scenario, nanotechnological interventions provide a multifaceted platform for targeted delivery of bioactive compounds by slow and sustained release of drug-like compounds. The unique physico-chemical properties, biocompatibility and eco-friendly nature of bioinspired nanostructures has revolutionized the field of biology to eradicate microbial infections and biofilm-related complications. The green-nanotechnology based metal and metal oxide nanoparticles and polymeric nanoparticles have been regularly employed for antimicrobial and antibiofilm applications without causing damage to host tissues. The implications of these nanoparticles toward achieving sustainability in agriculture by providing systemic resistance against a variety of phytopathogens therefore plays crucial role in growth and crop productivity. Also the advent of smart and hybrid nanomaterials such as metal-based polymer nanocomposites, lipid-based nanomaterials and liposomes have the inherent potential to eradicate bacterial biofilm-related infections in an efficient manner. The recent development of carbon-based nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and silica based nanomaterials such as mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) also exploit a target of dreadful healthcare conditions such as cancer, immunomodulatory diseases, and microbial infections, as well as biofilm-related issues owing to their stability profile, biocompatibility, and unique physio-chemical properties. Recently novel physical approaches such as photothermal therapy (PTT) and antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) also revolutionized conventional strategies and are engaged in eradicating microbial biofilm-related infections and related health consequences. These promising advancements in the development of novel strategies to treat microbial infections and biofilm-related multidrug resistance (MDR) phenomenon may provide new avenues and aid to conventional antimicrobial therapeutics.

Interest in biofilms has increased dramatically in recent years. New microscopic and molecular techniques have revolutionized our understanding of biofilm structure, composition, organization and activities. This book brings advances in the prevention and treatment of biofilm-related diseases to the attention of clinicians and medical researchers. Human tissues often support complex microbial communities growing as biofilms that can cause infections. As microbes in biofilms exhibit increased tolerance towards anti-microbial agents and decreased susceptibility to host defense systems, biofilm-associated diseases have become increasingly difficult to treat.

This book provides excellent techniques for detecting and evaluating biofilms: sticky films on materials that are formed by bacterial activity and produce a range of industrial and medical problems such as corrosion, sanitary problems, and infections. Accordingly, it is essential to control biofilms and to establish appropriate countermeasures, from both industrial and medical viewpoints. This book offers valuable, detailed information on these countermeasures. It also discusses the fundamentals of biofilms, relates various substrates to biofilms, and presents a variety of biofilm reactors. However, the most important feature of this book (unlike others on the market) is its clear focus on addressing the practical aspects from an engineering viewpoint. Therefore, it offers an excellent practical guide for engineers and researchers in various fields, and can also be used as a great academic textbook.

New research, outbreaks of foodborne disease and changes to legislation mean that food microbiology research is constantly evolving. Advances in microbial food safety: Volume 1 summarises the key trends in this area for the food industry.
The book begins with an introductory chapter discussing food safety management systems from the past to the present day and looking to future directions. The book moves on to provide updates on specific pathogens including Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and Bacillus species. New developments in the area are explored with chapters on emerging parasites in food, advances in separation and concentration of microorganisms from food samples, new approaches in microbial pathogen detection, and an update on novel methods for pathogen control in livestock preharvest.
With its distinguished editor and international team of expert contributors, Advances in microbial food safety: Volume 1 is a standard reference for researchers, consultants and managers in the food industry responsible for food safety, analytical laboratories testing the safety of the food we eat, and researchers in academia working on food microbial safety.
Summarises new research, outbreaks of foodborne disease and changes to legislation in food microbiology researchExamines past, present and future food safety management systemsProvides updates on specific pathogens including Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and Bacillus species

The book covers different techniques and methodologies involved in the nutritional quality analysis of forages. It also discusses the nutritional quality, anti-nutritional components, factors affecting forage quality, feed processing and conservation. Different techniques and methodologies have been presented in a simplified manner. The book has been divided in separate chapters and each chapter discusses different aspect of forage quality. Further, the book also covers the topics on conservation and processing of forages and management techniques for improving the forage nutritional quality. This book is an essential source of information for research scholars, post-graduate students and scientists working on forage quality estimation and also in livestock and dairy industries.

This third book in the Trilogy of Traditional Foods, part of the ISEKI Food Series, covers the beneficial properties of functional foods from across the world. The volume is divided into four sections that address different key topics in the area of study. Part I provides a general overview of the material, with chapters on functional aspects of antioxidants and probiotics in traditional food. This section also includes chapters on the potential health benefits of Thai, Slovak and Turkish traditional foods. Part II contains eight chapters on cereal-based foods, including chapters on Carob flour, products from Mexican Chia, and the ancient grain Canahua. Part III is devoted to plant based foods and includes chapters on dates from Israel, medical properties of cactus products from Mexico, beneficial properties of Mastic gum from the Greek island Chios, and the properties of Argan oil from Morocco. Part IV focuses on Honey and Beverages, with chapters on functional and nutritional properties of honey and the properties of Camellia tea, as well as the Spanish drink Horchata De Chufa. The purpose of the book is to describe and sometimes evaluate properties of foods that native consumers have believed to be beneficial. All chaptersare written by practicing Food Scientists or Engineers but are written with the interested general public in mind.The book should cater to the practicing food professional as well as all who are interested in beneficial properties of traditional foods.

The edited book brings out a comprehensive synthesis of latest scientific literature covering various important aspects of anaerobic biodigesters for human waste management that ranges from latest understanding on fundamental concepts/mechanisms of anaerobic biodigestion, modern tools and techniques used in process evaluation, current strategies being recruited for the performance enhancement, and case studies/ success stories across the world on applications of biodigesters used in human waste treatment. The anaerobic biodigestion is a process of break-down of organic waste by anaerobic microorganisms in absence of the oxygen. This process has been conventionally used for treating various types of organic waste including sewage sludge. After optimizing various process parameters, researchers have developed anaerobic biodigesters that have been successfully used for human waste (nigh soil) treatment. The topic of human waste treatment assumes global significance in the wake of UN sustainable Development Goals (SDG) wherein SDG-6 specifically highlights the Sanitation for all by 2030. The anaerobic Biodigester technology has the potential to manage the human waste as well and can contribute immensely in achieving targets of UN-SDG-6. This book is of interest to researchers, academicians, scientists, policy officials and capacity builders. Also the book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of environmental Biotechnology. National and international biotechnologists, environmental engineers and sanitation experts also find this to be a useful read.

This book is devoted to alkaliphiles, their microbiology, biotechnological applications and adaptive mechanisms. Alkaliphiles are extremophilic organisms that are adapted to thrive in alkaline environments. Over the years, a wide variety of alkaliphiles belonging to domain Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya have been isolated and studied. These organisms use various adaptive mechanisms to thrive in 'extreme' alkaline environments, and some of these adaptive mechanisms are of immense importance to a range of biotechnological applications. In this book, readers will learn about the adaptive strategies of alkaliphiles in colonizing alkaline habitats, with a main focus on: (1) the production of enzymes that are active and stable in the high pH environment, and (2) the production of acids that decrease the pH of their immediate surrounding environment. Enzymes that are operationally stable at high pH (also known as alkaline active enzymes) are desirable in several applications such as detergent formulating and leather tanning processes, and they are among the major selling enzymes and the most important industrial enzymes. The growing demand in many existing and emerging biotechnological applications led to the discovery, characterization, engineering and evaluation of diverse types of alkaline active enzymes. In addition to the use of these fascinating enzymes in biotechnological applications, readers will discover the mechanisms of action and stability of these enzymes at extreme pH. Studies have shown that some alkaliphiles decrease the severity of the high pH of their media by producing substantial amount of organic acids, which could be of great interest in various applications presented in this book. In addition to enzymes and organic acids, other products of biotechnological importance such as carotenoids, bioactive substances, and chelators have also attracted researchers' attention. Whole-cells of alkaliphiles have been used as food and feed, and are also useful in environmental applications such as in waste treatment and construction.

"Hydrogenosomes and Mitosomes: Mitochondria of Anaerobic Eukaryotes" provides a summary of the current knowledge of these organelles which occur in unicellular, often parasitic organisms, including human pathogens. These organelles exhibit a variety of structures and functions. This work describes properties such as protein import, structure, metabolism, adaptation, proteome and their role in drug activation and resistance. Further topics include organelle evolution and biogenesis.