The living soil is crucial to photosynthesis, biogeochemical cycles, global food production, climate change, biodiversity, and plant and animal health. In the past decade, scientists have made significant advances in soil microbiology research. While the basic principles are now better understood, knowledge has been forthcoming on the best available technologies and methods applied to researching soil microorganisms, their diversity, interactions, biochemistry, survival, gene expression, and their roles in global climate change, plant disease suppression and growth stimulation, and biogeochemical cycles. This knowledge can be applied to better predict the transformation of pollutants in soil and the activities of microbes in the rhizosphere. It will also assist us in fostering crop production in an era with an increasing human population and intensification of agriculture. Following the tradition of its predecessors, Modern Soil Microbiology, Third Edition, is an indispensable source that supports graduate/undergraduate teaching for soil and environmental microbiologists in academia, as well as in government and industrial laboratories. It is a comprehensive collection of chapters on various aspects of soil microbiology, useful for all professionals working with soils. Compiled by internationally renowned educators and research scholars, this textbook contains key tables, figures, and photographs, supported by thousands of references to illustrate the depth of knowledge in soil microbiology. FEATURES Fully updated and expanded to include new key chapters on historical developments, future applications, and soil viruses and proteins Discusses molecular methods applied to soil microbiology, diverse soil microorganisms, and global climate change Emphasizes the role of terrestrial microorganisms and cycles involved in climate change Details the latest molecular methods applied to soil microbiology research User-friendly for students, and containing numerous tables, figures, and illustrations to better understand the current knowledge in soil microbiology

For a long time microbial ecology has been developed as a distinct field within Ecology. In spite of the important role of microorganisms in the environment, this group of 'invisible' organisms remained unaccessable to other ecologists. Detection and identification of microorganisms remain largely dependent on isolation techniques and characterisation of pure cul tures. We now realise that only a minor fraction of the microbial com munity can be cultivated. As a result of the introduction of molecular methods, microbes can now be detected and identified at the DNA/RNA level in their natural environment. This has opened a new field in ecology: Molecular Microbial Ecology. In the present manual we aim to introduce the microbial ecologist to a selected number of current molecular techniques that are relevant in micro bial ecology. The first edition of the manual contains 33 chapters and an equal number of additional chapters will be added this year. Since the field of molecular ecology is in a continuous progress, we aim to update and extend the Manual regularly and will invite anyone to depo sit their new protocols in full detail in the next edition of this Manual. We hope this book finds its place where it was born: at the lab bench! Antoon D.L. Akkermans, Jan Dirk van Elsas and Frans J. de Bruijn March 1995 Molecular Microbial Ecology Manual 1.3.6: 1-8, 1996. (c) 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

For a long time microbial ecology has been developed as a distinct field with in Ecology. In spite of the important role of microorganisms in the environ ment, this group of 'invisible' organisms remained unaccessable to other ecologists. Detection and identification of microorganisms remain largely dependent on isolation techniques and characterisation of pure cultures. We now realise that only a minor fraction of the microbial community can be cultivated. As a result of the introduction of molecular methods, microbes can now be detected and identified at the DNA/RNA level in their natural environment. This has opened a new field in ecology: Molecular Microbial Ecology. In the present manual we aim to introduce the microbial ecologist to a selected number of current molecular techniques that are relevant in micro bial ecology. The first edition of the manual contains 33 chapters and an equal number of additional chapters will be added this year. Since the field of molecular ecology is in a continuous progress, we aim to update and extend the Manual regularly and will invite anyone to deposit their new protocols in full detail in the next edition of this Manual.

The living soil is crucial to photosynthesis, biogeochemical cycles, global food production, climate change, biodiversity, and plant and animal health. In the past decade, scientists have made significant advances in soil microbiology research. While the basic principles are now better understood, knowledge has been forthcoming on the best available technologies and methods applied to researching soil microorganisms, their diversity, interactions, biochemistry, survival, gene expression, and their roles in global climate change, plant disease suppression and growth stimulation, and biogeochemical cycles. This knowledge can be applied to better predict the transformation of pollutants in soil and the activities of microbes in the rhizosphere. It will also assist us in fostering crop production in an era with an increasing human population and intensification of agriculture. Following the tradition of its predecessors, Modern Soil Microbiology, Third Edition, is an indispensable source that supports graduate/undergraduate teaching for soil and environmental microbiologists in academia, as well as in government and industrial laboratories. It is a comprehensive collection of chapters on various aspects of soil microbiology, useful for all professionals working with soils. Compiled by internationally renowned educators and research scholars, this textbook contains key tables, figures, and photographs, supported by thousands of references to illustrate the depth of knowledge in soil microbiology. FEATURES Fully updated and expanded to include new key chapters on historical developments, future applications, and soil viruses and proteins Discusses molecular methods applied to soil microbiology, diverse soil microorganisms, and global climate change Emphasizes the role of terrestrial microorganisms and cycles involved in climate change Details the latest molecular methods applied to soil microbiology research User-friendly for students, and containing numerous tables, figures, and illustrations to better understand the current knowledge in soil microbiology

Microbes are key drivers of the world's ecosystems. The vast majority of the world's diversity and metabolic potential lies within micro-organisms, yet we are just beginning to understand and utilize this ultimate resource of biological diversity. Critical to our exploration of the microbial world are methods that allow for the analysis of organisms that are invisible to our eyes, difficult to distinguish from each other, and often impossible to grow using available culture methods. The field of microbial ecology has been revolutionized in the past two decades by the introduction of molecular methods into the toolbox of the microbial ecologist. This molecular arsenal has helped to unveil the enormity of microbial diversity across the breadth of the earth's ecosystems, and has revealed that we are only familiar with a very small minority of the organisms that carry out key microbial functions in diverse habitats. The Molecular Microbial Ecology Manual, Second Edition (MMEM-II) provides a detailed and user-friendly description of the methods that have made this revolution in microbial ecology possible. However, what is perhaps most exciting about MMEM-II is that it contains a large number of new chapters, highlighting the newest trends in microbial ecology research, which seek to provide more quantitative and statistically robust data, and means of coupling microbial identity and function. In addition, the majority of the proven methods described in MMEM's first version have undergone significant revisions to provide the most up-to-date applications available. The state-of-the-art methods described in MMEM-II have not only been provided by experts in the field, but in most cases by the laboratories that actually first developed and applied the methods, thus providing the MMEM-II user with unique first-hand tips and insight. The new on-line format available for MMEM-II should also add to the utility of MMEM-II by allowing users to search for key topics throughout the manual, skip between interrelated chapters at the push of a button, and by providing immediate availability to protocol updates and new chapters dedicated to future technical developments.