Dormancy and Low Growth States in Microbial Disease

All cellular life-forms can exist in replicating and non-replicating states. Organisms replicate only when the conditions are beneficial, and when not replicating they concentrate on survival of these environmental stresses. Many bacteria, harmful to humans, survive the period of infection in a low growth state. This book addresses the basic science of microbial dormancy and low growth states, putting this in the context of human medicine. Such fundamental topics as bacterial growth and non-growth, culturability and viability are covered, as well as survival of the host’s immune response, and inter-bacterial signalling. Following this introduction, more medically-focused topics are discussed, namely antibiotic resistance arising during stationary phase, biofilms, the bacteria which cause gastric ulcers and tuberculosis as the classic persistent bacterial infection. This book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in medical microbiology, immunology and infectious disease medicine who are interested in bacterial dormancy in relation to disease.

Spis treści:
Introduction
1. Physiological and molecular aspects of growth, non-growth, culturability and viability in bacteria Mike Barer
2. Survival of environmental and host-associated stress Petra Dersch and Regine Hengge-Aronis
3. Surviving the immune response, an immunologists perspective David R. Katz and Gabriele Pollara
4. Quantitative and qualitative changes in bacterial activity controlled by interbacterial signaling Simon Swift
5. Mechanisms of stationary-phase mutagenesis in bacteria and their relevance to antibiotic resistance Digby F. Warner and Valerie Mizrahi
6. Dormancy, biofilms and resistance Anthony W. Smith and Michael R. W. Brown
7. Tuberculosis Yanmin Hu and Anthony R. M. Coates
8. Gastritis and peptic ulceration Stewart Goodwin
9. Resumption of yeast cell proliferation from stationary phase Gerald C. Johnston
10. Resting state in seeds of higher plants
dormancy, persistence and resilience to abiotic and biotic stresses Hugh W. Pritchard.