Current rates of tuberculosis, Hanson's Disease (leprosy) and the buruli ulcer (also known as the Bairnsdale ulcer) have increased the importance of studies of mycobacteria. These nine articles describe research in mycobacteria's genomics and molecular biology, and the application of this research to preventative measures and treatments. Topics include mycobacteria strain variation and evolution, hyper viral and mycobacterium tuberculosis, electron transport and respiration in mycobacteria, novel paradigms of complex lipid biosynthetic mycobacterium tuberculosis, repair of DNA,, oxygen nitric oxide and carbon monoxide signaling, sulfur metabolism in mycobacteria, the eukaryotic-like serine/threonine protein kinase family, and specialized proteins secretion systems of mycobacteria. Although mycobacteria are notoriously difficult to study and the availability of genetic manipulation techniques still lags far behind that of more tractable bacterial species, many of the articles here describe investigation methods that others can adapt to similar projects. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation 2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
