Synopses & Reviews
Although they comprise one of the three fundamental branches of life, it was only the last decade that Archaea were formally recognized as a group alongside Eukaryotes and Bacteria. Bacteria-like in that they are single celled organisms that lack a nucleus and intracellular organelles, the Arachaea also share a large gene set typical of eukaryotes, for making and repairing DNA, RNA and protien. More surprisingly, they only inhabit environments typical of the extremes of early earth--hot springs, thermal ocean vents, saline lake, or oxygen deficient sediments. A breakpoint on the common evolutionary path, it is evident that the Archaea diverged early in the history of life, establishing thier importance in evolutionary sciences. Archaea: Ancient Microbes, Extreme Environments, and the Origin of Life tells this evolving story, furthering our understanding of the microbe commonalities, and providing for evolutionary justification in the use of archaea as mechanistic model systems.
Key Features
* Provides a unique and current summary of common subcellular mechanisms in archaea and eukaryotes
* Emphasizes the use of genomics to provide a biological context for understanding archaea
* Contrasts evolutionary studies on the fossil record with those on molecular phylogeny
* Includes extensive tables, graphs, images, drawings and other illustrations
* Simplifies the interdisciplinary challenge necessary to understand the significance of archaea
Synopsis
A conventional view delineates cellular life into only two basic types called prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The prokaryotes are further subdivided into the bacteria and the archaea, based on small subunit ribosomal RNA comparisons and conserved mechanisms for information processing. The study of archaeal prokaryotes has matured rapidly, in part initiated by genomic science as well as a continuing interest in the biochemistry and metabolism of extremophiles. This book presents an expanding pattern of new information relevant to both the general and the technical reader. It focuses on molecular biology and genomics, and topics include the biology of metals, redox chemistry, respiration, sugar catabolism, nucleic acid modification, DNA replication, repair and recombination, signal transduction, and transcriptomics. Throughout the well-referenced text, the emphasis is on emerging topics in specific fields providing the reader with a vision of the future in the expanding world of archaea. Th