Horizontal Gene Pool

Horizontal Gene Pool PDF Author: Christopher M. Thomas
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0203304330
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
Bacteria are the most ubiquitous of all organisms. Responsible for a number of diseases and for many of the chemical cycles on which life depends, they are genetically adaptable. Vital to this adaptability is the existence of autonomous genetic elements-plasmids-which promote genetic exchange and recombination. The genes carried by any particular plasmid may be found in only a few individuals of any species but can also be shared with other species and thus constitute a horizontal gene pool. This book explains the various contributions that plasmids make to this pool: the replication, stable inheritance and transfer modules, the phenotypic markers they carry, the way they evolve, the ways they contribute to their host population and the approaches that we use to study and classify them. It also looks at what we know about their activity in natural communities and the way that they interact with other mobile elements to promote bacterial evolution.

Horizontal Gene Pool

Horizontal Gene Pool PDF Author: Christopher M. Thomas
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0203304330
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
Bacteria are the most ubiquitous of all organisms. Responsible for a number of diseases and for many of the chemical cycles on which life depends, they are genetically adaptable. Vital to this adaptability is the existence of autonomous genetic elements-plasmids-which promote genetic exchange and recombination. The genes carried by any particular plasmid may be found in only a few individuals of any species but can also be shared with other species and thus constitute a horizontal gene pool. This book explains the various contributions that plasmids make to this pool: the replication, stable inheritance and transfer modules, the phenotypic markers they carry, the way they evolve, the ways they contribute to their host population and the approaches that we use to study and classify them. It also looks at what we know about their activity in natural communities and the way that they interact with other mobile elements to promote bacterial evolution.

The Biology of Plasmids

The Biology of Plasmids PDF Author: David Summers
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444313738
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Plasmids are closed, circular pieces of DNA that are able to self-replicate and are carried by many bacteria. They provide unique functions for bacteria by allowing them to sexually replicate and to pass on genetic material between each other. Plasmids are also responsible for the genetic factors that give resistance to antibiotics, and provide the enzymes needed to break down poorly metabolised food resources. The author has provided an updated treatment of the structure, function and application of plasmids suitable for undergraduates and medical students. Employing an original teaching perspective--examining plasmids as living organisms with either a symbiotic or parasitic mode of survival--this text provides an important framework for understanding the structure and function of plasmids in an evolutionary context. The most up to date text on plasmids An innovative teaching perspective makes for easy student understanding Contains crucial chapters on the importance of plasmids for clinical and biological research

Mobile DNA III

Mobile DNA III PDF Author: Michael Chandler
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1555819214
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1347

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Book Description
An exploration of the raw power of genetic material to refashion itself to any purpose... Virtually all organisms contain multiple mobile DNAs that can move from place to place, and in some organisms, mobile DNA elements make up a significant portion of the genome. Mobile DNA III provides a comprehensive review of recent research, including findings suggesting the important role that mobile elements play in genome evolution and stability. Editor-in-Chief Nancy L. Craig assembled a team of multidisciplinary experts to develop this cutting-edge resource that covers the specific molecular mechanisms involved in recombination, including a detailed structural analysis of the enzymes responsible presents a detailed account of the many different recombination systems that can rearrange genomes examines the tremendous impact of mobile DNA in virtually all organisms Mobile DNA III is valuable as an in-depth supplemental reading for upper level life sciences students and as a reference for investigators exploring new biological systems. Biomedical researchers will find documentation of recent advances in understanding immune-antigen conflict between host and pathogen. It introduces biotechnicians to amazing tools for in vivo control of designer DNAs. It allows specialists to pick and choose advanced reviews of specific elements and to be drawn in by unexpected parallels and contrasts among the elements in diverse organisms. Mobile DNA III provides the most lucid reviews of these complex topics available anywhere.

The Pangenome

The Pangenome PDF Author: Hervé Tettelin
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030382818
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
This open access book offers the first comprehensive account of the pan-genome concept and its manifold implications. The realization that the genetic repertoire of a biological species always encompasses more than the genome of each individual is one of the earliest examples of big data in biology that opened biology to the unbounded. The study of genetic variation observed within a species challenges existing views and has profound consequences for our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underpinning bacterial biology and evolution. The underlying rationale extends well beyond the initial prokaryotic focus to all kingdoms of life and evolves into similar concepts for metagenomes, phenomes and epigenomes. The book’s respective chapters address a range of topics, from the serendipitous emergence of the pan-genome concept and its impacts on the fields of microbiology, vaccinology and antimicrobial resistance, to the study of microbial communities, bioinformatic applications and mathematical models that tie in with complex systems and economic theory. Given its scope, the book will appeal to a broad readership interested in population dynamics, evolutionary biology and genomics.

The Society of Genes

The Society of Genes PDF Author: Itai Yanai
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674425022
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Nearly four decades ago Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene, famously reducing humans to “survival machines” whose sole purpose was to preserve “the selfish molecules known as genes.” How these selfish genes work together to construct the organism, however, remained a mystery. Standing atop a wealth of new research, The Society of Genes now provides a vision of how genes cooperate and compete in the struggle for life. Pioneers in the nascent field of systems biology, Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher present a compelling new framework to understand how the human genome evolved and why understanding the interactions among our genes shifts the basic paradigm of modern biology. Contrary to what Dawkins’s popular metaphor seems to imply, the genome is not made of individual genes that focus solely on their own survival. Instead, our genomes comprise a society of genes which, like human societies, is composed of members that form alliances and rivalries. In language accessible to lay readers, The Society of Genes uncovers genetic strategies of cooperation and competition at biological scales ranging from individual cells to entire species. It captures the way the genome works in cancer cells and Neanderthals, in sexual reproduction and the origin of life, always underscoring one critical point: that only by putting the interactions among genes at center stage can we appreciate the logic of life.

Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants, Volume 1

Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants, Volume 1 PDF Author: Aditya Pratap
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461485851
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Genetic engineering and biotechnology along with conventional breeding have played an important role in developing superior cultivars by transferring economically important traits from distant, wild and even unrelated species to the cultivated varieties which otherwise could not have been possible with conventional breeding. There is a vast amount of literature pertaining to the genetic improvement of crops over last few decades. However, the wonderful results achieved by crop scientists in food legumes’ research and development over the years are scattered in different journals of the World. The two volumes in the series ‘Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants’ address this issue and offer a comprehensive reference on the developments made in major food crops of the world. These volumes aim at bringing the contributions from globally renowned scientists at one platform in a reader-friendly manner. The 1st volume entitled, ‘Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants: Innovations, Methods and Risk Assessment” will deal exclusively with the process and methodology. The contents of this volume have been designed to appraise the readers with all the theoretical and practical aspects of wide hybridization and gene transfer like processes and methods of gene transfer, role of biotechnology with special reference to embryo rescue, genetic transformation, protoplast fusion and molecular marker technology, problems such as cross incompatibility and barriers to distant hybridization and solutions to overcome them. Since wild and weedy relatives of crop plants may have negative traits associated with them, there are always possibilities of linkage drag while transferring alien alleles. Therefore, problems and limitations of alien gene transfer from these species will also be discussed in this series. Further, the associated risks with this and assessment of risks will also be given due weightage.

The Logic of Chance

The Logic of Chance PDF Author: Eugene V. Koonin
Publisher: FT Press
ISBN: 013262317X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 530

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Book Description
The Logic of Chance offers a reappraisal and a new synthesis of theories, concepts, and hypotheses on the key aspects of the evolution of life on earth in light of comparative genomics and systems biology. The author presents many specific examples from systems and comparative genomic analysis to begin to build a new, much more detailed, complex, and realistic picture of evolution. The book examines a broad range of topics in evolutionary biology including the inadequacy of natural selection and adaptation as the only or even the main mode of evolution; the key role of horizontal gene transfer in evolution and the consequent overhaul of the Tree of Life concept; the central, underappreciated evolutionary importance of viruses; the origin of eukaryotes as a result of endosymbiosis; the concomitant origin of cells and viruses on the primordial earth; universal dependences between genomic and molecular-phenomic variables; and the evolving landscape of constraints that shape the evolution of genomes and molecular phenomes. "Koonin's account of viral and pre-eukaryotic evolution is undoubtedly up-to-date. His "mega views" of evolution (given what was said above) and his cosmological musings, on the other hand, are interesting reading." Summing Up: Recommended Reprinted with permission from CHOICE, copyright by the American Library Association.

Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology

Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology PDF Author: W. Arber
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642461697
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description


Managing Global Genetic Resources

Managing Global Genetic Resources PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309131863
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
This anchor volume to the series Managing Global Genetic Resources examines the structure that underlies efforts to preserve genetic material, including the worldwide network of genetic collections; the role of biotechnology; and a host of issues that surround management and use. Among the topics explored are in situ versus ex situ conservation, management of very large collections of genetic material, problems of quarantine, the controversy over ownership or copyright of genetic material, and more.

Physician to the Gene Pool

Physician to the Gene Pool PDF Author: James V. Neel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
We witness the full horror of the nuclear devastation wreaked upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where he went as part of the first team to study the genetic effects of exposure to radiation. And we journey with him as, with wife Priscilla by his side, he travels deep into the Amazon basin to conduct his classic population studies of the Yanomama.