by Georges N. Cohen

Microbial Biochemistry covers the principles of bacterial growth, as well as the description of the different layers that enclose the bacterial cytoplasm, and their role in obtaining nutrients from the outside media through different permeability mechanism described in detail. A chapter is devoted to allostery and is indispensable for the comprehension of many regulatory mechanisms described throughout the book. Another section analyses the mechanisms by which cells obtain the energy necessary for their growth, glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway, the tricarboxylic and the anaplerotic cycles.

Two chapters are devoted to classes of microorganisms rarely dealt with in textbooks, namely the Archaea, mainly the methanogenic bacteria, and the methylotrophs. The book also describes the principles of the regulations at the transcriptional level, with the necessary knowledge of the machineries of transcription and translation. There are chapters that deal with the biosynthesis of the cell building blocks, amino acids, purine and pyrimidine nucleotides and deoxynucleotides, water-soluble vitamins and coenzymes, isoprene and tetrapyrrole derivatives and vitamin B12.

And the two last chapters are devoted to the study of protein-DNA interactions and to the evolution of biosynthetic pathways. The considerable advances made in the last thirty years in the field by the introduction of gene cloning and sequencing and by the exponential development of physical methods such as X-ray crystallography or nuclear magnetic resonance have helped presenting metabolism under a multidisciplinary attractive angle.

Microbial Biochemistry is an outstanding reference for graduate students and researchers in Academia and industry.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Bacterial Growth
3. The Outer Membrane of Gram-negative Bacteria and the Cytoplasmic Membrane
4. Peptidoglycan Synthesis
5. Cellular Permeability
6. Allosteric Enzymes
7. Glycolysis, Gluconeogenesis and Glycogen Synthesis
8. The Pentose Phosphate and Entner-Doudoroff Pathways
9. The Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle and the Glyoxylate Bypass
10. Biosynthesis of Lipids
11. The Archaea
12. Methanogens and Methylotrophs
13. Enzymen Induction in Catabolic Systems
14. Transcription. RNA Polymerase
15. Negative Regulation
16. Enzyme Repression in Anabolic Pathways
17. Positive Regulation
18. The Ribosomes
19. The Genetic Code, the Transfer RNAs and the aminoacyl-tRNA-synthetases
20. Attenuation
21. The Biological Fixation of Nitrogen
22. How Biosynthetic Pathways Have Been Established
23. The Aspartic Acid Family of Amino Acids. Biosynthesis
24. Regulation of Biosynthesis of the Amino Acids of the Aspartic Acid Familiy in Enterobacteriaceae
25. Other Patterns of Regulation of the Synthesis of Amino Acids of the Aspartate Family
26. Biosynthesis of the Amino Acids of the Glutamic Acid Family and Its Regulation
27. Biosynthesis of Amino Acids Derived from Phosphoglyceric Acid and Pyruvic Acid
28. Selenocysteine and Selenoproteins
29. Biosynthesis of Aromatic Amino Acids and Its Regulation
30. The Biosynthesis of Histidine and Its Regulation
31. The Biosynthesis of Nucleotides
32. The Biosynthesis of Deoxyribonucleotides
33. Biosynthesis of Some Water-Soluble Vitamins and of their Coenzyme Forms
34. Biosynthesis of Carotene, Vitamin A, Sterols, Ubiquinones, and Menaquinones
35. Biosynthesis of the Tetrapyrrole Ring System
36. Biosynthesis of Cobalamins including Vitamin B₁₂
37. Interactions between Proteins and DNA
38. Evolution of Biosynthetic Pathways

Abbreviations
Subject Index

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