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Book Review
Structural Biology of Bacterial
Pathogenesis
Gabriel Waksman, Michael Caparon, and Scott Hultgren, editors
American Society for Microbiology Press, Washington, DC, 2005
ISBN: 1555813011
Pages: 326; Price: US $115.95
Suggested
citation for this article
Research into the pathogenesis of microbial infections has a long and
fruitful history, rich with elucidation of mechanisms that have resulted
in better treatments and new strategies for vaccine development. Stanley
Falkow's investigations into the intimate relationships between bacteria
and host cells followed his comment that, "The microbe is just trying
to make a living." Structural Biology of Bacterial Pathogenesis,
by Gabriel Waksman, Michael Caparon, and Scott Hultgren, is a state-of-the-art
treatise describing the known molecular mechanisms by which bacterial
pathogens actively probe, sense, and respond to their environment through
2-component systems and through sigma and anti-sigma factors. In addition,
the authors describe in great detail the recognition of host receptors
by pili and the pilus biogenesis by chaperon-user pathways. The chapter
on the role of sortases on surface expression of surface proteins among
gram-positive bacteria is comprehensive and well written. Four excellent
chapters describe 6 secretion systems among bacterial pathogens and elucidate
the specific mechanisms by which bacterial pathogens usurp intracellular
mechanisms of the host cell.
This book is enjoyable to read, is extensively referenced, and has 52
superb structural models in full color, based in part on x-ray crystallography.
Unfortunately, these plates are all in 1 section and require the reader
to page back and forth from specific chapters to the "core color
plates." This book is not a compendium of bacterial toxins and virulence
factors but rather a selection of molecular mechanisms of host-parasite
interaction. This is a unique book that will be a valuable asset for researchers
in the field of pathogenesis, graduate students, faculty who teach microbial
pathogenesis, biotech companies, and pharmaceutical companies involved
in antimicrobial drug or vaccine development.
The sophisticated molecular mechanisms that pathogenic bacteria have
developed through their evolution with the human host, as described in
this book, are credible evidence that our adversaries, the microbes, are
doing better than "just making a living."
Dennis Stevens*
*Veterans Administration Medical Center, Boise, Idaho, USA
Suggested citation
for this article:
Stevens D. Structural
biology of bacterial pathogenesis [book review]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial
on the Internet]. 2006 Feb [date cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no02/05-1390.htm
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