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Article
Animal and human RNA viruses: genetic variability and ability to overcome vaccines
RNA viruses, in general, exhibit high mutation rates; this is mainly due to the low fidelity displayed by the RNA-dependent polymerases required for their replication that lack the proofreading machinery to co...
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Chapter
Genetics and Biochemistry of Sporulation in Endospore-Forming Bacteria (Bacillus): A Prime Example of Developmental Biology
The development of spores represents one of the main morphogenetic processes in spore-forming bacterial groups, involving more than 150 genes and a variety of sigma factors. These factors control not only the ...
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Chapter
The Gut Microbiome Affects Human Mood and Behavior
Gut microbiota, including bacteria, have been recently recognized to influence, not just human health, but also mood and behavior. The microorganisms can either produce or degrade chemical compounds involved i...
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Chapter
The Incredible Path of Myxobacteria Towards Aggregative Multicellularity
When reviewing developmental biology, it is imperative to mention the main prokaryote model for the study of mechanisms involved in cell growth, cell differentiation and morphogenesis, Myxobacteria. These Gram...
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Chapter
Effects of Cyanobacterial Metabolites on Other Bacterial Phyla and in the Morphogenesis, Viability, and Biochemistry of Eukaryotes
Prokaryotes were the earliest life forms on Earth but, although they originated an estimated 2 billion years before eukaryotic cells, both prokaryotes and eukaryotes share the same basic molecular mechanisms, ...
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Article
Prokaryotic sigma factors and their transcriptional counterparts in Archaea and Eukarya
RNA polymerases (RNAPs) carry out transcription in the three domains of life, Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Transcription initiation is highly regulated by a variety of transcription factors, whose number and s...
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Chapter
Horizontal Gene Transfer in Bacteria, an Overview of the Mechanisms Involved
Bacterial transformation, transduction, and “conjugation” can be considered the first horizontal transfer mechanisms in living organisms; these mechanisms have occurred since the origin of bacteria and are sti...
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Chapter
Horizontal Gene Transfer Between Bacteriophages and Bacteria: Antibiotic Resistances and Toxin Production
Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are ubiquitous among microorganisms living in a wide variety of environments and can be detected by several molecular techniques. Similarly, toxins and genes encoding toxins ...
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Article
A short voyage into the past: former misconceptions and misinterpretations in the etiology of some viral diseases
The advancement of human knowledge has historically followed the pattern of one-step growth (the same pattern followed by microorganisms in laboratory culture conditions). In this way, each new important disco...
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Article
Cell aggregations in yeasts and their applications
Yeasts can display four types of cellular aggregation: sexual, flocculation, biofilm formation, and filamentous growth. These cell aggregations arise, in some yeast strains, as a response to environmental or p...
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Article
Loss of a clinical attachment level in a child: differential diagnosis with aggressive periodontitis. Case report
Describes medial diastema aetiology, and the right time to correct it.
A foreign body in the periodontal sp...
