Plasmid Biology

provides a review of historical events and discoveries that have shaped research in plasmid biology; explores the rich diversity of plasmid form, function, and utility; covers basic biological processes, such as replication and inheritance functions, specific plasmid systems, plasmid evolution, and the use of plasmids as genetic tools; focuses on detailed descriptions of the varied plasmid systems occurring in nature.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents 1. Introduction to Plasmids: Selective View of Their History, Donald R. Helinski I. Plasmid Replication Systems 2. Participating Elements in the Replication of Iteron-Containing Plasmids, Ricardo Kruger, Sheryl A. Rakowski, and Marcin Filutowicz 3. Plasmid Replication Control by Antisense RNAs, Sabine Brantl 4. Rolling-Circle Replication, Saleem A. Khan II. Plasmid Maintenance and Inheritance 5. Partition Systems of Bacterial Plasmids, Barbara E. Funnell and Roderick A. Slavcev 6. Genetic Addiction: a Principle of Gene Symbiosis in a Genome, Ichizo Kobayashi 7. DNA Site-Specific Resolution Systems, Bernard Hallet, Virginie Vanhooff, and Francois Cornet 8. Topological Behavior of Plasmid DNA, N. Patrick Higgins and Alexander V. Vologodskii 9. Bacterial Conjugation in Gram-Negative Bacteria, Trevor Lawley, Brian M. Wilkins, and Laura S. Frost 10. Conjugation in Gram-Positive Bacteria, Don B. Clewell and M. Victoria Francia III. Specific Plasmid Systems 11. Plasmid Strategies for Broad-Host-Range Replication in Gram-Negative Bacteria, Aresa Toukdarian 12. The Symbiotic Plasmids of the Rhizobiaceae, David Romero and Susana Brown 13. Linear Plasmids in Bacteria: Common Origins, Uncommon Ends, Philip Stewart, Patricia A. Rosa, and Kit Tilly 14. The 2um Plasmid of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Makkuni Jayaram, XianMei Yang, Shwetal Mehta, Yuri Voziyanov, and Soundarapandian Velmurugan 15. Viral Plasmids in Mammalian Cells, Lori Frappier 16. Degradative Plasmids, Naota Ogawa, Ananda M. Chakrabarty, and Olga Zaborina 17. Archaeal Plasmids, Roger A. Garrett, Peter Redder, Bo Greve, Kim Brugger, Lanming Chen, and Qunxin She IV. Virulence and Antibiotic Resistance Plasmids 18. Genome-Scale Analysis of Virulence Plasmids: the Contribution of Plasmid-Borne Virulence Genes in Enterobacterial Pathogenesis, Malabi M. Venkatesan and Valerie Burland 19. Virulence Plasmids of Spore-Forming Bacteria, Julian I. Rood 20. Virulence Plasmids of Yersinia: Characteristics and Comparison, Luther E. Lindler 21. Virulence Plasmids of Nonsporulating Gram-Positive Pathogens, Chris M. Pillar and Michael S. Gilmore 22. The Agrobacterium Ti Plasmids, Peter J. Christie 23. Antibiotic Resistance Plasmids, Diane E. Taylor, Amera Gibreel, Trevor D. Lawley, and Dobryan M. Tracz 24. Plasmids pJM1 and PColV-K30 Harbor Iron Uptake Genes That Are Essential for Bacterial Virulence, Jorge H. Crosa V. Plasmid Ecology and Evolution 25. Evolution and Population Genetics of Bacterial Plasmids, Christopher M. Thomas 26. Second Chromosomes and Megaplasmids in Bacteria, Shawn R. MacLellan, Christopher D. Sibley, and Turlough M. Finan VI. Plasmids as Genetic Tools 27. Plasmid Vectors for Gene Cloning and Expression, Quinn Lu 28. Plasmids as Genetic Tools for Stuyd of Bacterial Gene Function, Gregory J. Phillips 29. Plasmids as Tools for Containment, Begona Torres, Jose L. Garcia, and Eduardo Diaz