Richard G. Wax

Peptide antibiotics : discovery, modes of action, and applications

Introduction to the Peptide Antibiotics Harry W. Taber Sources of Antimicrobial Peptides Chemistry and Applications of Synthetic Antimicrobial Peptides David Andreu and Luis Rivas Lanthionine-Containing Bacterial Peptides Ulrike Pag and Hans-Georg Sahl Unmodified Peptide-Bacteriocins (Class II) Produced by Lactic Acid Bacteria Ingolf F. Nes, Helge Holo, Gunnar Fimland, Havard Hildeng Hauge, and Jon Nissen-Meyer Insect Cationic Antimicrobial Peptides Charles Hetru, Jules A. Hoffmann, and Robert E. W. Hancock Mammalian Antimicrobial Peptides Charles L. Bevins and Gill Diamond Potential Applications of Peptides Exploitation of Lantibiotic Peptides for Food and Medical Uses Maire P. Ryan, Colin Hill, and R. Paul Ross Amphibian Antimicrobial Peptides Michael A. Zasloff Index

Manipulation of human history by microbes

Abstract The convergence of the microbial and human worlds provides us with everyday essentials for the survival of our species, and in turn, this interaction brings painful and tragic consequences from pathogens. Looking back, it can be seen that microbes have also changed our history. Were it not for a pathogen that halted an Assyrian military campaign, we might have no Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. Microbes were there to aid adversaries in bringing about the fall of the great Greek and Roman empires. George Washingtons bold orders to inoculate the Colonial Army against smallpox (20 years prior to Jenners discovery of vaccination) were one of the most significant actions in saving the American Revolution from an early and unsuccessful end. Without the yellow fever virus and its accomplice, Aedes aegypti, those living in what was the Louisiana Territory might now have French as their native language. The potato blight caused by Phytophthora infestans changed the histories of both Ireland and those countries (especially the United States) to which victims of the famine emigrated. At the outbreak of World War I, when England was separated from its European source of acetone (needed for the navys supply of cordite), British citizens had to make do with less gin, but acetone was available thanks to the growth of Clostridium acetobutylicum in those fermentation vessels.