MICROBIAL PHYSIOLOGY AND METABOLISM 2004-2005
16:681:521:01
Dr. Alan D. Antoine
e-mail: antoine@aesop.rutgers.edu

Introduction:

Welcome to Microbial Physiology and Metabolism!

The prerequisites for this course include General Microbiology (16:681:501 or equivalent) and General Biochemistry (16:115:503, 504 or equivalents); undergraduate course equivalents are satisfactory.

The required text is: Albert Moat, John Foster and Michael Spector, Microbial Physiology, Fourth Edition, Wiley-Liss, 2002. This text is available at the Student Co-op Store, Inc. on the Cook/Douglass campus on on-line from http://www.amazon.com.

Course requirements:

1. Take-home assignments (40%) will be required for most text chapters. These will emphasize and reinforce chapter topics.

2. An oral presentation (15%), at the end of the course, that concerns the essential findings of the written paper topic and will include a summary of the purpose, introduction, primary techniques, data summation, discussion and conclusion. This will be accompanied by an approved abstract, a one-page summary of the term paper and includes a statement of purpose, one or two of the essential results, and a statement of conclusion that emphasizes the importance of the research area studied and a photocopy of the primary reference.

3. A term paper (45%) that focuses on microbial physiology and metabolism with a major emphasis on biochemical approaches. The length of the paper is to be a minimum of 20 double-spaced pages including the title page, abstract, introduction, body of the paper, including results an discussion, conclusions and bibliography.

Topics that will be covered in the course:

Macromolecular Synthesis and Processing, Bacterial Genetics and Regulation of Prokaryote Gene Expression, Bacteriophage Genetics, Cell Structure and Function, Central Pathways of Carbohydrate Metabolism, Energy Production and Metabolite Transport, Metabolism of Substrates Other Than Glucose, Fermentation Pathways, Photosynthesis and Inorganic Metabolism, Lipids and Sterols, Nitrogen Metabolism and Metabolism of Amino Acids, Purines and Pyrimidines, Bacterial Cell Division, Stress Responses and Differentiation, Host-Parasite Interactions.