444

Not too hot to handle!

Archaea: A LaboratoD ~ Manual. Volume 1, Themlophi les

edited by F. T. Robb and A. R. Place, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,

I996. [r,S$65.00 (xvi + 280pages) 1SBN 0 87969 440 8

This series, Archaea: A Laboratory Manual, apparently ~ e w out of a Center for Marine Biotechnology workshop held in Wood's Hole, USA in 1990. It comprises three volumes coveting the three phenotypic groupings of the Archaea: the Thermophiles, the Methanogens and the Halophiles. Even if they have been some time in the making, the appearance of such laboratory, manuals is timely. With the current rapid acceleration of interest in the Archaea, the value of these texts to new researchers in the field should be considerable.

In reading Carl Woese's foreword in the volume on Thermophiles (When is a prokaryote not a prokaryote?), there is an immediate impression that one of'the volume's objectives is to publicize the concept of Archaea as a separate phylogenetic

grouping, a super-Kingdom in its own tight with all the trappings of individuality accorded such a fundamentally distinct genealogical level. This distinction, and the need for biologists (and funding agencies) to consider Archaea in a manner other than because 'they lack a cell membrane [they] are necessarily related to bacteria', is argued strongly by Woese. And he should know- for he, more than any other, has been responsible for identifying and promoting the third Domain and for fighting the 'uphill battle to get microbiologists to see the false assumptions upon which the prokaryote-eukaryote dichotomy exists'.

But I digress! This volume (Thermophiles) is designed and presented as a laboratory guide, and is spiral-bound for convenient use at

the laboratory, bench. It must therefore pass the essential tests required of a good laboratory manual. Is the content sufficiently comprehensive? Are the protocols suffciently specific to the Archaea to warrant inclusion? Are the protocols sufficiently generic to be useful for most or all thermophilic Archaea? And are they written with sufficient depth and clarity to be truly useful as a laboratory guide?

Delving into the content to answer these questions, one is immediately impressed by the range of authors, with most of the world's major themlophilic Archaea laboratories being represented. The other general impression is that the chapters are a peculiar mixture of the highly specific and broadly genetic.

The highly specific protocols (e.g. 'Growth and Maintenance' by Baross, and 'Plate Cultivation Techniques' by Erauso et al.) are useful per se. These techniques are specific to high temperature microbiology and contain much that will be invaluable to new workers in the field. However, other specific chapters (e.g. 'Transfection of Sulfolobus so!fataricus' by Schleper and Zillig, and 'Purification of Hydrogenase and Ferredoxin' by Adams and Zhou) may well be too specific to be of

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445

book reviews

general applicability, although the former does represent the best- developed thermophilic Archaeal host-vector system. The value of the latter could have been enhanced by emphasizing the generic techniques employed for anaerobic protein purification.

With respect to the more generic protocols (e.g. 'Purification of Plasmids' by Charbonnier and Forterre, and ' R N A Extraction' by DiRuggiero and ILobb), it might be argued that many are relatively minor modifications of well established procedures. While essentially true, the real value of these protocols is

that they represent a distillation of trial, error and success from productive laboratories. Thus, new researchers in the field may find that the notes and 'tips' provided with each protocol make the difference between initial success and failure.

Finally, the volume is completed with a set ofve W useful appendices: Thermophilic Archaea available from the Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen; Culture media; Codon usage tables; 5S r R N A sequences; and 16S and 23S primers for phylogenetic analysis of new isolates. Although such information is all available elsewhere, this is

generally a very useful compendium. The chromosome map of Thermococcus celer Vul 3 may be less useful!

1 personally find this a simply written, well-presented and useful manual. Keeping in mind that it is a manual and not an introduction to the biology, of the thermophilic Archaea, those new to the subject should find it even more useful.

Don Cowan Depar tmen t of B iochemis t ry and

MoLecular Biology, Universi ty Col lege London, London, UK WC1E 6BT.

(Email: don.cowan@ucl .ac .uk)

Protocols for methanogens Archaea: A Laboratory Manual. Volume 2, Methanogens

edited by K. R. Sowers and H.J. Schreie~; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,

1996. US$95.00 (xvi + 280 pa~es) ISBN 0 87969 439 4

This volume is the second in a series of three describing practical approaches to the investigation of the Archaea, the other two describing the

halophilic and the thermophilic members of this Domain. The book is divided into three sections: growth and identification, biochemist W, and

molecular biology, and genetics, with a short, though useful, introducto W overview and invaluable appendices.

Each section is further divided into a number of protocols. Eve W protocol consists of an introduction, a comprehensive list of materials required (including, where appropriate, how to construct the apparatus) and a step-by-step method detailed enough to reassure even the novice. The protocol is completed by a commenta W which contains further handy hints and references.

The first section, growth and identifichtion, is likely to contain the

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