Bacteriophages: Biology and Applications

This new and excellent volume, together with Richard L. Calendar and Stephen T. Abedon (ed.) The Bacteriophages, edition 2, from Oxford University Press (ISBN no., 0195148509, published in December 2005 release date) may help to redress the loss of understanding of the role of phage studies in modern microbial science. It is difficult without current volumes to imagine how essential bacteriophage were in the invention of molecular biology as we know it, from the understanding that the gene consists of DNA to the discovery of messenger RNA and many essential aspects of the triplet genetic code. Thus, it is also surprisingly that Amazon.com does not list the classic books Bacteriophage T4 (1983) and The Molecular Biology of Bacteriophage T4 (1994), both co-edited by E. Kutter and published by ASM.