Abstract
The textbook Microbe is a comprehensive examination of microbial structure, metabolism, and roles in many different ecological ecosystems. The audience appears to be students taking an introductory microbiology course, but the specific background of the target audience is unclear. The exercises and information, especially at the end of each chapter, are geared toward molecular biology and biochemistry knowledge that might be unfamiliar or potentially too advanced for the students, depending on which courses they have already completed. Although many of these are great exam questions and topics that can be used to foster discussions in class, my experience with introductory microbiology students is that most of them have a limited molecular biology background and little to no biochemistry background. Hence, some of the questions at the end of each chapter, starting in Chapter 1, would be rather difficult for them to answer without having a prior background in the above-mentioned courses. For nonmajors, these topics would be completely overwhelming due to their comprehensiveness and technical details. Some items in this book, especially in the microbial pathogenesis section, could appeal to nonmajor health-focused students, but the other sections are too broad to be understood by a nonmajor student audience. The connections to biosafety considerations, which are important to learn from one’s first introduction to microbiology, are limited.
The “key concepts” and “learning objectives” in every chapter are the most interesting and best parts of this textbook. These components give students the opportunity to have the objectives in mind when going through each chapter and then reinforce those objectives with examples in the chapter along with study questions; obviously, this could lead to more effective learning. From an instructor’s perspective, this style of organization is also useful for designing classroom discussions, exercises, and lectures.
In terms of content within the chapters and overall organization, at times the book seemed a bit clunky—jumping around or referring to topics not yet discussed. For instance, the virus section seemed to be a brief overview, which was incomplete regarding virus families, but then focused on just one specific virus to discuss latency. Bacteriophages were a prime example, but then some eukaryotic viral examples were added, which seemed a bit abrupt. As currently written, I would not use this textbook to present viruses and their life cycles. I would most likely take bits and pieces of its content and form a discussion based on that information. Also, I am not sure why prions were included in the viral latency chapter as prions are not viruses. Although the authors did provide an explanation, saying usually prions are perceived by many as “virus-like” particles, perhaps including them in their own short chapter or in an overall chapter discussing potential pathogens would have been better. Since this is an introductory textbook, these organizational issues could potentially lead to students’ confusion and frustration, which could be avoided with a clear separation of chapters for viruses and for prions.
The technical information contained in Microbe is accurate and detailed, but the text should have additional figures/schematics to support the content. Most students learn by images and illustrations. Too much text can be overwhelming, and with microbiology, some concepts can be difficult to imagine without an image. This lack of good images would lead me to choose a different textbook. From an instructor’s perspective, a textbook’s images, tables, and other schematics are helpful for discussions and lectures and to reinforce concepts. Hence, without them, an instructor would have to turn elsewhere or create his or her own, which is not desirable. For example, the cell wall discussions with different Prokaryotes and Archae did not have a comparison image, nor was there an image to illustrate the differences between Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms.
Microbial pathogenesis section was very limited. Although there are benefits to the way in which it is organized currently, such as each chapter focusing on a specific pathogen (or two) that is a “representative” example (eg, intracellular pathogen), the drawback is that the discussion and view of pathogenesis are extremely limited in these chapters. Perhaps providing the specific details for one pathogen and speaking to life cycle, disease transmission, pathogenicity, and so on would be useful, but students then get only a tiny snapshot. The ESKAPE pathogens, all of which are important nosocomial infections and are opportunistic like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, receive only a limited discussion. In addition to the importance of the ESKAPE pathogens, Clostridium sp. and their toxins can also foster a unique discussion by comparing and contrasting their diseases and toxins. Currently this is included in Chapter 26 but only in a table. Yersinia pestis is used as the zoonotic example, but considering that its infections are limited to certain geographical locations and that it is a select agent, this may not be the best choice to include here. A noteworthy point is that experience working with this pathogen may not be extensive, especially for beginners in microbiology, but discussing the virulence factors of the Yersinia sp. is beneficial to understand type III secretion systems. Perhaps discussing Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and/or another pathogen with zoonotic potential that causes more frequent outbreaks would be more beneficial to the students.
This book might serve well as a comprehensive resource for upper-level/graduate students, firming up their microbiology background as the metabolism and specifics of key pathways are well explained, but it could potentially be overwhelming for someone starting out in the microbiology field.