C. Bryant – författare

In recent years, parasitologists have learned much about the way in which parasite biochemistry differs from that of free-living organisms. Inside the host, factors such as temperature, oxygen tension, carbon dioxide concentration and pH have important consequences for the biochemistry and physiology of the parasitic organism. Strong selection pressure therefore operates at all stages of a parasite's life cycle. The parasite's adaptational response to this pressure is the subject of this book. Under the headings "The nature of parasite adaptation", "Energy metabolism", "Digestion and uptake of nutrients", "Host immunity and parasite adaptation", "Biochemical adaptation and the magic bullet" and "Biochemical variation in parasites", present knowledge of parasite metabolism and how it reflects adaptation to particular environments is surveyed. The ways in which these adaptations may have developed during their evolution - with reference to the modern evolution of strain variations and the development of resistance to antiparasitic compounds - are explored, together with immunological aspects of the host-parasite relationship and potential metabolic targets for chemotherapy.This book should be of use to all those involved and interested in the biochemistry of parasites and its relation to their evolution, ecology, adaptation and variation. Those aspects of parasite metabolism that are attacked by anti-parasitic drugs are described, making this a useful book for those involved in the pharmaceutical industry. This book should be of interest to parasitologists and comparative biochemists.

Many multicellular animals do not require oxygen to live but respire anaerobically. Some of these have adapted to "hostile" environments, such as sulphide rich habitats, others live as parasites within host organisms, while others still can perhaps be said to look back on the early days of life on earth before anaerobic respiration had evolved. This comprehensive volume lays out detailed summaries of the strategies for anero- or anoxy-biosis employed by each major group of metazoan animals. It begins with a description of the physical chemistry of oxygen, followed by a dissertation on the perils - and opportunities - created for life by oxygen derived free radicals. It moves on to examine the geochronology of the accumulation of oxygen in the environment and to analyze the first explosive adaptive radiation of the Metazoa in the Ediacarian and early Cambrian. It then explores the biochemistry of sulphide dependent organisms and follows with a detailed account of the evolution of fumarate reductase, the enzyme system that makes anaerobiosis possible in many invertebrate phyla.After the survey of invertebrate phyla, there is a chapter concerned with the strategies adopted by various vertebrates for anoxybiotic survival, and one on the dependence of many vertebrates on anaerobic processes. The contributors are authorities from around the world. The approach to the subject is an evolutionary one, drawing from many fields in biology. This book should be of interest to parasitologists, comparative biochemists, evolutionary biologists, palaeontologists and geochemists.

Covering two hundred years, this groundbreaking book brings together essays on borderlands by leading experts in the modern history of the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia to offer the first historical study of borderlands with a global reach.