CONTENTS -- Contributors -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES -- 1. Structure and Evolution of Transcriptional Regulatory Networks -- 2. Architecture and Dynamics of Transcriptional Networks -- 3. Regulation by Alternative Sigma Factors -- 4. The Role of Two-Component Signal Transduction Systems in Bacterial Stress Responses -- 5. Roles of mRNA Stability, Translational Regulation, and Small RNAs in Stress Response Regulation -- 6 Role of Proteolysis and Chaperones in Stress Response and Regulation -- II. SPECIES STRESS RESPONSES -- 7. Cellular Response to Heat Shock and Cold Shock -- 8. Envelope Stress -- 9. Osmotic Stress -- 10 Sensing and Responding to Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species -- 11. Global Responses of Bacteria to Oxygen Deprivation -- 12. Sensing Metals: the Versatility of Fur -- 13. The DNA Damage Response -- III. GENERAL STRESS RESPONSES -- 14. The Stringent Response -- 15. The General Stress Response in Gram-Negative Bacteria -- 16. The General Stress Response in Alphaproteobacteria -- 17. General Stress Response in Bacillus subtilis and Related Gram-Positive Bacteria -- 18. Resistance of Bacterial Spores -- 19. Protection against Foreign DNA -- 20. More than Just a Quorum: Integration of Stress and Other Environmental Cues in Acyl-Homoserine Lactone Signaling -- 21. Biofilms -- 22. Persister Bacteria -- IV. PATHOGENIC RESPONSES -- 23. Bacterial Responses to the Host Cell -- 24. Phase Variation -- V. BACTERIA THRIVING IN STRESSFUL ENVIRONMENTS -- 25. Metamicrobiology: Analyzing Microbial Behavior at the Community Level -- 26. Life at te Extremes of Temperature -- 27. Comparative Genomics of Stress Response Systems in Deinococcus Bacteria -- VI. APPLICATIONS OF STRESS RESPONSE STUDIES -- 28. Redox Mechanisms and Reactive Oxygen Species in Antibiotic Action and Resistance.

29. Applications of Stress Response Studies: Biofuel Production -- 30. Microbial Bioremediation of Chemical Pollutants: How Bacteria Cope with Multi-Stress Environmental Scenarios -- Index.