Molecular Genetics of Bacteria fulfills the need for a comprehensive, primary textbook in bacterial genetics. It is ideally suited as a textbook for advanced undergraduate level courses and as background reading for graduate level courses. It is also recommended reading for scientists in all fields of biology, many of which depend upon the concepts and techniques covered in this book. While the book concentrates on the necessity of the bacterium Escherichia coli, about which most is known, it also uses examples from other bacteria as appropriate. The material in each chapter has been substantially updated to reflect exciting developments in the field of bacterial molecular genetics and its relationship to other fields, including eukaryotic cell biology and development. Recent years have been a period of consolidation in biology with many seemingly diverse areas being discovered to be different manifestations of the same phenomenon; these relationships have been emphasized. It has also been a period of major technical advances, including genomics and microarrays, which are also covered in the book. The second edition retains the same organization and style as the first edition, and the order of presentation of the topics has been largely unchanged as this order was popular with most instructors using the textbook. As before, each chapter contains a chapter summary, a set of discussion questions to encourage speculation, problems (with answers), and suggested readings, all of which are updated to reflect advances in the field. It also retains the use of boxes to present related material of interest to each topic without breaking the continuity of the text. The second edition will continue to serve as an important text for all courses in bacterial molecular genetics and as background for courses in molecular biology and biotechnology. New to the second edition: substantially updated to reflect developments in the field of bacterial molecular genetics; chapters begin with descriptive treatment of each topic and end with more technical molecular genetic experiments the led to the knowledge; and new chapter on molecular genetic applications in bacteria, including genetic studies of sporulation, bacterial development, and protein translocation.