BOOK REVIEW
Gary P. Wormser, Section Editor
Molecular Medical
Parasitology
Edited by J. Joseph Marr,
Timothy W. Nilsen,
and Richard W. Komuniecki
Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2002. 496 pp.,
illustrated. $129.95 (cloth).
Molecular Medical Parasitology is a multi-
author, 17-chapter volume that offers a
broad review of molecular aspects of par-
asitology. Clinicians are familiar with the
rather arbitrary use of the term “medical
parasitology” to describe the study of in-
fections caused by a broad range of eu-
karyotes, from complex worms to unicel-
lular protozoans, but not fungi. One can
question whether this designation is ap-
propriate for the work of molecular re-
searchers, for whom more similarities
might be found, for example, between
amoebas and yeasts than between trypan-
osomes and ascarids. Nonetheless, the la-
bel “parasitology” persists and thus is a
reasonable tool for organization of this
book. In fact, this volume is primarily
about protozoans. The chapters, apart
from 3 chapters devoted to helminths, are
principally or fully discussions of molec-
ular protozoology. Helminthologists may
feel slighted, but, alas, this is nothing new.
Rightly or wrongly, more resources and
attention currently are dedicated to pro-
tozoans. Regardless, the editors have done
an admirable job of putting together a vol-
ume that should be of broad interest.
An introductory set of 6 chapters fo-
cuses on molecular biology. The chapter
on parasite genomics is, necessarily, al-
ready slightly dated but, more importantly,
offers a review of genomic techniques and
terminology that will be valuable for a
newcomer to this area. The next chapters
Permission to reprint a book review printed in this section
may be obtained only from the reviewer.
1280 • CID 2003:37 (1 November) • BOOK REVIEW
are on molecular biology topics, moving
(a bit out of order) from RNA processing
to transcription to posttranscriptional reg-
ulation, mostly in kinetoplastids, where
our understanding of a number of aspects
of molecular biology is particularly ad-
vanced. A chapter on antigenic variation
discusses the 2 protozoans that have been
most studied from a molecular biology
standpoint, trypanosomes and malaria
parasites. The subsequent chapter ad-
dresses approaches to the analysis of vir-
ulence in Leishmania. This style is contin-
ued throughout the book—each chapter
emphasizes organisms for which the field
of study described in that chapter is most
advanced.
The next section of the book covers a
broad area, the biochemistry and cell bi-
ology of protozoans. Four chapters offer
in-depth reviews of biochemistry topics
(energy metabolism, amino acid and pro-
tein metabolism, nucleic acid metabolism,
and trypanosomatid carbohydrates), and
2 chapters examine cell biology topics (in-
tracellular signaling and unusual proto-
zoan organelles). The quality of the chap-
ters is consistently high.
Helminths finally get their due in 3
chapters on helminth surfaces, carbohy-
drate and energy metabolism, and neu-
rotransmitters. These are among the most
comprehensive chapters in the book. In
addition, there is a really unpleasant hand-
ful of worms on page 363 (also generously
provided in color on a plate incongruously
sitting in the middle of a chapter on pro-
tozoan signaling). In the battle between
protozoans and helminths, the worms
win when it comes to ugly, and what is a
parasitology text without unappetizing
photos?
The book ends with 2 general chapters,
one on drug resistance and the other on
the medical implications of molecular par-
asitology. The chapter on drug resistance
offers an excellent overview; the greatest
emphasis is placed on plasmodia and ki-
netoplastids, but information on other
parasites is also given. The final chapter
is, perhaps, misnamed, because it covers
only one area of medical implications (i.e.,
drugs). Within these bounds, it supplies a
nice review of drugs available for treat-
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ment of parasitic infections, although
more attention to mechanisms and new
targets, rather than available therapies, and
less clinical detail would have been more
consistent with the rest of the book.
A book review typically includes a list
of topics that the reviewer found to
be underrepresented. However, as I at-
tempted to develop that list, I became in-
creasingly impressed; the editors of Mo-
lecular Medical Parasitology did a great job
of collecting experts to cover the impor-
tant topics. For example, hot topics for
the malaria researcher, such as antigenic
variation, intracellular signaling, proto-
zoan organelles, and mechanisms of drug
resistance, receive extensive coverage. But
what is missing? The book is devoid of
discussion of immunology, which seems
reasonable but is not obvious from the
title. The book is short on coverage of
technical topics, and technical innovations
currently are leading to important ad-
vances in our understanding of some or-
ganisms. In particular, additional discus-
sion of emerging technologies for gene
disruption, microarray analysis of tran-
scription, and proteomic assessment in
parasitic organisms would have been a
good addition. A concluding chapter syn-
thesizing information about new advances
and their implications for drug discovery
would have been helpful.
This book will be a valuable addition
to the bookshelves of persons interested
in molecular parasitology. It will be most
useful as a reference text for those in the
field and as a primer for those new to
parasitology. This volume provides a com-
prehensive single reference that will keep
clinicians and nonparasitologists who are
interested in infectious diseases well in-
formed about this important area.
Philip J. Rosenthal
Department of Medicine,
University of California, San Francisco
Medically Important Fungi:
A Guide to Identification,
ture. The primary approach is the pairing
of concise narrative descriptions with the
author’s own line drawings on a single
page for each species. The book’s greatest
strength is the style Dr. Larone developed
in the third edition, in which a photo-
micrograph adjusted to the same scale as
the line drawing is placed alongside the
drawing. Anyone who has tried to identify
fungi knows the main challenge is finding
the diagnostic structures by focusing up
spares them the rigors of preservation—
the third edition (1995) had been used to
the point of “disintegration.” In fact, one
heroic technologist had attempted to keep
the third edition alive by placing individ-
ual tattered pages in plastic sleeves assem-
bled in a ring binder. To recommend the
fourth edition of Medically Important
Fungi: A Guide to Identification for the
shelf of every mycology laboratory is re-
dundant. It is already there. It is “the one

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4th Edition
Davise H. Larone
Washington, D.C.: American Society
for Microbiology Press, 2002. 409 pp.,
illustrated. $79.95 (cloth).
Despite the frustrations involved in the
diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of
fungal infections, virtually all infectious
diseases specialists retain a fascination for
fungi themselves. The beauty we observe
while peering through a microscope at
their hyphae, spores, conidia, and other
exotic structures often rises to the level of
an abstract art form. Since the appearance
of the first edition in 1976, Davise Larone’s
Medically Important Fungi: A Guide to
Identification has fed this fascination with
a clarity and conciseness unmatched in the
field of laboratory identification guides.
This fourth edition retains the focus of
the original on the challenges faced by
those in the clinical laboratory who must
isolate, cultivate, and identify the diverse
array of yeasts and molds that present
themselves in medical practice. Dr. Larone
makes no attempt to address the basic bi-
ology, pathogenesis, and clinical and ther-
apeutic aspects of fungal diseases. These
subjects are better left to the larger my-
cology and infectious diseases reference
works, to which the author frequently di-
rects the reader (including citation of rel-
evant pages).
This book includes informative sections
on specimen collection, culture media,
and growth and staining procedures used
with fungi, but its core is a 226-page sec-
tion on the identification of fungi in cul-
and down while scanning through mul- that gets used.”
tiple microscopic fields. The idealized
Kenneth J. Ryan
structures shown in the line drawings can
Departments of Pathology and Microbiology
be matched to the wet preparation (pho-
and Immunology, University of Arizona College
tomicrograph), which greatly enhances of Medicine, Tucson
their usefulness. In this edition, Dr. Larone
has extended this approach effectively to
highlight the fungal component of histo-
pathologic photomicrographs in a new New Books Received
section on interpretation of direct micro-
scopic examinations. These pages will be Hecht GA. Microbial Pathogenesis and the
of particular interest to pathologists and Intestinal Epithelial Cell. Washington, DC:
clinicians faced with the interpretation of American Society for Microbiology Press,
diagnostic biopsies. 2003. 577 pp. $119.65. ISBN: 1-55581-261-9.
This fourth edition is fully updated,
with the inclusion of new species and the Lo Re V. Hot Topics: Infectious Diseases.
renaming of old ones. If you somehow Philadelphia: Elsevier Science, 2003. 395 pp.
missed that Cephalosporium is now called $29.95. ISBN: 1-5605-580-6.
Acremonium, you will find both old and
new names clearly indicated on the pri- Booss J, Esiri MM. Viral Encephalitis in Hu-
mary page and in the index. There is also mans. Washington, DC: American Society
a generous new section of color plates, for Microbiology Press, 2003. 277 pp.
which have been used appropriately to il- $139.95. ISBN: 1-55581-240-6.
lustrate aspects not shown in the black-
Dionisio D. Textbook-Atlas of Intestinal In-
and-white drawings and photographs that
fections and AIDS. Milan: Springer, 2003.
form the body of the book. These illus-
514 pp. $140.00. ISBN: 88-470-0174-9.
trations include images of mold colony
morphology and biochemical reactions on
Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary,
indicator agars and selected photomicro-
30th Edition. Philadelphia: Elsevier Science,
graphic images. The illustrated glossary
2003. 2190 pp. $49.95. ISBN: 0-7216-0146-4.
brings all the major morphologic terms
to life.
Cole LA. The Anthrax Letters: A Medical
Perhaps the strongest recommendation
Detective Story. Washington, DC: Joseph
for Medically Important Fungi came from
Henry Press, 2003. 245 pp. $24.95. ISBN: 0-
a trip to the clinical mycology laboratory.
309-08881-X.
There, the fourth edition was already in
use on the workbench, and all the staff
agreed that it was the best yet. They were
especially enthusiastic about the change
from paperback to hardcover, because this

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