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The publication of a basic textbook for biotechnology in South Africa marks a major milestone in the development of university biotechnology in South Africa. When a major African publisher like Van Schaik are willing to put their effort and name behind such a book it means that a viable market of students and learners in the field of biotechnology exist on the African continent, and this is very good to know indeed.
When I was starting my career as a biotechnologist, isolating and cultivating microbes was the first point in my project. At that time, as is still the case today, one of the most comprehensive handbooks of microbiological media was written by Ronald M Atlas. It is nice to see his name as an editor, along with Prof Eugene Cloete on the cover of a book which will undoubtedly be the foundation on which another generation of biotechnologists will build their first projects.
This textbook covers a very broad range of topics, and has 427 pages. The editors have worked on the concept that less is more and consequently, every chapter is filled with information that is concise and non-verbose. For those that wish to go into more detail on any topic, each chapter has a reasonably comprehensive list of further readings.
The flow of chapters is logical and builds up a basic knowledge of what microbes are, how they grow, taxonomy, genetics in the first few chapters. These chapters could also form a perfectly adequate introduction to microbiology for a short course in microbiology that forms a component of a larger course. The next chapters deal with the control of microbes. Given the African continental focus of this textbook, it is particularly useful that the authors paid considerable attention to the management of microbial factors affecting immuno compromised individuals. As an example, a well written page shows how micro-organisms that do not cause major complications in a person with a healthy immune system can cause life threatening conditions in a person with HIV.
Once the basics of microbiology are covered, the chapters then migrate into the biotech/applied microbiology side. Many of the examples covered are in areas where South Africa has made considerable inputs to the global body of knowledge. Hence there are comprehensive sections on topical problems such as Acid Mine Drainage and its treatment with microbiological processes, although the reference section here can be expanded in the next edition. Current global issues, such as the threat of bio terrorism are also covered. It is interesting to note that little mention is made of bio-mining, an area where South Africa is a leader.
An amusing chapter details the myths and facts of food biotechnology. Again, within the context of our continent, the text has an informative chapter on traditional African fermentations. This chapter has an excellent reference list attached, and it is safe to say that for any thesis written on African fermented foods, that ordering (and reading) every paper in this reference list would be a good starting point (after first reading this textbook of course).
A useful CD-Rom comes with the text book with an excellent web-portal created by Noelle Cloete. In the animation section on this CD-Rom, a set of well drawn animations demonstrate basic concepts such as how yeast grows and what a viable plate count is and how it is performed.
At R 299.95 the text book is extremely reasonably priced compared to similar imported texts. All in all, this text book is an excellent resource that would fit well into any microbiology course, and would form a good reference for post graduate courses where it would provide useful background information and reference lists for further reading.
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