Biomineralization

Biomineralization: The Role of Cellular Biology in Mineral Deposition is a wide-ranging, up-to-date reference that provides a biological level of understanding of this topic. The trailblazing work Biomineralization, Cell Biology and Mineral Deposition by Kenneth Simkiss and Karl Wilbur, which published in 1989, was the only book of its kind that recognized the cellular biological aspects of calcification. While that book is a classic foundational work, much new research has occurred in the ensuing decades, and this new volume provides original contributions (meanwhile referring back to the relevant literature) that address the many recent groundbreaking findings. Notably, in the past 15 years both cellular and genomic level discoveries have ushered in a new era of biomineralization science, including a host of rapidly emerging discoveries that necessitate the need for a comprehensive and current treatise on the subject.

The table of contents is organized into three distinct sections. The first, written by the two principle authors, includes introductory aspects about the physics and chemistry of biomineralization, with particular emphasis on the molecular, genomic, and cellular biological aspects. The second area consists of contributed chapters by leading experts that follow a taxonomic level of organization. These chapters include among others, marine magnetite bacteria, marine invertebrates, vertebrate bone, and marine algae such as coccolithophorids. Each of these chapters provides methodology summaries and comprehensive reviews of significant published studies with key papers summarized at the end of each chapter. The third and final section, again by the lead authors, involves a synthesis of previous chapters with an emphasis on unifying principles that emerge from the taxonomic survey. Areas of promising new research are identified as well as a discussion on the importance of the new information that can be applied to help with understanding new and emerging problems, such as global climate change and the effects of ocean acidification.