Molecular Microbiology Laboratory, Second edition, is designed to teach essential principles and techniques of molecular biology and microbial ecology to upper-level undergraduates majoring in the life sciences and to develop students' scientific writing skills. A detailed lab preparation manual for instructors and teaching assistants accompanies the lab book and contains a general discussion of scientific writing and critical reading as well as detailed instructions for preparation and peer review of lab reports. Each experimental unit is accompanied by a number of additional writing exercises based upon primary journal articles.Exposes students to the new molecular-based techniques Provides faculty with an authoritative, accessible resource for teaching protocols The only manual to incorporate writing exercises, presentation skills and tools for reading primary literature into the curriculum Based on a successful course for which the author won a teaching award New to this Edition: - Presents a real-world study of bacterial populations in the environment in the final experiment - Provides an overview of molecular biology in a new review chapter - Demonstrates how to design an experiment and how to interpret the results - Covers grant proposal writing and how panels review proposals - Presents guidance on public speaking and preparing PowerPoint presentations - Includes tutorials on three widely used software packages