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