Microbial Production of Biopolymers and Polymer Precursors been written to address the renewed interest in their use as biodegradeable polymers from renewable resources and for providing biocompatible materials with properties suitable for medical applications. The preface also specifically mentions the potential for manipulating micro-organisms to tailoring materials for providing specific material properties and providing insight into industrial production processes.

It is essentially a series of 11 comprehensive and self-contained review articles covering the current status of biological understanding of the microbial production of xanthan, alginate, cellulose, cyanophycin, polyglutamic acid, levan, hyaluronic acid, polyhydroxyalkanoates, exopolysaccharides and organic acids for polymer biosynthesis. Each chapter summarizes current genetic, biochemical, regulatory and taxonomic data on the relevant bacteria elaborating these biopolymers. The laboratory and research data is discussed in detail across the range of microbial polymer products produced in each category, with copious reference lists at the end of each article.

The book promises more than it delivers, due to some extent on the format. There is a tendency for lists of current and potential applications of the individual biopolymers to be given at the end of each chapter and an absence of detail on the physiology of these systems, probably reflecting the expertise of the individual authors. An understanding of the physiology of the microbial system (particularly ones where viscosity, energetics and yield can be both interesting and problematic) is key for realizing any potential use for these microbial products on an industrial scale; a chapter discussing the microbial physiology of one or two specific systems would have been helpful. The book would also have benefited from more detailed consideration of existing industrial production and formulation processes to provide a more balanced perspective to inform bench researchers and interested individuals. Finally, as the use of these microbial products as novel biodegradeable materials and for medical applications, are both significant and exciting developments, specifically mentioned in the preface an additional chapter permitting a detailed exploration of background, constraints and potential for use of microbial polymers in these application areas would have added enormously to the value of the book.

As a useful library or laboratory reference book for microbiologists new to or working in this field it is to be recommended as providing insight into the biology of these microbial products, but in the opinion of this reviewer it does not support the aim of providing insight into industrial production processes.