This book introduces Planctomycetes bacteria and deals in detail with their unusual structure, physiology, genomics and evolutionary significance. It is a definitive summary of recent knowledge of this important distinctive group of bacteria, microorganisms which challenge our very concept of the bacterium. Planctomycetes, and their relatives within the PVC superphylum of domain Bacteria, including verrucomicrobia and chlamydia, challenge our classical concept of the bacterium and its modes of life and provide new experimental models for exploring evolutionary cell biology and the full diversity of how living cells can be organized internally. Unique among bacteria, they include species possessing cells with intracellular membrane-bounded compartments and a peptidoglycan-less cell wall, and bacteria such as the anammox organisms performing unique anaerobic ammonium oxidation significant for global nitrogen cycle.

History, Classification and Cultivation of the Planctomycetes.- Cell Compartmentalization and Endocytosis in Planctomycetes: Structure and Function in Complex Bacteria.- Structural Aspects of MC Proteins of PVC Superphylum Members.- Cell Biology of Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidizing Bacteria:Unique Prokaryotes with an Energy Conserving Intracellular Compartment.- Acidophilic Planctomycetes: Expanding the Horizons of New Planctomycete Diversity.- Towards the Development of Genetic Tools forPlanctomycetes.- Genomics and Bioinformatics of the PVC Superphylum.- The Distribution and Evolution of C1 Transfer Enzymes and Evolution of the Planctomycetes.- Unusual Members of the PVC Superphylum: The MethanotrophicVerrucomicrobiaGenus Methylacidiphilum.-Phyla Related toPlanctomycetes: Members of PhylumChlamydiae and their Implications forPlanctomycetes Cell Biology.- Planctomycetes  their Evolutionary Implications for Models of the Origins of Eukaryotes and the Eukaryote Nucleus.- A Final Word - The Future of Planctomycetology  and Related Studies.