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Cell heredity
654
BOOK
of earlier puzzling findings on protein synthesis in bacteria. We now know that incorporation of certain radioactive amino acids into trichloraceticprecipitable material may represent not only protein synthesis, but also, by quite a different process, incorporation into the mucopeptide of cell wall. The style of the book is clear but restrained. The author takes little advantage of the license, granted by the lecture form, to emphasize historical developments, personal experiences, interrelations with other aspects of biology, or future developments. The book therefore does not have the dramatic impact sometimes associated with a new and rapidly advancing field; but the material is so solid and significant that t,he author can afford understatement. This book provides a readable introduction to a field that will surely offer many further developments of wide interest to biochemists as well as microbiologists. BERSARD D. DAVIS, Boston,
Massachusetts
Milk: The Mammary Gland and its Secretion. Vols. I and II. Edited by S. K. KON and A. T. COWIE, National Institute for Research in Dairying, Shinfield, Reading, England. Academic Press, New York and London, 1961. Vol. I, xiiiv + 515 pp., illus. Price $14.00. Vol. II, x + 423 pp., illus. Price 12.00. There can be few fields of biological research in which knowledge has made greater progress in the past 20 years than in the biochemistry and physiology of the mammary gland and its secretion. In planning and supervising the production of this book the editors have rendered a most notable service to those whose interest or job it is to keep up to date with advances in this all-important subject-important because the welfare and indeed the very existence of the whole mammalian kingdom depends so much upon it. The 12 chapters which constitute the first volume will be of particular importance to physiologists and biochemists, while the eight chapters in the second volume will have a special appeal to those whose main concern is with problems of nutrition. Each of the 20 chapters has been written by a different author or pair of authors, all of whom have themselves made outstanding contributions to original research in those aspects of the general subject with which they deal, and it is well worth noting that these authors hail from such widely differing countries as the Argentine, Britain, France, Sweden, and the United States. The first three chapters of the book deal with the morphogenesis of the mammary gland, with its histology and cytology, and with the hormonal regulation of its growth. The fourth chapter gives
REVIEWS an excellent account of what is now known about the complicated part played by hormones in controlling milk secretion. This is followed by a chapter on t,he biochemistry of prolactin, a hormone which is now known to be both mammogenic and lactogenic and to be of the utmost importance along with other hormones in the growth of the gland as well as in the initiation of lactation. A chapter on the neural control of lactation completes the section on the functional physiology of the gland. Later chapters include a valuable contribution on human lactation, and the final section of this first volume deals with the biochemistry of mammary tissue and consists of chapters on the protein metabolism of the gland and on its methods of synthesising lactose and fat. The second volume contains a series of most valuable studies on the nut,ritional requirements for lactation of women, farm animals, and laboratory animals. It deals also in a most comprehensive way with the composition and nutritive value of milk of different species, and includes an informative section on human milk and cow’s milk in infant nutrition. The book ends with chapters on t,he subject of lactation and the growth of the young and on the immunological properties of colostrum in various species. Each chapter ends with a list of references, and each volume has a separate author and subject index. The many tables and figures are all easy to understand and are excellently produced, and from beginning to end the book is a pleasure to read. It ran be very highly recommended. J. A. B. SMITH, The Hannah Institute, Apr, Scotland
Cell Heredity. By RUTH SAGER, Research Bssociate, and FRASCIS J. RYAN, Professor of Zoology, Columbia University, New York, N. Y. John Wiley & Sons, New York, N. Y., 1961. viii $ 411 pp. Price $7.50. Since its foundation, genetics has occupied a central position in biology, from both theoretical and methodological points of view. In the past 20 years, its scope has progressively changed from the study of sexual transmission of hereditary units to the analysis, at the cellular level, of the structure and function of the genetic material. This change in outlook has also involved, and in some ways has resulted from, a change in the objects of study used by geneticists. More specifically, the introduction of microorganisms and viruses into the field of genetics has made it possible to analyze at t,he molecular level the mechanisms of mutation. replication, and recombination of the hereditary
BOOK REVIEWS determinants as well as the mechanisms by which they make their impact on the cell phenotype. The two authors have undertaken the difficult and valuable task of organizing in a textbook the large amount of information collected in the past years concerning genetics at, the cellular level with the most various materials. The authors have deliberat,ely abandoned the chronological approach in ordrr to attempt a synthetic presentation of t,hfGr subject. In some respects, the reader ma) the absence of any reference to history, regwt which almost always reflects progressive changes both in methodology and ways of thinking. Beginning at, the lc~-el of an undergraduate, Drs. Sager :md Ryan easily carry their readers through 13 chapters well written and abundantly illustrated, to the most advanced regions of the field. Studrnts and investigators in the various fields of biology will find in this book a detailed and comljrchensive treatment of the present state of a rapidly moving field. F. JMOFJ, Paris, France
Advances in Enzymology and Related Subjects of Biochemistry. Vol. 22. Edited by F. F. NOFID, Fordham University, New York, New York. Interscience Publishers, New York, 1960. v + 567 pp. illus. Price $14.00. Ever since its inception, “Advances in Enzymology” has brought to publication critical and authoritative reports which inter-relate the knowlrdgc of physiology, chemist,ry, microbiology, and physical chemistry for the express purpose of an imdcrstanding of the basis of enzyme fmlctions. Such an in1 erdisciplinary approach has been of value not only to workers in the fields of cnzymolbut, to all who are inWY and biochemistry, terested in biologic phenomena. Volume XXII (1960) fulfills the endeavor and the high standards of excellence mAnt:rined by this series. It contains nine informative and thought-provoking monographs, co\-ering five areas of current interests, viz. the mechanisms of enzyme action and biosynthesis, coenzymes, sulfm biochemistry, sterol biosynthesis, nnd column chromatography. The articles “Genetic Control of Enzyme Activity” (Fincham). “.ictivr Site and Enzyme ACtion” (Koshland) and “The Induced Synthesis of Proteins” (Halvorson) well illustrate the mutual contributions of related fields towards the understanding of enzyme function. Fincham examines the mcch:mirms of genrt,ic control of enzyme act~ivit;~ and specificity. The \-arious ways in which grnctic mutations can alter enzymatic activity and specificity are discussed in the light of a modified one gem one cnzymc hypothesis. protein structure,
555
and protein biosynthesis. The usefulness of this nppreach in the analysis of biochemical pathways and the relationship of enzyme structure to function is evident. While the phenomenon of induced on enzyme formation has been studied extensively a cellular level, as yet little is known about the biochemical basis of induction. Halvorson cxamines the problems from this point of view and analyzes the induction mechanism in terms of the present knowledge of protein structure, its biosynthesis and the role of nucleic acids. The existence of inducers, i’epressors, templates and me-enzymes are evaluated critically. The author postulates a model mechanism of induced enzyme synt,hrsis for further examination at the subcellular level. Koshland’s article deals with anothci aspect of enzyme specificity and function. The relationship of the physicochemical properties of active enzymatic sites and catalytic function. Since knowledge of this kind is still fragmentary, a discussion of the subject is necessarily preliminary and speculative. The author reviews the evidence which indicates the structural and rompositional requirements of the site, and evaluates the methods currently available for study. While techniques which define the amino-acid composition of active sites are many and varied, it seems that methods which examine the st,rncture of the site and the mechanism of catalysis are still few and inadequate. However, in spite of these deficiencies, t,he author is optimistic that the next decade will see significant and exciting developments in this very active field of rrsearch. These three articles clearl? complement one another, and as a unit. present a bi,oader basis of reference for those interested in the mechanisms and controls of cnzymc action. It is well known that pyridinr and flavin nucleotides bind to apoenzymes. but knowledge of their mechanisms of binding is not yet definite. The lack of adequate methods for study has limited any development in depth in this area. However, a large amount of suggestive and indirect data have accumulated on a large number of enzyme systems, and these are reported in us+ ful and comprchtnsi\~e &tail by Shifrin and Kaplan in their article ‘Cocnzyme Binding.” Studies on binding of thiamine pyrophosphate and pyritloxal phosphate are also rrportcd. Baodilcy and Hughes re\-iew the principles and methods for svnthesizing nuclrot,idr cocnzymes and their related compounds. This class of compounds are mixrd anhydrides of nucleotides with phosphoric acid, pyrophosphoric acid or their esters, and recently have been found to participate as intermediaries in increasing numbers of biochemical reactions. Realization of their chemical propeArs will certainly add to the understanding of the principlrs governing their biosynthesis. their ftulction
BOOK
of earlier puzzling findings on protein synthesis in bacteria. We now know that incorporation of certain radioactive amino acids into trichloraceticprecipitable material may represent not only protein synthesis, but also, by quite a different process, incorporation into the mucopeptide of cell wall. The style of the book is clear but restrained. The author takes little advantage of the license, granted by the lecture form, to emphasize historical developments, personal experiences, interrelations with other aspects of biology, or future developments. The book therefore does not have the dramatic impact sometimes associated with a new and rapidly advancing field; but the material is so solid and significant that t,he author can afford understatement. This book provides a readable introduction to a field that will surely offer many further developments of wide interest to biochemists as well as microbiologists. BERSARD D. DAVIS, Boston,
Massachusetts
Milk: The Mammary Gland and its Secretion. Vols. I and II. Edited by S. K. KON and A. T. COWIE, National Institute for Research in Dairying, Shinfield, Reading, England. Academic Press, New York and London, 1961. Vol. I, xiiiv + 515 pp., illus. Price $14.00. Vol. II, x + 423 pp., illus. Price 12.00. There can be few fields of biological research in which knowledge has made greater progress in the past 20 years than in the biochemistry and physiology of the mammary gland and its secretion. In planning and supervising the production of this book the editors have rendered a most notable service to those whose interest or job it is to keep up to date with advances in this all-important subject-important because the welfare and indeed the very existence of the whole mammalian kingdom depends so much upon it. The 12 chapters which constitute the first volume will be of particular importance to physiologists and biochemists, while the eight chapters in the second volume will have a special appeal to those whose main concern is with problems of nutrition. Each of the 20 chapters has been written by a different author or pair of authors, all of whom have themselves made outstanding contributions to original research in those aspects of the general subject with which they deal, and it is well worth noting that these authors hail from such widely differing countries as the Argentine, Britain, France, Sweden, and the United States. The first three chapters of the book deal with the morphogenesis of the mammary gland, with its histology and cytology, and with the hormonal regulation of its growth. The fourth chapter gives
REVIEWS an excellent account of what is now known about the complicated part played by hormones in controlling milk secretion. This is followed by a chapter on t,he biochemistry of prolactin, a hormone which is now known to be both mammogenic and lactogenic and to be of the utmost importance along with other hormones in the growth of the gland as well as in the initiation of lactation. A chapter on the neural control of lactation completes the section on the functional physiology of the gland. Later chapters include a valuable contribution on human lactation, and the final section of this first volume deals with the biochemistry of mammary tissue and consists of chapters on the protein metabolism of the gland and on its methods of synthesising lactose and fat. The second volume contains a series of most valuable studies on the nut,ritional requirements for lactation of women, farm animals, and laboratory animals. It deals also in a most comprehensive way with the composition and nutritive value of milk of different species, and includes an informative section on human milk and cow’s milk in infant nutrition. The book ends with chapters on t,he subject of lactation and the growth of the young and on the immunological properties of colostrum in various species. Each chapter ends with a list of references, and each volume has a separate author and subject index. The many tables and figures are all easy to understand and are excellently produced, and from beginning to end the book is a pleasure to read. It ran be very highly recommended. J. A. B. SMITH, The Hannah Institute, Apr, Scotland
Cell Heredity. By RUTH SAGER, Research Bssociate, and FRASCIS J. RYAN, Professor of Zoology, Columbia University, New York, N. Y. John Wiley & Sons, New York, N. Y., 1961. viii $ 411 pp. Price $7.50. Since its foundation, genetics has occupied a central position in biology, from both theoretical and methodological points of view. In the past 20 years, its scope has progressively changed from the study of sexual transmission of hereditary units to the analysis, at the cellular level, of the structure and function of the genetic material. This change in outlook has also involved, and in some ways has resulted from, a change in the objects of study used by geneticists. More specifically, the introduction of microorganisms and viruses into the field of genetics has made it possible to analyze at t,he molecular level the mechanisms of mutation. replication, and recombination of the hereditary
BOOK REVIEWS determinants as well as the mechanisms by which they make their impact on the cell phenotype. The two authors have undertaken the difficult and valuable task of organizing in a textbook the large amount of information collected in the past years concerning genetics at, the cellular level with the most various materials. The authors have deliberat,ely abandoned the chronological approach in ordrr to attempt a synthetic presentation of t,hfGr subject. In some respects, the reader ma) the absence of any reference to history, regwt which almost always reflects progressive changes both in methodology and ways of thinking. Beginning at, the lc~-el of an undergraduate, Drs. Sager :md Ryan easily carry their readers through 13 chapters well written and abundantly illustrated, to the most advanced regions of the field. Studrnts and investigators in the various fields of biology will find in this book a detailed and comljrchensive treatment of the present state of a rapidly moving field. F. JMOFJ, Paris, France
Advances in Enzymology and Related Subjects of Biochemistry. Vol. 22. Edited by F. F. NOFID, Fordham University, New York, New York. Interscience Publishers, New York, 1960. v + 567 pp. illus. Price $14.00. Ever since its inception, “Advances in Enzymology” has brought to publication critical and authoritative reports which inter-relate the knowlrdgc of physiology, chemist,ry, microbiology, and physical chemistry for the express purpose of an imdcrstanding of the basis of enzyme fmlctions. Such an in1 erdisciplinary approach has been of value not only to workers in the fields of cnzymolbut, to all who are inWY and biochemistry, terested in biologic phenomena. Volume XXII (1960) fulfills the endeavor and the high standards of excellence mAnt:rined by this series. It contains nine informative and thought-provoking monographs, co\-ering five areas of current interests, viz. the mechanisms of enzyme action and biosynthesis, coenzymes, sulfm biochemistry, sterol biosynthesis, nnd column chromatography. The articles “Genetic Control of Enzyme Activity” (Fincham). “.ictivr Site and Enzyme ACtion” (Koshland) and “The Induced Synthesis of Proteins” (Halvorson) well illustrate the mutual contributions of related fields towards the understanding of enzyme function. Fincham examines the mcch:mirms of genrt,ic control of enzyme act~ivit;~ and specificity. The \-arious ways in which grnctic mutations can alter enzymatic activity and specificity are discussed in the light of a modified one gem one cnzymc hypothesis. protein structure,
555
and protein biosynthesis. The usefulness of this nppreach in the analysis of biochemical pathways and the relationship of enzyme structure to function is evident. While the phenomenon of induced on enzyme formation has been studied extensively a cellular level, as yet little is known about the biochemical basis of induction. Halvorson cxamines the problems from this point of view and analyzes the induction mechanism in terms of the present knowledge of protein structure, its biosynthesis and the role of nucleic acids. The existence of inducers, i’epressors, templates and me-enzymes are evaluated critically. The author postulates a model mechanism of induced enzyme synt,hrsis for further examination at the subcellular level. Koshland’s article deals with anothci aspect of enzyme specificity and function. The relationship of the physicochemical properties of active enzymatic sites and catalytic function. Since knowledge of this kind is still fragmentary, a discussion of the subject is necessarily preliminary and speculative. The author reviews the evidence which indicates the structural and rompositional requirements of the site, and evaluates the methods currently available for study. While techniques which define the amino-acid composition of active sites are many and varied, it seems that methods which examine the st,rncture of the site and the mechanism of catalysis are still few and inadequate. However, in spite of these deficiencies, t,he author is optimistic that the next decade will see significant and exciting developments in this very active field of rrsearch. These three articles clearl? complement one another, and as a unit. present a bi,oader basis of reference for those interested in the mechanisms and controls of cnzymc action. It is well known that pyridinr and flavin nucleotides bind to apoenzymes. but knowledge of their mechanisms of binding is not yet definite. The lack of adequate methods for study has limited any development in depth in this area. However, a large amount of suggestive and indirect data have accumulated on a large number of enzyme systems, and these are reported in us+ ful and comprchtnsi\~e &tail by Shifrin and Kaplan in their article ‘Cocnzyme Binding.” Studies on binding of thiamine pyrophosphate and pyritloxal phosphate are also rrportcd. Baodilcy and Hughes re\-iew the principles and methods for svnthesizing nuclrot,idr cocnzymes and their related compounds. This class of compounds are mixrd anhydrides of nucleotides with phosphoric acid, pyrophosphoric acid or their esters, and recently have been found to participate as intermediaries in increasing numbers of biochemical reactions. Realization of their chemical propeArs will certainly add to the understanding of the principlrs governing their biosynthesis. their ftulction