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Bacterial Outer Membranes: Biogenesis and Functions
44
Recent Advances in the Chemistry o f B-Lactam Antibiotics: Second International Symposium Edited by G 1 ( ; r e g o r y . pp .378. Royal Society o f C h e m i s t r y , L o n d o n , U K . 1981. ~16 ISBN 0-8518&-815-0 This vohnne represents the proceedings o f a highly successful international meeting held in Cambridge, UK in July 198(I. It contains thirty, mainly original, papers which cover a range of aspects on these vcry useful antibiotics, including articles on their synthesis and hcmi-synthcsis, biosynthesis and structure-activity relationships. The fascination o f this subject is enhanccd by the way it is continuously growing and developing. Not only are new structural types continually being discovercd but much more is becoming apparent about their mode o f action aim the means whcrcby micro-organisms devch)p resistance. hlcludcd in the latter is thc mcchanism whcrcby bactcria frcqucntly produce special enzymes, the I~-lactamascs, which destroy the []-lactam antibiotics before they reach their targets. As a consequence, chemical attention is increasingly being given to 13-1actam derivatives which are capable of inhibiting these 13-1actamases, All o f t h c above Facets o f the subject are covered in this volume, which includes many papers by leading authorities in this area, The discovery o f newcr structural systems, such as those o f the clavulanic and thienamycin types has given a major impetus to synthetic studies and the majority of thc contributions report on such chemical work and the structure-activity relationships o f the products. The volunle is produced in a soft-back cover, being printed by a direct-camera copy process, which works well in this instance; tile major advantages arc freedom from errors, and a minimal price. There is no general introduction so that the volume is primarily o f use to the expert. Anyone with an interest in antibiotic chemistry will, nevertheless, find something in this volume to their taste. The articles are, in general, well written with plenty o f tabulated data and structural drawings. The timc-gap between thc mcctmg and the publication o f this volume has bccu kcpt to lcss than ninc months, a ¿hctor which is critical to kccp the contents topical on this fast-moving subject. To conclude, anyone working on B-lactam antibiotics should have a personal copy of this book. P G Sammes Dqmrtment qf Or~anic Chemistry U, it,ersity q( Leeds Leeds, [ TK
Bacterial Outer Membranes: Biogenesis and Functions E d i t e d b y M I n o u y e . J o h n Wiley lntersciencc, N e w York. 1979. ~31.70 I S B N 0-471-04676-0 This book is rather too specialized for the average biochenlistry course (after all we can't teach them everything, can we?) and for this reason alone the review is short. It is nevertheless an authoritative and extremely useful publication. The envelope o f Gram-negative bacteria constitutes an extremely complicated structure with many unique features exploited by a group o f organisms, the Gram-negative bacteria, that are anlong the most successful forms o f life to have evolved on our planet. The outer membrane differs from other biological membranes in its low phospholipid content, its relatively small variety of different membrane proteins, the unique linkage o f one of these (the Braun lipoprotcin) to peptideoglycan and the micropolysaccharide (LTS). A particularly fascinating area o f research concerns tile role of outer menlbrane matrix proteins in generating pores in the membrane and in specific fusion with the cytoplasmic membrane. The components o f the outer membrane are introduced by Inouye. The rest o f the book is in two parts. Part 1 concerns biogenesis and contains eight chapters. O f particular value are the ones by Halegoua and Inouye on membrane protein biosynthesis with particular reference to the lipoprotein (the commonest protein in terms o f numbers of molecules of the entire ceil), a mainly ultrastructural study ofouter-cytoplasntic fusion processes (Bayer) and the creation of hybrid cytoplasnlic-nlcmbranc protein genes by genetic manipulation it1 vivo involving phage Mu (Beckwith and others). Part I[ (five chapters) covers fhnctions and includes the role o f the outer membrane and its components in transport and phage adsorption, conjugation, chemotaxis, and pathogenesis. Any muhi-author volume (this one has eighteen contributors) presents a highly authoritative account at the cost o f uniformity. Some o f the contributors have succeeded in relating and cross-refi_'rring thcir chapters to the rest o f the book. Others seem to be writing review articles in a vacuum. Nevertheless the book is o f a high quality and forms an exccllcnt work o f reference. J H Parish
Outlines o f Receptor Theory The Human Circulation (Second Edition) b y E Neil
(Carolina B i o l o g y R e a d e r N o 82). ~0.80
lu this brief (sixtccn-page) revision o f a topic which occupies a great deal morc space in many school advanced-level texts, the author has wisely concentrated on onc particular aspect o f his subject - - in this case the control mechanisms built in to the system rather than its straightforward anatomy. On thc whole this approach has been successful since this area is often neglected or poorly presented in the same texts rd~zrred to above. The written explanations arc clcar and easy to follow, and particularly worthy o f note is the constant reference to homeostatic mechanisms - - a concentration which will please both tcachcrs and students involved with any o f the more modern biology courscs. Similarly the illustrations are generally clear and easily related ~o the text, ahhough the enormous amount o f information included in Fig 5 'pressure drop along scrics-coupled vascular sections' was too much to digest at one sitting. Despite the usefulness of this approach, the brief references to anatomy could prove mislcading - - 'the two grcat veins . . . return thc blood to thc right atritun and right ventricle' and ' . . . via the pulmonary veins to tile left atrium and left ventricle' could be misleading. Fig 1 is similarly confusing, showing ncithcr an hepatic artery nor a mesentenic vein without any explanation o f their 'absence'. Apart from thcse minor blcmishcs - - which an A-level student should sort out for h i m s e l f - - the booklet represents a worthwhile addition to a rcfcrcncc library in school or college. Ron Pickering (;ordonstom~ S,lwol El qm, UK
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 10 (1) 1982
b y J M B o e y n a e m s a n d J E D u m o n t . p p 226. N o r t h - H o l l a n d B i o m e d i c a l Press, 1980. Dfl 122 I S B N 0--444-80131-6
Elsevier/
Despite the word 'outlines' in its title, this book seems to me to cover receptor theory to considerable depth, and shows some similarity in the thoroughness o f its treatment o f the theory to the book by Segel on Enzyme Kinetics that was reviewed in Biochemical Education (vol 4, p 16, Jan 1976) a few years ago. The pages of both books are liberally sprinkled with equations and illustrative graphs. Chapter one gives an excellent summary of the many graphical methods that have sprouted in the literature to analyse simple binding phenomena, and shows their analogy to the longer-established methods o f dealing with the Michaelis-Menten equation. Chapters two and three are concerned with saturation functions, including Hill and Adair equations, while chapter four considers the Monod, Wyman and Changeux and the Koshland, Ncmcthy and Fihncr models. In ctlaptcr five, the assumption that the response obtained is proportional to the degree o f ligand binding is discarded, and various possibilities are described. Chapter six considers signal transmission beyond the receptor, and chapter seven discusses the possible results o f the ligand itself being chelated, aggregated, dissociated or degraded. The subject of chapter eight is antagonism, and chapter nine describes the interpretation o f experimental data. The final chapter very briefly speculates on the nature o f 'real' receptors as opposed to the theoretical ones that have been the main subject of the book. Some 170 references are given. Clearly a fairly specialized work, it will appeal to the mathematicallyconversant reader. I) G Herries
Recent Advances in the Chemistry o f B-Lactam Antibiotics: Second International Symposium Edited by G 1 ( ; r e g o r y . pp .378. Royal Society o f C h e m i s t r y , L o n d o n , U K . 1981. ~16 ISBN 0-8518&-815-0 This vohnne represents the proceedings o f a highly successful international meeting held in Cambridge, UK in July 198(I. It contains thirty, mainly original, papers which cover a range of aspects on these vcry useful antibiotics, including articles on their synthesis and hcmi-synthcsis, biosynthesis and structure-activity relationships. The fascination o f this subject is enhanccd by the way it is continuously growing and developing. Not only are new structural types continually being discovercd but much more is becoming apparent about their mode o f action aim the means whcrcby micro-organisms devch)p resistance. hlcludcd in the latter is thc mcchanism whcrcby bactcria frcqucntly produce special enzymes, the I~-lactamascs, which destroy the []-lactam antibiotics before they reach their targets. As a consequence, chemical attention is increasingly being given to 13-1actam derivatives which are capable of inhibiting these 13-1actamases, All o f t h c above Facets o f the subject are covered in this volume, which includes many papers by leading authorities in this area, The discovery o f newcr structural systems, such as those o f the clavulanic and thienamycin types has given a major impetus to synthetic studies and the majority of thc contributions report on such chemical work and the structure-activity relationships o f the products. The volunle is produced in a soft-back cover, being printed by a direct-camera copy process, which works well in this instance; tile major advantages arc freedom from errors, and a minimal price. There is no general introduction so that the volume is primarily o f use to the expert. Anyone with an interest in antibiotic chemistry will, nevertheless, find something in this volume to their taste. The articles are, in general, well written with plenty o f tabulated data and structural drawings. The timc-gap between thc mcctmg and the publication o f this volume has bccu kcpt to lcss than ninc months, a ¿hctor which is critical to kccp the contents topical on this fast-moving subject. To conclude, anyone working on B-lactam antibiotics should have a personal copy of this book. P G Sammes Dqmrtment qf Or~anic Chemistry U, it,ersity q( Leeds Leeds, [ TK
Bacterial Outer Membranes: Biogenesis and Functions E d i t e d b y M I n o u y e . J o h n Wiley lntersciencc, N e w York. 1979. ~31.70 I S B N 0-471-04676-0 This book is rather too specialized for the average biochenlistry course (after all we can't teach them everything, can we?) and for this reason alone the review is short. It is nevertheless an authoritative and extremely useful publication. The envelope o f Gram-negative bacteria constitutes an extremely complicated structure with many unique features exploited by a group o f organisms, the Gram-negative bacteria, that are anlong the most successful forms o f life to have evolved on our planet. The outer membrane differs from other biological membranes in its low phospholipid content, its relatively small variety of different membrane proteins, the unique linkage o f one of these (the Braun lipoprotcin) to peptideoglycan and the micropolysaccharide (LTS). A particularly fascinating area o f research concerns tile role of outer menlbrane matrix proteins in generating pores in the membrane and in specific fusion with the cytoplasmic membrane. The components o f the outer membrane are introduced by Inouye. The rest o f the book is in two parts. Part 1 concerns biogenesis and contains eight chapters. O f particular value are the ones by Halegoua and Inouye on membrane protein biosynthesis with particular reference to the lipoprotein (the commonest protein in terms o f numbers of molecules of the entire ceil), a mainly ultrastructural study ofouter-cytoplasntic fusion processes (Bayer) and the creation of hybrid cytoplasnlic-nlcmbranc protein genes by genetic manipulation it1 vivo involving phage Mu (Beckwith and others). Part I[ (five chapters) covers fhnctions and includes the role o f the outer membrane and its components in transport and phage adsorption, conjugation, chemotaxis, and pathogenesis. Any muhi-author volume (this one has eighteen contributors) presents a highly authoritative account at the cost o f uniformity. Some o f the contributors have succeeded in relating and cross-refi_'rring thcir chapters to the rest o f the book. Others seem to be writing review articles in a vacuum. Nevertheless the book is o f a high quality and forms an exccllcnt work o f reference. J H Parish
Outlines o f Receptor Theory The Human Circulation (Second Edition) b y E Neil
(Carolina B i o l o g y R e a d e r N o 82). ~0.80
lu this brief (sixtccn-page) revision o f a topic which occupies a great deal morc space in many school advanced-level texts, the author has wisely concentrated on onc particular aspect o f his subject - - in this case the control mechanisms built in to the system rather than its straightforward anatomy. On thc whole this approach has been successful since this area is often neglected or poorly presented in the same texts rd~zrred to above. The written explanations arc clcar and easy to follow, and particularly worthy o f note is the constant reference to homeostatic mechanisms - - a concentration which will please both tcachcrs and students involved with any o f the more modern biology courscs. Similarly the illustrations are generally clear and easily related ~o the text, ahhough the enormous amount o f information included in Fig 5 'pressure drop along scrics-coupled vascular sections' was too much to digest at one sitting. Despite the usefulness of this approach, the brief references to anatomy could prove mislcading - - 'the two grcat veins . . . return thc blood to thc right atritun and right ventricle' and ' . . . via the pulmonary veins to tile left atrium and left ventricle' could be misleading. Fig 1 is similarly confusing, showing ncithcr an hepatic artery nor a mesentenic vein without any explanation o f their 'absence'. Apart from thcse minor blcmishcs - - which an A-level student should sort out for h i m s e l f - - the booklet represents a worthwhile addition to a rcfcrcncc library in school or college. Ron Pickering (;ordonstom~ S,lwol El qm, UK
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 10 (1) 1982
b y J M B o e y n a e m s a n d J E D u m o n t . p p 226. N o r t h - H o l l a n d B i o m e d i c a l Press, 1980. Dfl 122 I S B N 0--444-80131-6
Elsevier/
Despite the word 'outlines' in its title, this book seems to me to cover receptor theory to considerable depth, and shows some similarity in the thoroughness o f its treatment o f the theory to the book by Segel on Enzyme Kinetics that was reviewed in Biochemical Education (vol 4, p 16, Jan 1976) a few years ago. The pages of both books are liberally sprinkled with equations and illustrative graphs. Chapter one gives an excellent summary of the many graphical methods that have sprouted in the literature to analyse simple binding phenomena, and shows their analogy to the longer-established methods o f dealing with the Michaelis-Menten equation. Chapters two and three are concerned with saturation functions, including Hill and Adair equations, while chapter four considers the Monod, Wyman and Changeux and the Koshland, Ncmcthy and Fihncr models. In ctlaptcr five, the assumption that the response obtained is proportional to the degree o f ligand binding is discarded, and various possibilities are described. Chapter six considers signal transmission beyond the receptor, and chapter seven discusses the possible results o f the ligand itself being chelated, aggregated, dissociated or degraded. The subject of chapter eight is antagonism, and chapter nine describes the interpretation o f experimental data. The final chapter very briefly speculates on the nature o f 'real' receptors as opposed to the theoretical ones that have been the main subject of the book. Some 170 references are given. Clearly a fairly specialized work, it will appeal to the mathematicallyconversant reader. I) G Herries