- Email: [email protected]
Biochemistry of Bacterial Growth, 3rd Edition
90 Advances in
Red Blood Cell Biology
Edited by D J Weatherall, G FioreUi and S Gorini. pp 424. Raven Press, New York. 1982. ISBN 0 - 8 9 0 0 4 - 7 5 5 - 3 Two of the most heterogeneous abnormalities that result in severe, frequently fatal, blood disease in man are the thalassaemias (hereditary deficiencies in production of one or other of the polypeptide chains that comprise the haemoglobin family of molecules), and the haemolytic anaemias that for nearly a quarter century have been associated with deficiency of erythrocyte glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Both are widely distributed throughout the world but occur in very high frequencies in parts of Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia where they have been under investigation for several decades. It is no surprise therefore that an International Symposium on Advances in Red Cell Biology, held under World Health Organisation sponsorship in Florence, Italy, in March 1981, should address itself to these two conditions and to the closely related topic of iron metabolism, even though the title suggests a much broader coverage of topics. This volume contains the 43 papers that were presented at the Symposium. Almost half are from laboratories in Italy or Sardinia, the rest from laboratories in England (especially that of the senior editor), USA, Israel, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Thailand. Though some axe brief reviews, the majority contain original results. A b o u t a quarter have a single author, the rest have up to a dozen. Most are written well, while a few could have done with help from the editors. The table of contents groups these papers under six headings of which the first two axe Iron Metabolism and Iron Overload. These deal mainly with the biology of transferrin and the ferritins and with cellular and treatment aspects of iron overload respectively. The next two headings are Molecular Aspects of Haemoglobin Switching and Cellular Basis of Haemoglobin Switch. Papers here are on structure, organisation, and expression of the two clusters of human globin genes, on various forms o f thalassaemia, and on the regulation of synthesis of fetal haemoglobin. Glucose 6-phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency and Mechanism of Hemolysis are the last two headings. A variety of aspects of this enzyme deficiency, whose genetic locus is situated on the long arm of the X-chromosome, are discussed in the papers here. A report on Red Cell Life Span in Diabetes is also included in the last section. The quality of the production and of the illustrations is good throughout, though there are a number of misprints. The subject index is adequate. Like most symposium volumes this one is meant for a specialised readership. Biochemists, clinicians, haematologlsts, and others interested in the human erythron from a research or from a clinical viewpoint will find this b o o k of interest. F Vella Structure and Function Systems
R e l a t i o n s h i p s in B i o c h e m i c a l
Edited b y F Bossa, E Chiancone, A Finazzi-Agro and R Strom.
Adv in Exptl Med & Biol Vol 148, pp 385. Plenum Press, New York, USA. 1982. This volume is the proceedings of a symposium held at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, Italy in September, 1982, to celebrate the 75th birthday of Professor Alessandro Rossi-Fanelli, director of the Institute of Biological Chemistry, University of Rome. The meeting was attended by scientists (Italian and foreign) who have been connected with the Institute. Professor Rossi-Fanelli's academic career was outlined by N Siliprandi (Italy), one of his earlier students, whilst his scienBIOCHEMICAL
EDUCATION
13(2) 1985
tific interests and collaborations were outlined by W E Blumberg (USA). Particularly fruitful was his interaction with Eraldo Antonini, which produced a total of 73 publications on Respiratory Proteins, which was one of the topics presented. The others were Mechanism of Action of Metal-Containing Enzymes; Bioenergetics, Membrane Structure and Multienzyme Complexes; Cofactor-Dependent Enzymes and Sulphur Metabolism. All of these are the main lines of investigation at the Institute of Biological Chemistry. The chapters in this b o o k are well presented and contain the recent up to date information on the topic discussed. J V Bannister Biochemistry of Bacterial Growth,
3rd Edition
Edited by J Mandelstam, K McQuiUen and I Dawes. pp 449. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. £28.00 or £15.50 (pbk) ISBN 0-632-00323-5 and ISBN 0-632-005%-3 'Mandlestam and McQuillen' used to be a recommended text for final-year biochemistry students in the reviewer's department but had dropped out of our lists because it became out-of-date (Second Edition 1973). The present b o o k follows the format of earlier editions and may seem unusual to new readers. The subject is split up into 'sections': ultrastructure, cell populations, reactions of class I (supply of C-skeletons), II (biosynthesis of small molecules) and III (macromolecular biosynthesis), genetics, metabolic coordination and regulation and differentiation. The b o o k is in two main parts: in part I the editors take the reader through a preliminary introduction of each section in order; in part II contributing authors write more advanced chapters on each section. I have always felt this format works very well and the b o o k succeeds in catering to students' needs for a ready reference back to elementary introductory material without having to blunt the edge of a more critical review chapter. The b o o k is uniformly readable and well produced. It has succeeded in making the subject matter attractive and lively for an undergraduate readership. Of the specialist (section 2) chapters I was particularly impressed with the quality of those on growth (R H Pritchard and D W Tempest), 'class III reactions' (M J Waring and McQuillen) and co-ordination (S Baumberg). This last chapter succeeds in drawing together aUosteric regulation and induction and repression. I could however, cite several examples where the authors seem to have suffered from a delay in the book's publication. Of course, editors of an undergraduate text have to be selective in their choice of material and anyone could complain about omissions. Rather than listing an unreasonable number of these, let me just point to two striking ones. Firstly there is very patchy and inadequate treatment of the streptomycetes - nothing on either their genetic systems or antibiotic biosynthesis. Perhaps one should not follow every fashion too slavishly but university teachers must keep an eye on the jobs their students are going to end up doing and the streptomycetes form by far the major source of commercial antibiotics. Similar considerations lead to the recognition of the second major omission: methanogenesis. There is a brief and inadequate footnote (in the first Appendix) on Woese's t a x o n o m y and a mention of methanogens as examples of Archaebacteria, o t h e r w i s e - nothing. Nowhere is the biochemistry of methanogenesis discussed; nor is there discussion of where the organisms get their hydrogen from; in fact the whole subject is a complete blank. In summary this is a good undergraduate text book on prokaryotic molecular biology and a good introduction to certain bacteriological topics for biochemistry students, but the b o o k has shortcomings as a modern t e x t b o o k on bacterial metabolism. J H Parish
Red Blood Cell Biology
Edited by D J Weatherall, G FioreUi and S Gorini. pp 424. Raven Press, New York. 1982. ISBN 0 - 8 9 0 0 4 - 7 5 5 - 3 Two of the most heterogeneous abnormalities that result in severe, frequently fatal, blood disease in man are the thalassaemias (hereditary deficiencies in production of one or other of the polypeptide chains that comprise the haemoglobin family of molecules), and the haemolytic anaemias that for nearly a quarter century have been associated with deficiency of erythrocyte glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Both are widely distributed throughout the world but occur in very high frequencies in parts of Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia where they have been under investigation for several decades. It is no surprise therefore that an International Symposium on Advances in Red Cell Biology, held under World Health Organisation sponsorship in Florence, Italy, in March 1981, should address itself to these two conditions and to the closely related topic of iron metabolism, even though the title suggests a much broader coverage of topics. This volume contains the 43 papers that were presented at the Symposium. Almost half are from laboratories in Italy or Sardinia, the rest from laboratories in England (especially that of the senior editor), USA, Israel, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Thailand. Though some axe brief reviews, the majority contain original results. A b o u t a quarter have a single author, the rest have up to a dozen. Most are written well, while a few could have done with help from the editors. The table of contents groups these papers under six headings of which the first two axe Iron Metabolism and Iron Overload. These deal mainly with the biology of transferrin and the ferritins and with cellular and treatment aspects of iron overload respectively. The next two headings are Molecular Aspects of Haemoglobin Switching and Cellular Basis of Haemoglobin Switch. Papers here are on structure, organisation, and expression of the two clusters of human globin genes, on various forms o f thalassaemia, and on the regulation of synthesis of fetal haemoglobin. Glucose 6-phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency and Mechanism of Hemolysis are the last two headings. A variety of aspects of this enzyme deficiency, whose genetic locus is situated on the long arm of the X-chromosome, are discussed in the papers here. A report on Red Cell Life Span in Diabetes is also included in the last section. The quality of the production and of the illustrations is good throughout, though there are a number of misprints. The subject index is adequate. Like most symposium volumes this one is meant for a specialised readership. Biochemists, clinicians, haematologlsts, and others interested in the human erythron from a research or from a clinical viewpoint will find this b o o k of interest. F Vella Structure and Function Systems
R e l a t i o n s h i p s in B i o c h e m i c a l
Edited b y F Bossa, E Chiancone, A Finazzi-Agro and R Strom.
Adv in Exptl Med & Biol Vol 148, pp 385. Plenum Press, New York, USA. 1982. This volume is the proceedings of a symposium held at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, Italy in September, 1982, to celebrate the 75th birthday of Professor Alessandro Rossi-Fanelli, director of the Institute of Biological Chemistry, University of Rome. The meeting was attended by scientists (Italian and foreign) who have been connected with the Institute. Professor Rossi-Fanelli's academic career was outlined by N Siliprandi (Italy), one of his earlier students, whilst his scienBIOCHEMICAL
EDUCATION
13(2) 1985
tific interests and collaborations were outlined by W E Blumberg (USA). Particularly fruitful was his interaction with Eraldo Antonini, which produced a total of 73 publications on Respiratory Proteins, which was one of the topics presented. The others were Mechanism of Action of Metal-Containing Enzymes; Bioenergetics, Membrane Structure and Multienzyme Complexes; Cofactor-Dependent Enzymes and Sulphur Metabolism. All of these are the main lines of investigation at the Institute of Biological Chemistry. The chapters in this b o o k are well presented and contain the recent up to date information on the topic discussed. J V Bannister Biochemistry of Bacterial Growth,
3rd Edition
Edited by J Mandelstam, K McQuiUen and I Dawes. pp 449. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. £28.00 or £15.50 (pbk) ISBN 0-632-00323-5 and ISBN 0-632-005%-3 'Mandlestam and McQuillen' used to be a recommended text for final-year biochemistry students in the reviewer's department but had dropped out of our lists because it became out-of-date (Second Edition 1973). The present b o o k follows the format of earlier editions and may seem unusual to new readers. The subject is split up into 'sections': ultrastructure, cell populations, reactions of class I (supply of C-skeletons), II (biosynthesis of small molecules) and III (macromolecular biosynthesis), genetics, metabolic coordination and regulation and differentiation. The b o o k is in two main parts: in part I the editors take the reader through a preliminary introduction of each section in order; in part II contributing authors write more advanced chapters on each section. I have always felt this format works very well and the b o o k succeeds in catering to students' needs for a ready reference back to elementary introductory material without having to blunt the edge of a more critical review chapter. The b o o k is uniformly readable and well produced. It has succeeded in making the subject matter attractive and lively for an undergraduate readership. Of the specialist (section 2) chapters I was particularly impressed with the quality of those on growth (R H Pritchard and D W Tempest), 'class III reactions' (M J Waring and McQuillen) and co-ordination (S Baumberg). This last chapter succeeds in drawing together aUosteric regulation and induction and repression. I could however, cite several examples where the authors seem to have suffered from a delay in the book's publication. Of course, editors of an undergraduate text have to be selective in their choice of material and anyone could complain about omissions. Rather than listing an unreasonable number of these, let me just point to two striking ones. Firstly there is very patchy and inadequate treatment of the streptomycetes - nothing on either their genetic systems or antibiotic biosynthesis. Perhaps one should not follow every fashion too slavishly but university teachers must keep an eye on the jobs their students are going to end up doing and the streptomycetes form by far the major source of commercial antibiotics. Similar considerations lead to the recognition of the second major omission: methanogenesis. There is a brief and inadequate footnote (in the first Appendix) on Woese's t a x o n o m y and a mention of methanogens as examples of Archaebacteria, o t h e r w i s e - nothing. Nowhere is the biochemistry of methanogenesis discussed; nor is there discussion of where the organisms get their hydrogen from; in fact the whole subject is a complete blank. In summary this is a good undergraduate text book on prokaryotic molecular biology and a good introduction to certain bacteriological topics for biochemistry students, but the b o o k has shortcomings as a modern t e x t b o o k on bacterial metabolism. J H Parish