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Biochemistry through questions: Self assessment and review
52 Although at first sight I expected this book to be heavy going (consisting as it does of words, no tables, and only one illustration - - that on the cover) to my surprise, when I read it in about six or seven sittings, I found it to be not only informative, but also, in places, amusing. I enjoyed the examples and exercises presented, especially those in the final section. Since so many students nowadays graduate from high school (and also even from university) in a semiliterate state because of the emphasis that has been placed on creative writing (so called) and on speaking naturally (ie without correction) rather than on the skills of effective writing (eg grammar, spelling, punctuation) by the schools, this book has a large potential readership. F Vella
Biochemistry Through Questions: Self Assessment and Review P W Kuchel and G B Ralston. pp 197. McGraw-Hill, S y d n e y , Australia. 1993. £11.50 ISBN 0-07-4770019-7 There are 379 multiple choice questions in this book organised into 17 subject areas. The subject development makes it a companion to Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems in Biochemistry, but it stands well by itself as a general compendium of questions to any traditional basic biochemistry course. All questions are posed with five choices, only one of which is to be selected, so there is no confusion of expectation in answering. The explanation of the correct answers is located at the end of each section and is often as fulsome as the question. This justifies the authors prefatory comments of hope that "the book fulfils a didactic purpose beyond being a test-run for impending examinations". Many questions about physical principles and enzyme kinetics have numeric answers and require a calculator to perform which should assist with students' numeracy skills. It was a pleasure to read these well phrased and well commented questions. Although the compilation is neither extensive nor breaking new ground it is very reasonably priced and therefore attractive both to students and staff. The printing is single colour throughout with good type setting of special characters. The book has its genesis in the accumulated resources of the staff at the University of Sydney who were persuaded to share their materials by the publisher. The review copy was obtained from McGraw Hill Book Co, 4 Barcoo St, Roseville NSW, Australia 2069 and the advised price is US$15. The book is also available through McGraw-Hill, Europe, Maidenhead, UK. G R Parslow
Intracellular Protein Degradation by F J D o h e r t y and R J Mayer. pp 61. I R L Press at O x f o r d University Press. 1992. £8.95 ISB N 0 - 1 9 - 9 6 3 2 9 3 - 6 A large component of the metabolic dynamism of living organisms is due to the turnover (ie the synthesis and degradation) of their cellular (and extracellular) constituents. Chief among these constituents, in terms of variety of roles and functions, are the proteins, whose half-lives may be very short (measured in minutes or hours), intermediate (in days) or long (ranging in weeks or months). The requirements for protein synthesis are now understood in remarkable detail, as is the degradation (by proteolytic enzymes of the gastrointestinal tract) BIOCHEMICAL
EDUCATION
21(1) 1993
of dietary proteins. Only rather recently, however, has it become possible (as a result of the discovery of the protein ubiquitin, the advent of methods for the expression and site-directed mutagenesis of hybrid genes, and the availability of amino acid sequences in data banks, amongst a variety of developments) to approach the topic that is the subject of this interesting little book. The two major chapters (3 and 4) deal with mechanisms and pathways of, and molecular recognition for, intraceUular proteolysis. Here such topics as macro-, micro, and hetero-phagy, ubiquitin-, calpain-, and multicatalytic protease-mediated proteolysis, the N-end rule, and PEST, KFERQ and other signalling motifs of proteins are briefly described. The other and shorter chapters are concerned with the protein turnover 'cycle' and methods used to study intracellular proteolysis (chapters I and 2 respectively), regulation of intracellular protein turnover (in liver, mammary gland, skeletal muscle, cultured cells, and of regulatory enzymes) and protein degradation and disease (chapters 5 and 6 respectively). I found the latter chapter to be the weakest and apparently the one written in the greatest rush. The writing is terse (and in several places the meaning was not clear, or was ambiguous, to me), the illustrations appropriate and clear, and the end-of-chapter references mostly to recent publications. Honors and graduate students in biochemistry, physiology, pathology or human biology should find the book a useful and balanced introduction to its topic. F Vella
The Human Genome by T Strachan. pp 160. Bios Scientific, Oxford. 1992. £13.95 ISBN 1-872748-80-5 It is natural for me to associate this book, because of its title, with the Human Genome Project, an international effort whose objectives are to provide a detailed genetic map of all the human nuclear chromosomes (22 autosomes, X and Y) and a complete sequence of the 3 x 109 base pairs of DNA which they contain. The non-nuclear human genome (the mitochondrial one, much smaller and containing only 37 genes) has been elucidated for over a decade. This Project, when completed as planned about AD 2005, will provide a complete blueprint of the nuclear genetic information (in the form of 50 000 to 100 000 genes, which constitute about 2-3% of the nuclear DNA) that is the basis for the development of a human organism, a being so amazingly versatile and yet so frail and prone to so many ills (eg congenital abnormality, hereditary metabolic or other disease, predisposition to cancer and mental illness, etc). The book (although not directly associated with the Project) forms a good background for understanding the Project and the methods which are currently in use. Its author is at the University Department of Medical Genetics in Manchester (UK). His aim is to provide "a concise description of our current knowledge of the human genome and the ways in which it is influencing medical research and practice" (from the Preface). He has done this remarkably well, although the non-specialist (indicated in the Preface as a target reader) may find the contents far from easy. There are six chapters of nearly equal size. Genomic organisation and expression, and evolution and polymorphism, respectively, are the subject matter of the first two chapters. The succeeding two deal with methods of analysis of human DNA and of genome mapping, while the last two are concerned with human disease genes and with clinical and research applications of current and expected knowledge of the human genome. Both the nuclear and the mitoehondrial
Biochemistry Through Questions: Self Assessment and Review P W Kuchel and G B Ralston. pp 197. McGraw-Hill, S y d n e y , Australia. 1993. £11.50 ISBN 0-07-4770019-7 There are 379 multiple choice questions in this book organised into 17 subject areas. The subject development makes it a companion to Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems in Biochemistry, but it stands well by itself as a general compendium of questions to any traditional basic biochemistry course. All questions are posed with five choices, only one of which is to be selected, so there is no confusion of expectation in answering. The explanation of the correct answers is located at the end of each section and is often as fulsome as the question. This justifies the authors prefatory comments of hope that "the book fulfils a didactic purpose beyond being a test-run for impending examinations". Many questions about physical principles and enzyme kinetics have numeric answers and require a calculator to perform which should assist with students' numeracy skills. It was a pleasure to read these well phrased and well commented questions. Although the compilation is neither extensive nor breaking new ground it is very reasonably priced and therefore attractive both to students and staff. The printing is single colour throughout with good type setting of special characters. The book has its genesis in the accumulated resources of the staff at the University of Sydney who were persuaded to share their materials by the publisher. The review copy was obtained from McGraw Hill Book Co, 4 Barcoo St, Roseville NSW, Australia 2069 and the advised price is US$15. The book is also available through McGraw-Hill, Europe, Maidenhead, UK. G R Parslow
Intracellular Protein Degradation by F J D o h e r t y and R J Mayer. pp 61. I R L Press at O x f o r d University Press. 1992. £8.95 ISB N 0 - 1 9 - 9 6 3 2 9 3 - 6 A large component of the metabolic dynamism of living organisms is due to the turnover (ie the synthesis and degradation) of their cellular (and extracellular) constituents. Chief among these constituents, in terms of variety of roles and functions, are the proteins, whose half-lives may be very short (measured in minutes or hours), intermediate (in days) or long (ranging in weeks or months). The requirements for protein synthesis are now understood in remarkable detail, as is the degradation (by proteolytic enzymes of the gastrointestinal tract) BIOCHEMICAL
EDUCATION
21(1) 1993
of dietary proteins. Only rather recently, however, has it become possible (as a result of the discovery of the protein ubiquitin, the advent of methods for the expression and site-directed mutagenesis of hybrid genes, and the availability of amino acid sequences in data banks, amongst a variety of developments) to approach the topic that is the subject of this interesting little book. The two major chapters (3 and 4) deal with mechanisms and pathways of, and molecular recognition for, intraceUular proteolysis. Here such topics as macro-, micro, and hetero-phagy, ubiquitin-, calpain-, and multicatalytic protease-mediated proteolysis, the N-end rule, and PEST, KFERQ and other signalling motifs of proteins are briefly described. The other and shorter chapters are concerned with the protein turnover 'cycle' and methods used to study intracellular proteolysis (chapters I and 2 respectively), regulation of intracellular protein turnover (in liver, mammary gland, skeletal muscle, cultured cells, and of regulatory enzymes) and protein degradation and disease (chapters 5 and 6 respectively). I found the latter chapter to be the weakest and apparently the one written in the greatest rush. The writing is terse (and in several places the meaning was not clear, or was ambiguous, to me), the illustrations appropriate and clear, and the end-of-chapter references mostly to recent publications. Honors and graduate students in biochemistry, physiology, pathology or human biology should find the book a useful and balanced introduction to its topic. F Vella
The Human Genome by T Strachan. pp 160. Bios Scientific, Oxford. 1992. £13.95 ISBN 1-872748-80-5 It is natural for me to associate this book, because of its title, with the Human Genome Project, an international effort whose objectives are to provide a detailed genetic map of all the human nuclear chromosomes (22 autosomes, X and Y) and a complete sequence of the 3 x 109 base pairs of DNA which they contain. The non-nuclear human genome (the mitochondrial one, much smaller and containing only 37 genes) has been elucidated for over a decade. This Project, when completed as planned about AD 2005, will provide a complete blueprint of the nuclear genetic information (in the form of 50 000 to 100 000 genes, which constitute about 2-3% of the nuclear DNA) that is the basis for the development of a human organism, a being so amazingly versatile and yet so frail and prone to so many ills (eg congenital abnormality, hereditary metabolic or other disease, predisposition to cancer and mental illness, etc). The book (although not directly associated with the Project) forms a good background for understanding the Project and the methods which are currently in use. Its author is at the University Department of Medical Genetics in Manchester (UK). His aim is to provide "a concise description of our current knowledge of the human genome and the ways in which it is influencing medical research and practice" (from the Preface). He has done this remarkably well, although the non-specialist (indicated in the Preface as a target reader) may find the contents far from easy. There are six chapters of nearly equal size. Genomic organisation and expression, and evolution and polymorphism, respectively, are the subject matter of the first two chapters. The succeeding two deal with methods of analysis of human DNA and of genome mapping, while the last two are concerned with human disease genes and with clinical and research applications of current and expected knowledge of the human genome. Both the nuclear and the mitoehondrial