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Glutathione, storage, transport and turnover in mammals
ANALYTICALBICICHEMISTRY
139,263-264(1984)
BOOK REVIEWS DNA Sequencing (Vol. 10 of Laboratory Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
Techniques
in
by J. HINDLEY with a contribution by R. Staden, Elsevier Biomedical Press, New York, 1983, 300 pp. $27.75 paper.
This book continues an excellent series on biochemical and molecular biological methods. Like the larger series, Methods in Enzymology from a different publisher, it has continuously followed the newest developments. Luberatory Techniques differs in that it favors broader treatments by a small number of contributors in each book. These books are valuable tools for students and professionals in the field of biochemistry. Emphasis is on detail sufficient to permit the design and conducting of experiments. This specific volume, by J. Hindley, thoroughly describes many of the current procedures for sequencing nucleic acids, and has a special section on computer handling of nucleic acid sequence data written by R. Staden. Both authors are pioneers in inventing and applying the techniques they describe. Hindley is at Bristol and Staden is at the MRC Lab of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. That lab and Maxam at Harvard are acknowledged for their great influence on this field. Biochemistry evolved from a tradition established by Liebig, Pasteur, and the other early chemists. In that tradition, the approach to understanding biological components is to isolate a pure biological substance; deduce as much of its biological properties as possible from a study of its effects on biological systems; determine its structure, usually by reductionist strategies in which substructures are separately examined; and, then, deduce the structure of the whole entity. Ultimate proof is obtained by synthesizing the substance and showing that its prop erties are the same as its natural form. We are now in the midst of seeing that this paradigm applies not only to small molecules and macromolecules, but to entire living things. This book deals wtih one aspect of this scientific realm, the determination of the sequence of nucleotides in nucleic acid macromolecules. Neither isolation nor reassembly of genes is covered, so that the reader will need other books to acquire the whole spectrum of procedures used in molecular biology.
The current best strategies of nucleic acid sequencing are all based on a simple idea: somehow fix on the end of the sequence and then observe what happens as the chain is progressively either shortened or lengthened. Each incremental step is accomplished by an agent that can be associated with a specific base. In the methods described here, the agents are chemical in the Maxam-Gilbert method and enzymatic in the “plus/minus” and chain termination techniques. If all goes well, the segment of a long sequence is determined by simply deciding which agent, and thus which base, is operative at each step. It is typical for hundreds of residues to be determined in a single reading. The present technology uses wondrously primitive apparatus: glass plates, gelling agents, mdioisotopes, enzymes, photographic film, and direct current. A list of sources for the exact items needed is given. In consequence of this simplicity, the technology has been widely disseminated so that the published and archived database of sequences determined by these methods in the last several years has grown to three million residues, is growing at the rate of 100,000 bases per month, and is not likely to decrease in rate. If anything, we must expect that new technology will be found to achieve increases of orders of magnitude over the generation of techniques that burst on us in 1977 and is described in this book. The methods given here are proven and workable. It is fitting that techniques for handling sequences in computers accompany the methods for determining them. Although arguably the most remarkable data ever to be obtained by science, the seemingly random sequences of characters are especially difficult data for unaided humans to handle without introducing errors or omissions, probably because their patterns are difficult to detect visually and aurally. Such data are ideally suited for machines, being very simple, repetitive, precise, and valuable. In this field new techniques appear frequently. This book will be useful as an introduction and a starting point from which a serious student will follow the journals to keep up with the inevitable new developments. JACOB
V. MAIZEL.JR.
Briefly Noted Glutathione,
Storage,
Transport
mals, Edited by Y. SAKAMOTO,
and Turnover in MamT. JIGASHI, AND N.
T~~~~~~~,JapanScientificSocietk~Press,
Tokyo/VW
Science Press BV, Utrecht, 1983. 202 pp. 263
0003-2697184 $3.00 Copyright 0 1984 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
139,263-264(1984)
BOOK REVIEWS DNA Sequencing (Vol. 10 of Laboratory Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
Techniques
in
by J. HINDLEY with a contribution by R. Staden, Elsevier Biomedical Press, New York, 1983, 300 pp. $27.75 paper.
This book continues an excellent series on biochemical and molecular biological methods. Like the larger series, Methods in Enzymology from a different publisher, it has continuously followed the newest developments. Luberatory Techniques differs in that it favors broader treatments by a small number of contributors in each book. These books are valuable tools for students and professionals in the field of biochemistry. Emphasis is on detail sufficient to permit the design and conducting of experiments. This specific volume, by J. Hindley, thoroughly describes many of the current procedures for sequencing nucleic acids, and has a special section on computer handling of nucleic acid sequence data written by R. Staden. Both authors are pioneers in inventing and applying the techniques they describe. Hindley is at Bristol and Staden is at the MRC Lab of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. That lab and Maxam at Harvard are acknowledged for their great influence on this field. Biochemistry evolved from a tradition established by Liebig, Pasteur, and the other early chemists. In that tradition, the approach to understanding biological components is to isolate a pure biological substance; deduce as much of its biological properties as possible from a study of its effects on biological systems; determine its structure, usually by reductionist strategies in which substructures are separately examined; and, then, deduce the structure of the whole entity. Ultimate proof is obtained by synthesizing the substance and showing that its prop erties are the same as its natural form. We are now in the midst of seeing that this paradigm applies not only to small molecules and macromolecules, but to entire living things. This book deals wtih one aspect of this scientific realm, the determination of the sequence of nucleotides in nucleic acid macromolecules. Neither isolation nor reassembly of genes is covered, so that the reader will need other books to acquire the whole spectrum of procedures used in molecular biology.
The current best strategies of nucleic acid sequencing are all based on a simple idea: somehow fix on the end of the sequence and then observe what happens as the chain is progressively either shortened or lengthened. Each incremental step is accomplished by an agent that can be associated with a specific base. In the methods described here, the agents are chemical in the Maxam-Gilbert method and enzymatic in the “plus/minus” and chain termination techniques. If all goes well, the segment of a long sequence is determined by simply deciding which agent, and thus which base, is operative at each step. It is typical for hundreds of residues to be determined in a single reading. The present technology uses wondrously primitive apparatus: glass plates, gelling agents, mdioisotopes, enzymes, photographic film, and direct current. A list of sources for the exact items needed is given. In consequence of this simplicity, the technology has been widely disseminated so that the published and archived database of sequences determined by these methods in the last several years has grown to three million residues, is growing at the rate of 100,000 bases per month, and is not likely to decrease in rate. If anything, we must expect that new technology will be found to achieve increases of orders of magnitude over the generation of techniques that burst on us in 1977 and is described in this book. The methods given here are proven and workable. It is fitting that techniques for handling sequences in computers accompany the methods for determining them. Although arguably the most remarkable data ever to be obtained by science, the seemingly random sequences of characters are especially difficult data for unaided humans to handle without introducing errors or omissions, probably because their patterns are difficult to detect visually and aurally. Such data are ideally suited for machines, being very simple, repetitive, precise, and valuable. In this field new techniques appear frequently. This book will be useful as an introduction and a starting point from which a serious student will follow the journals to keep up with the inevitable new developments. JACOB
V. MAIZEL.JR.
Briefly Noted Glutathione,
Storage,
Transport
mals, Edited by Y. SAKAMOTO,
and Turnover in MamT. JIGASHI, AND N.
T~~~~~~~,JapanScientificSocietk~Press,
Tokyo/VW
Science Press BV, Utrecht, 1983. 202 pp. 263
0003-2697184 $3.00 Copyright 0 1984 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.