Immunology

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binding states. Similarities between these provide the unifying concept for the book. The last half of the book includes theories of multiple strand helix association in DNA and collagen chains, single strand helix-coil transitions in polypeptides, polyelectrolyte titrations, ion-binding to DNA, surface-binding, and double helix formation between one long strand and complementary fragments. The final chapter concerns the dependences of helix probabilities of biopolymers on specific sequences. Although there is relatively little discussion of experiments, the author

does provide, in some cases, values of thermodynamic parameters derived from appropriate experiments. Many of these topics on helix equilibria were treated in more detail in his earlier book ‘Theory of Helix-Coil Transitions in Biopolymers’ by D. Poland and H. A. Scheraga. There is much tedious unenlightening algebraic detail; there are abundant, although usually obvious, errors in many of the intermediate expressions. Carelessness is also evident in some of the calculated results; magnitudes are correct, but numbers are sometimes inexact. There is a

Well organized and clear membrane text Molecular Specialization and Symmetry in Membrane Function Harvard Books in Biophysics, No. 2 edited by Arthur K. Solomon and Manfred Karnovsky, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts, London, 197%. $22.50 (xi + 340 pages) ISBN 0 674 58179 2

This book is apparently a collection of the presentations made at a symposium in 1976 in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the Biophysical Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. The major topic covered is the energetics and mechanism of transport across biological membranes. Kaback and his co-workers describe studies of such transport in membrane vesicles from bacteria. Hoffman and Post discuss the Na-K pump in mammalian cell membranes; Hinkle deals with proton translocation in submitochondrial particles; and Passow and Zaki take up anion transport in erythrocytes. Solute-coupled water transport (Boulapep) and sodium transport (Whittembury et al.) in the kidney are also discussed. Schultz deals with transepithe1iaI ion transport. Other aspects of membrane structure and function are also examined. The isolation, characteristics, topology, and function of a number of membrane proteins oligomeric membrane proteins such as cytochrome oxidase and cytochrome b, (Cabral et al.), cholinergic receptors of Torpedo Marmorata (Cohen), and the band 3 protein of the red blood cell (Rothstein) - are described in some detail. Asymmetric aspects of epithelia (Kinne and Kinne-Saffran) and of the phospholipid bilayer of the membrane (Thompson) are also dealt with. (Why the word ‘symmetry’ instead of ‘asymmetry’ in the book’s title, one wonders?) In the first article of the book, Palade discusses mem-

brane biogenesis, with heavy emphasis on the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; while in the second article Griffith and Post take up general aspects of lipidprotein interactions. Most of the articles in this book contain at least a short review of their subject and a number contain a substantial and very valuable review. In most cases some experimental details, including the most recent, are also presented. However, in general, central concepts and questions, problems, and criticisms are emphasized over experimental details, which I found to be very worthwhile. The average level of writing in this book is high in terms of organization and clarity. In addition, very good use is made of figures and tables. Other aspects of the book I was less satisfied with. Why this particular combination of subjects? The particular compromise chosen between depth and breadth of coverage left me hungry both for more depth and breadth. What are the latest findings concerning the biogenesis of the phospholipid bilayer of membranes? Why do so many investigators, including several of the authors in this book, accept the fluid mosaic model of membrane structure so unquestioningly, when it is clear that at least in some systems membrane components do not diffuse freely in the lateral plane of the membrane? What do we know now about the topology of chloroplast and endoplasmic reticulum membranes? Another problem is that the articles in this book are now about a year and a half out of date, but this seems to be a problem inherent in putting together any such book. JOSEPH W. DEPIERRE

J. W. DePierre is at the University of Stockholm, Arrhenius Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry, Fack, S-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden.

notable and disappointing absence of discussions of the future topics to which such methods might be applied. The title leads one to expect more general coverage. Although the subjects arenarrow, the book would give a student the flavor of theories in the area of biopolymer conformational properties. The book also merits a cursory reading by those with more serious interests in this field. ROBERT JERNIGAN

Robert Jernigan is at the Laboratory of Theoretical Biology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland20014, U.S.A.

One of the best immunology textbooks Immunology by Leroy E. Hood, Irving L. Weissman and William B. Wood, The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc., Menlo Park, Massachusetts; Reading, California; London; Amsterdam; Don Mills, Ontario; Sydney; 1978. E12.00 (xii + 467pages) ISBN 0 8053 4405 5

There is no shortage of immunology textbooks on the market, but this new one should not be received with sighs only. It is probably one of the best. According to the authors’ own Preface, it aims at three audiences: undergraduate and graduate students taking a first course in immunology; doctoral students in health professions doing course work in immunology; and physicians wishing a text suitable for self-instruction with which to review modern immunology. This may sound too medical for the taste and needs of a biochemist, but I don’t think it actually is, provided he belongs to the vast section of biochemists ambitious to make contributions of their own which relate to the general field of health. The book is divided into five chapters: The Immune System; Immunopathology ; Antibodies; Molecular Recognition at all Surfaces; and Cancer Biology and Immunology. Already by the emphasis implied by this division and ordering of the subject matter of immunology the book diverts from the common track of textbooks. There are 200 pages to read before one gets to the structure of antibody molecules. I personally do not think that matters, and the impatient biochemist could probably begin with chapter 3 before deciding if the rest looks worth his reading.

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Chapter 4 is the most unconventional part of the book, and in my opinion, together with chapter 3, also the best. Chapter 4 probes beyond the visual field allowed by the usual immunoglobulinblinkers of immunologists. It looks at alternative, or additional, mechanisms by which cell membranes may feel their way around in dealing with macromolecules on other cells (be they self or foreign), This means including not only the major histocompatibility systems of vertebrates but also invertebrate cell-cell recognition systems, carbohydrate binding proteins of plant and animal origins, and an excellent account of the fantastic potential for diversity which is invested in the ways by which a low number of monosaccharides can be arranged in the oligosaccharide moiety of glycoproteins or glycolipids of cell membranes. The book is on the whole particularly good in its attempts to integrate current knowledge of immunoglobulins, histocompatibility immunogen-

etics, and cell membrane biology into an evolutionary perspective. In spite of its apparent medical bias the book is in fact very far from being a textbook of clinical immunology. For example, chapter 2 on immunopathology is not so much an application of immunology to disease control as it is an account of ways in which the study of human deviations from normality in the immune apparatus has contributed to current understanding of immunology. Chapter 5 is rather more dogmatic than many tumour biologists would like in respect of the belief that spontaneous tumours are usually immunogenic in their host of origin. Naturally, this belief is indispensable for the further belief in immuno-surveillance, but how well does the latter concept stand up to current facts? Each of the five chapters is composed of four sections, namely (a) Essential Concepts, which present the most important general principles of each subject first,

Scholarship not sacrificed ,for readability Phytohormones and Related Compounds: A Comprehensive Treatise, Vol. 1. The Biochemistry of Phytohormones and Related Compounds edited- by D. S. Letham, P. B. Goodwin and T. J. V. Higgins, published by Elsevierl North- Holland Biomedical Press, Amstetdam, New York and Oxford, 1978. $99.50 (Of/. 224.00) (xxvi + 641 pages) ISBN 0 444 80053 0

I viewed this volume with some apprehension when it first arrived on my desk, for I have come to expect the worst of ‘comprehensive’ surveys of the biochemistry of plant hormones. This is a field of research which has been beset by collectors and cataloguers who show little concern for the functions of the hormones they identify. I need not have feared, for the editors have succeeded in presenting us with an informative and challenging series of reviews which deal not only with the biochemistry, but also begin to probe into the physiological functions of the major and minor phytohormones. Editing this treatise was by no means a sinecure, because the editors themselves have written or contributed to no less than seven of the eleven chapters. It is probably this degree of involvement of the editors that has led to a uniformly high standard

of achievement which is rare in multiauthor works. There are separate chapters dealing with auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, ethylene and abscisic acid, followed by an invaluable survey of the numerous growth regulators which do not come within these five principal groups. The last four chapters then deal with functions at the subcellular level, covering topics such as receptor sites, action on membranes, organelles and cell walls, and there is a survey of effects on photosynthesis, respiration and several aspects of metabolism. Responses to hormones in terms of enzyme activity are concisely summarized in a nine-page table which deals with over 100 different enzymes. The last two chapters deal with hormone-stimulated acids and postchanges in nucleic transcriptional events. Perhaps the most impressive feature of this book is its readability. An enormous

amount of material drawn from thousands of original papers is presented in a style which will appeal to students, without any sacrifice of the level of scholarship demanded by research workers. The chapter I enjoyed most was the first, entitled ‘Phytohormones in Retrospect’, written by the three editors and J. V. Jacobsen. This is described in the Preface as “a historical and somewhat critical essay which is intended primarily for ‘be

followed by more detailed information in subparagraphs, (b) Selected Bibliography, which is far from exhaustive and not properly correlated with the text but which gives useful suggestions to the reader who wants to know more, (c) Problems, and (d) Answers. The problem (and answer) sections are perhaps the most valuable parts of the book. They take up about one-third of each chapter and range from quite simple problems, which require no more than having read the text contained in Essential Concepts, to real research problems, which are presented in connection with experimental data from the literature. The problem sections do in fact give the reader a good deal of information over and above that contained in the preceding text, but their principal value lies in the intellectual education of problem-solving. MORTEN Morren

Simonsen

SIMONSEN

is Professor

and Chairman of the Institute for Experimental Immunology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

ginners’ “. I suspect that there are pienty of ‘beginners’ that have been immersed in this field for many years who should regard this as compulsory reading; I count myself among them. I have not yet seen volume 2, which promises to probe into the hormonal control of growth and development, and will tackle controversial areas such as ‘florigen’ and the ‘senescence factor’. If it comes up to the high standards of volume 1, the two will soon be regarded as essential reading for plant biochemists and physiologists alike. T. A. MANSFIELD

T. A. Mansfield is Professor of Plant Physiology in the University of Lancaster, U.K.

Book Review Supplement The September issue of Trends in Biochemical Sciences will contain a major book review supplement. Publishers who wish to have their new and forthcoming books considered for review in the supplement are requested to send details to: The Staff Editor, Trends in Biochemical Sciences, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, 14A Regent Street, Cambridge CB2 IDB, U.K.