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Mutagens in our environment
XIV
trends in analyticalchemistry, vol. 2, no. 10, 1983
Maintains the high standard of the first two volumes Electron Microscopy of Proteins, Vol. 3, edited by James R. Harris, Academic Press, 1982. £27.80/$51.50 (xiii ~- 259 pages) I S B N 0 12 3276"03 9 This is the third volume in a series of four (the last of which is now in press), and it provides six further, detailed reviews of the contribution made by electron microscopy to our knowledge of the structure of individual proteins, macromolecular protein-assemblies and proteinaceous organelles. Each chapter brings together a large number of the best published and unpublished electron micrographs into a detailed, informative and well-referenced text in which the authors have sought to integrate the structural studies with functional analyses and biochemical data on the same system, to provide a comprehensive statement of our current understanding of that particular field. Herein lies the strength and value of this series, for there are no other reference works to which one may turn in which the electron microscopic data have been allowed to occupy such a substantial space or have been given such emphasis within the scope of a general review. This volume maintains the high standard set by Volumes 1 and 2, and illustrates clearly how a wide variety of electron microscopy techniques, when brought together, provide a comprehensive understandmg of a system which cannot be obtained by any single technique in isolation. Furthermore, four out of the six chapters include examples of the great power and increasing importance of diffraction and image reconstruction techniques in the structural analysis of periodic biological structures. It should be made clear that it is results which are presented here, not the procedures whereby one might undertake the electron microscopic study of proteins, knowledge of which is generally assumed by the authors. The book is divided into chapters covering: The Structure of Algal Cell Walls (K. Roberts, G . J . Mills and P.J. Shaw), Bacterial Cell Walls and Membranes (U. B. Sleytr and A. M. Glauert), Chromatin and
Chromosomal Proteins (J. R. Paulson), The Extracellular Haemoglobins and Chlorocruorins ofAnnelids (S. N. Vinogradov, O. H. Kapps and M. Ohtsuki), Electron Microscopy of Amyloid (A. S. Cohen, T. Shirahama and M. Skinner) and Tubulin and Associated Proteins (L.A. Amos). This volume is thus, like the others, not topical but eclectic, dealing at one extreme with isolated multi-subunit respiratory proteins and at the other with entire cell walls and cell membranes, while further chapters deal with the complex protein-protein assemblies of microtubules and protein-nucleic acid assemblies of
chromatin. The authors are all experts in their fields, and in many cases have themselves made the most significant original contributions. This volume, and the series as a whole, is to be highly recommended to advanced students, university teachers and research scientists alike as the best starting point for information about the physical structure of large or oligomeric proteins and multi-protein organelles which electron microscopy has done so much to reveal. DAVID M. SHOTTON Dr David M. Shotton is in the Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS UK.
Environmental mutagens Mutagens in Our Environment, Proceedings of the 12th Annual Meeting of the European Environmental Mutagen Society, edited by Maria Sorsa and Harri Vainio, Alan R. Liss, 1982. £38.00 (xix ~-504pages) I S B N 0 8451 0109 9 This book documents 38 contributions made at the 12th annual meeting of the European Environmental Mutagen Society in June, 1982. The volume serves several purposes. First, it gives students of environmental mutagenesis who are located in other regions of the world summaries of some of the activities of their European colleagues. Second, it gives scientists outside the field of environmental mutagenesis an overview of current methodologies, thoughts, and trends in an important area which is becoming of increasing concern and interest to specialists in matters relating to public health, chronic disease, and safety regulation. It is also a historical document, a glimpse of a probing era which will, one hopes, ultimately allow detection and consequent elimination or minimization of exposures to genotoxic environmental agents with long-term deleterious effects. Thus, while there are few data in the book that have not already appeared elsewhere, the capsular form of this otherwise rather heterogeneous and broad-ranging volume has some advantages.
Access to the contents are facilitated by an index, by clustering of papers under several source headings and by the inclusion of short reviews of most topical areas. Sources covered are standard to the field: air, cigarettesmoking, food, occupation, water, etc. A number of papers concern themselves with development and/or validation of particular in-vitro and in-vivo assays for genotoxic agents and include discussions of the genetic heterogeneity of the human population and consequent inter-individual variations in sensitivity to particular classes of mutagens. Several papers briefly discuss aspects of the difficult extrapolation of experimental results to human mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. As is typical of publications of this kind, there is some unevenness in the quality of different papers, and no effort seems to have been made to eliminate typographical errors and missing references, etc. which are conspicuous in some manuscripts. On the whole though, Alan R. Liss, a leader in publications in this speciality area, along with Elsevier and Plenum, has done a public service in the rapid publication of these workshop papers. PHILIP E. HARTMAN Dr P. E. Hartman is in the Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
trends in analyticalchemistry, vol. 2, no. 10, 1983
Maintains the high standard of the first two volumes Electron Microscopy of Proteins, Vol. 3, edited by James R. Harris, Academic Press, 1982. £27.80/$51.50 (xiii ~- 259 pages) I S B N 0 12 3276"03 9 This is the third volume in a series of four (the last of which is now in press), and it provides six further, detailed reviews of the contribution made by electron microscopy to our knowledge of the structure of individual proteins, macromolecular protein-assemblies and proteinaceous organelles. Each chapter brings together a large number of the best published and unpublished electron micrographs into a detailed, informative and well-referenced text in which the authors have sought to integrate the structural studies with functional analyses and biochemical data on the same system, to provide a comprehensive statement of our current understanding of that particular field. Herein lies the strength and value of this series, for there are no other reference works to which one may turn in which the electron microscopic data have been allowed to occupy such a substantial space or have been given such emphasis within the scope of a general review. This volume maintains the high standard set by Volumes 1 and 2, and illustrates clearly how a wide variety of electron microscopy techniques, when brought together, provide a comprehensive understandmg of a system which cannot be obtained by any single technique in isolation. Furthermore, four out of the six chapters include examples of the great power and increasing importance of diffraction and image reconstruction techniques in the structural analysis of periodic biological structures. It should be made clear that it is results which are presented here, not the procedures whereby one might undertake the electron microscopic study of proteins, knowledge of which is generally assumed by the authors. The book is divided into chapters covering: The Structure of Algal Cell Walls (K. Roberts, G . J . Mills and P.J. Shaw), Bacterial Cell Walls and Membranes (U. B. Sleytr and A. M. Glauert), Chromatin and
Chromosomal Proteins (J. R. Paulson), The Extracellular Haemoglobins and Chlorocruorins ofAnnelids (S. N. Vinogradov, O. H. Kapps and M. Ohtsuki), Electron Microscopy of Amyloid (A. S. Cohen, T. Shirahama and M. Skinner) and Tubulin and Associated Proteins (L.A. Amos). This volume is thus, like the others, not topical but eclectic, dealing at one extreme with isolated multi-subunit respiratory proteins and at the other with entire cell walls and cell membranes, while further chapters deal with the complex protein-protein assemblies of microtubules and protein-nucleic acid assemblies of
chromatin. The authors are all experts in their fields, and in many cases have themselves made the most significant original contributions. This volume, and the series as a whole, is to be highly recommended to advanced students, university teachers and research scientists alike as the best starting point for information about the physical structure of large or oligomeric proteins and multi-protein organelles which electron microscopy has done so much to reveal. DAVID M. SHOTTON Dr David M. Shotton is in the Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS UK.
Environmental mutagens Mutagens in Our Environment, Proceedings of the 12th Annual Meeting of the European Environmental Mutagen Society, edited by Maria Sorsa and Harri Vainio, Alan R. Liss, 1982. £38.00 (xix ~-504pages) I S B N 0 8451 0109 9 This book documents 38 contributions made at the 12th annual meeting of the European Environmental Mutagen Society in June, 1982. The volume serves several purposes. First, it gives students of environmental mutagenesis who are located in other regions of the world summaries of some of the activities of their European colleagues. Second, it gives scientists outside the field of environmental mutagenesis an overview of current methodologies, thoughts, and trends in an important area which is becoming of increasing concern and interest to specialists in matters relating to public health, chronic disease, and safety regulation. It is also a historical document, a glimpse of a probing era which will, one hopes, ultimately allow detection and consequent elimination or minimization of exposures to genotoxic environmental agents with long-term deleterious effects. Thus, while there are few data in the book that have not already appeared elsewhere, the capsular form of this otherwise rather heterogeneous and broad-ranging volume has some advantages.
Access to the contents are facilitated by an index, by clustering of papers under several source headings and by the inclusion of short reviews of most topical areas. Sources covered are standard to the field: air, cigarettesmoking, food, occupation, water, etc. A number of papers concern themselves with development and/or validation of particular in-vitro and in-vivo assays for genotoxic agents and include discussions of the genetic heterogeneity of the human population and consequent inter-individual variations in sensitivity to particular classes of mutagens. Several papers briefly discuss aspects of the difficult extrapolation of experimental results to human mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. As is typical of publications of this kind, there is some unevenness in the quality of different papers, and no effort seems to have been made to eliminate typographical errors and missing references, etc. which are conspicuous in some manuscripts. On the whole though, Alan R. Liss, a leader in publications in this speciality area, along with Elsevier and Plenum, has done a public service in the rapid publication of these workshop papers. PHILIP E. HARTMAN Dr P. E. Hartman is in the Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.