- Email: [email protected]
Protein stability and stabilization through protein engineering
111
Biochemistry (Third Edition) G Z u b a y . pp 1024. B r o w n , D u b u q u e , Iowa. 1993 I S B N 0 - 6 9 7 - 1 4 2 6 7 - 5 , 3 and 7 When I read the latest edition of a familiar textbook I feel like meeting an old friend whom I have not seen for several years. Much the same emotions are involved, and much the same questions arise in the mind during the encounter. Amongst other things, I want to find out how my friend has fared with the times, to catch up on news of mutual friends, to see how different the old friend looks than formerly, and even to compare the old friend with others of my friends. My conclusion on meeting this third edition of Zubay is that, like vintage wine, Zubay gets better with age, and that this edition is the best of the lot. Although the publisher is new, the persons involved in the subject matter of this edition are not. In fact there is only one new name among the sixteen co-authors from the twentyeight listed in the second edition. But there are many new features. Thus I found the book to be more elegant and more user-friendly than its predecessors, and felt that it has entered the modern age of textbook publishing. A great part of this is due to the large number of pleasantly (but not gaudily) colorful, informative and explicit illustrations (there must be very close to a thousand), and tables (I counted around 130) spread over the thirtysix chapters. Overall, I found the content to be very sound, the presentation and writing style more inviting and more uniformly clear than in previous editions. I was also impressed with the historical introductions to chapters and sections thereof, the description of key experiments, and the emphasis on methods of biochemical analysis (scattered appropriately but summarised in a three-page appendix). I am sure that these will endear the book to serious readers, ie students who are really interested in understanding the subject rather than in a shallow outline and synoptic description to be memorised for examination purposes. Two chapters of the previous edition have been eliminated, at least four new ones have been added (including two brief introductions to Immunobiology, and Carcinogenesis and Oncogenes), and several former chapters have been combined. Each chapter opens with an introductory summary, is organised into sections headed by summary titles, and contains an end-ofchapter summary, list of selected publications, and problems (with answers to selected problems being supplied in an appendix). There are also 33 boxes of supplementary material, a list of major discoveries (which ends in 1984), a glossary, and an extensive index. All of these should be very useful for selfinstruction as well as for reference purposes. As publishers capitalise on, and even try to outperform, the characteristics of the current or recent best seller in the field, it is inevitable that over a period of time textbooks become more alike and homogeneous in content and in visual presentation, Though this is generally true of this book, there are also a number of distinctive features. Thus (to single out only a few), in Chapter 16, there is a description of the role of phytochrome in circadian and seasonal rhythms in plants, and also of bioluminescence; Chapter 20 contains an impressively clear summary of inhibitors of nucleotide synthesis; Chapter 24 includes plant hormones in its presentation on integration of metabolism and hormone action; in Chapter 26, the replication of animal viruses is described in more detail than seems usual. In addition, many tables are used to present valuable information without cluttering the actual exposition in the text. There is also a good balance between animal, plant, microbial and viral biochemistry. The underlying philosophy of this book is that biochemistry is exciting, unique and important because "each and every reaction in biochemistry serves a function; that function is the maintenance and propagation of the living system" (p xxvii). This philosophy (which is also a very impressive description of metabolism) is persistently upheld not only when molecular BIOCHEMICAL
EDUCATION
21(2)
1993
structures or metabolic pathways and events are presented but also where molecular biology and physiological biochemistry are discussed. The following comments are made in the expectation that they will prove to be of value if, and when, the fourth edition starts to take shape: (i) Two statements that occur in the introduction to Chapter 2 are " . . . thermodynamics is not an esoteric subject. It is a matter of life and death." After reading this chapter, I believe that most readers will agree with the second statement but not with the first. (ii) On page 46 (and in a couple of other places), lipids are described as polymers and elsewhere also as macromolecules (which, chemically speaking, they are not). (iii) Table 5.1 could have organised the ten categories of protein presented therein, more reasonably into extracellular, membrane and intracellular groupings. (iv) I found no mention of debranching enzyme in the description of the conversion of storage carbohydrates to hexose monophosphate (Chapter 13), nor of mRNA editing in the formation of apo B-48 when RNA editing is described (Chapter 28) or in the chapter (23) on metabolism of cholesterol. (v) Table 24.2 suggests that skeletal muscle converts fatty acids to ketone bodies, while Figure 24.1 suggests (inadvertently) that the hypothalamus and hypophysis secrete glucagon, insulin and epinephrine. (vi) In Chapter 17, the distinction between multienzyme complexes and multicatalytic polypeptides seems to be blurred. The book is available as a full-length casebound text or as three paperbound volumes (it is these that I have in front of me) which deal with Energy, Cells and Catalysis (Chapters 1-11), Catabolism and Biosynthesis (Chapters 12-24) and Genetics and Physiology (Chapters 25-36) respectively. I am sure that it will be widely welcomed. I predict that it will be a serious contender against other recent editions of established textbooks when decisions are being made about adoption of textbooks for courses. Several copies should be available on the Library Reserve Shelf in all institutions where Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are taught. F Vella
Protein Stability and Stabilization Through Protein Engineering by Yoshiaki N o s o h and Takeshi Sekiguchi. pp 223. Ellis H o r w o o d . 1991 ISBN 0-13-721788-9 This book in the Ellis Horwood Series, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, deals with the relationship between protein stability and stabilization. After a short introduction, Chapter 2 (64 pp) discusses protein structure. The four levels are described in a rather classical manner. An interesting paragraph section the roles of individual amino acids in the tertiary structure. The chapter ends with some data on structure prediction. Chapter 3 (22 pp) is on protein stability and lists the classes of interactions for stabilizing proteins. Chapter 4 (22 pp), 'Stable proteins', describes the mechanisms of stability of thermophilic proteins by replacement of many or few amino acids. Chapter 5 (15 pp) deals with chemical and physical modifications which lead to stabilization, and their strategies are discussed. Chapter 6 (56 pp) gives a very useful overview of stabilization through biological modification. The chapter is illustrated with many examples. The book ends with some concluding remarks. The book is easy to read, clear and precise. Each chapter ends with various references, some of them being quite recent (up to 1989-90). The book will be very useful for researchers and postgraduates in a wide variety of fields ranging from biochemistry, enzymology to protein engineering and pharmacology. J Wallach
Biochemistry (Third Edition) G Z u b a y . pp 1024. B r o w n , D u b u q u e , Iowa. 1993 I S B N 0 - 6 9 7 - 1 4 2 6 7 - 5 , 3 and 7 When I read the latest edition of a familiar textbook I feel like meeting an old friend whom I have not seen for several years. Much the same emotions are involved, and much the same questions arise in the mind during the encounter. Amongst other things, I want to find out how my friend has fared with the times, to catch up on news of mutual friends, to see how different the old friend looks than formerly, and even to compare the old friend with others of my friends. My conclusion on meeting this third edition of Zubay is that, like vintage wine, Zubay gets better with age, and that this edition is the best of the lot. Although the publisher is new, the persons involved in the subject matter of this edition are not. In fact there is only one new name among the sixteen co-authors from the twentyeight listed in the second edition. But there are many new features. Thus I found the book to be more elegant and more user-friendly than its predecessors, and felt that it has entered the modern age of textbook publishing. A great part of this is due to the large number of pleasantly (but not gaudily) colorful, informative and explicit illustrations (there must be very close to a thousand), and tables (I counted around 130) spread over the thirtysix chapters. Overall, I found the content to be very sound, the presentation and writing style more inviting and more uniformly clear than in previous editions. I was also impressed with the historical introductions to chapters and sections thereof, the description of key experiments, and the emphasis on methods of biochemical analysis (scattered appropriately but summarised in a three-page appendix). I am sure that these will endear the book to serious readers, ie students who are really interested in understanding the subject rather than in a shallow outline and synoptic description to be memorised for examination purposes. Two chapters of the previous edition have been eliminated, at least four new ones have been added (including two brief introductions to Immunobiology, and Carcinogenesis and Oncogenes), and several former chapters have been combined. Each chapter opens with an introductory summary, is organised into sections headed by summary titles, and contains an end-ofchapter summary, list of selected publications, and problems (with answers to selected problems being supplied in an appendix). There are also 33 boxes of supplementary material, a list of major discoveries (which ends in 1984), a glossary, and an extensive index. All of these should be very useful for selfinstruction as well as for reference purposes. As publishers capitalise on, and even try to outperform, the characteristics of the current or recent best seller in the field, it is inevitable that over a period of time textbooks become more alike and homogeneous in content and in visual presentation, Though this is generally true of this book, there are also a number of distinctive features. Thus (to single out only a few), in Chapter 16, there is a description of the role of phytochrome in circadian and seasonal rhythms in plants, and also of bioluminescence; Chapter 20 contains an impressively clear summary of inhibitors of nucleotide synthesis; Chapter 24 includes plant hormones in its presentation on integration of metabolism and hormone action; in Chapter 26, the replication of animal viruses is described in more detail than seems usual. In addition, many tables are used to present valuable information without cluttering the actual exposition in the text. There is also a good balance between animal, plant, microbial and viral biochemistry. The underlying philosophy of this book is that biochemistry is exciting, unique and important because "each and every reaction in biochemistry serves a function; that function is the maintenance and propagation of the living system" (p xxvii). This philosophy (which is also a very impressive description of metabolism) is persistently upheld not only when molecular BIOCHEMICAL
EDUCATION
21(2)
1993
structures or metabolic pathways and events are presented but also where molecular biology and physiological biochemistry are discussed. The following comments are made in the expectation that they will prove to be of value if, and when, the fourth edition starts to take shape: (i) Two statements that occur in the introduction to Chapter 2 are " . . . thermodynamics is not an esoteric subject. It is a matter of life and death." After reading this chapter, I believe that most readers will agree with the second statement but not with the first. (ii) On page 46 (and in a couple of other places), lipids are described as polymers and elsewhere also as macromolecules (which, chemically speaking, they are not). (iii) Table 5.1 could have organised the ten categories of protein presented therein, more reasonably into extracellular, membrane and intracellular groupings. (iv) I found no mention of debranching enzyme in the description of the conversion of storage carbohydrates to hexose monophosphate (Chapter 13), nor of mRNA editing in the formation of apo B-48 when RNA editing is described (Chapter 28) or in the chapter (23) on metabolism of cholesterol. (v) Table 24.2 suggests that skeletal muscle converts fatty acids to ketone bodies, while Figure 24.1 suggests (inadvertently) that the hypothalamus and hypophysis secrete glucagon, insulin and epinephrine. (vi) In Chapter 17, the distinction between multienzyme complexes and multicatalytic polypeptides seems to be blurred. The book is available as a full-length casebound text or as three paperbound volumes (it is these that I have in front of me) which deal with Energy, Cells and Catalysis (Chapters 1-11), Catabolism and Biosynthesis (Chapters 12-24) and Genetics and Physiology (Chapters 25-36) respectively. I am sure that it will be widely welcomed. I predict that it will be a serious contender against other recent editions of established textbooks when decisions are being made about adoption of textbooks for courses. Several copies should be available on the Library Reserve Shelf in all institutions where Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are taught. F Vella
Protein Stability and Stabilization Through Protein Engineering by Yoshiaki N o s o h and Takeshi Sekiguchi. pp 223. Ellis H o r w o o d . 1991 ISBN 0-13-721788-9 This book in the Ellis Horwood Series, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, deals with the relationship between protein stability and stabilization. After a short introduction, Chapter 2 (64 pp) discusses protein structure. The four levels are described in a rather classical manner. An interesting paragraph section the roles of individual amino acids in the tertiary structure. The chapter ends with some data on structure prediction. Chapter 3 (22 pp) is on protein stability and lists the classes of interactions for stabilizing proteins. Chapter 4 (22 pp), 'Stable proteins', describes the mechanisms of stability of thermophilic proteins by replacement of many or few amino acids. Chapter 5 (15 pp) deals with chemical and physical modifications which lead to stabilization, and their strategies are discussed. Chapter 6 (56 pp) gives a very useful overview of stabilization through biological modification. The chapter is illustrated with many examples. The book ends with some concluding remarks. The book is easy to read, clear and precise. Each chapter ends with various references, some of them being quite recent (up to 1989-90). The book will be very useful for researchers and postgraduates in a wide variety of fields ranging from biochemistry, enzymology to protein engineering and pharmacology. J Wallach