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Sequencing of proteins and peptides
ANALYTICAL
BIOCHEMISTRY
115,458-459
(1981)
BOOK REVIEWS Methods in Enzymology, Vol. 70, Immunochemical Techniques, Part A. Edited by H. V. VUNAKIS AND J. J. LANGONE, Academic Press, New York, 1980.
$48.00. This book contains some useful articles but I cannot recommend it as a general reference work for the biochemist who periodically needs to use immunological methods. The intended areas for review, “. . the basic principles of antigen-antibody reactions, production of reagent antibodies, . purification and characterization of antibodies and antigens,” are spottily covered. Many relevant subjects are either omitted completely or dealt with only superficially; from my own experience as an informal consultant, the inadequate information includes just that material that the biochemist has the most difficulty in retrieving from the literature, for example, the pH values, salts, heavy metals, detergents, reducing agents, etc., that can be used safely with antibodies; the chromatographic behavior of different immunoglobulins on a number of adsorbants; the application of antibody fragments and their means of preparation. The book contains a helpful short summary on the production of Fab fragments of IgG from several species, but inexplicably no review of their preparation from other classes of immunoglobulins, or of the preparation of F(ab’)r or Fab’ fragments. Continuing, no critical review of the solvents that are of practical use for eluting antigens from affinity columns is given, and there is no discussion of the application of Staphylococcal A protein as a substitute for a second antibody to precipitate immune complexes even though this is now widely used. (Protein A is mentioned but only in
of Proteins and Peptides. By G. ALLEN, Elsevier/North-Holland, Amsterdam, I98 1. Paper, $29.75. One may question whether classical methods of protein sequencing have been replaced by the sequence analysis of DNA. The author addresses this statement by alerting the reader to the problems of interpreting untranslated leader and intervening sequences found in eucaryotic genes by nucleotide sequencing techniques. Protein sequencing avoids this problem and also gives the correct sequence after post-translational modifications take place. With knowledge that protein sequencing is here to stay, the author proceeds to describe the subject from beginning to end. Sequencing
0003-2697/81/120458-02.$02.00/O Copyright 0 198 I by Academic Press. Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
458
quite different contexts.) Several articles refer to the potential for obtaining homgeneous antibodies through the hybridoma technique, but nowhere is there a discussion of those situations in which it may be appropriate or inappropriate to use them; or of the work involved in generating useful amounts of specific antibodies and the factors requiring consideration in developing suitable assays for screening them. The effect of antibody combining site diversity and antibody valence in various types of assays, and useful exploitation of these factors, is also not covered explicitly. One could go on. Such articles as “The Preparation of Antigenic Haptan-Carrier Conjugates: A Survey” (B. F. Erlanger) and “Radiodination by Use of the Bolton-Hunter and Related Reagents” (J. L. Langone) should be especially helpful. A series of articles on “Separation of Free Ligand from Antigen-Antibody Complexes” gives the reader an overview of the variety of clever strategems available, but that reader will have to go elsewhere to learn the principles of binding kinetics, appreciation of which is essential when stock methods must be modified in particular situations. Subsequent planned volumes in this series may correct this problem. There is an appendix which lists articles previously published in Methods in Enzymology on subjects related to the topic of this latest volume. This bibliography is very useful and the editors are to be congradulated for organizing it. HENRYMETZGER National
Institutes
of Health
The present volume is part of a continuing series of monographs on laboratory techniques in biochemistry and molecular biology. The volume introduces the uninitiated to each topic with general comments at the beginning of each chapter and again before describing individual methods in subsequent subsections. The introductory remarks cover concepts, strategies, pitfalls, and the selection of preferred methods. Detailed procedures are given and alternative methods are summarized in the text and in accompanying tables. The author is to be commended on his thorough discourse on a wide range of topics and on his selection of the accepted and preferred methods. The serious student, and particularly the research worker in the field,
BOOK will appreciate having a collection of detailed descriptions of procedures and techniques. The reviewer found the descriptions easy to follow and newcomers to the field will have no difficulty in learning how to apply the techniques to their specific problems. The volume includes current references (to 1980); it describes new procedures (o-iodosobenzoic acid for cleavage at tryptophan); and it reviews recent sequencing results (interferon). A chapter deals with the spe-
459
REVIEWS
cialized problems of sequence studies on integral membrane proteins. Other specialized topics are the identification of modified amino acid residues found by post-translational modification and partial sequence analysis used in structure-function relationships. ALBERT
LIGHT
Purdue CJniversity Received May I, 1981
Briefly Noted Wilson and Wilson’s Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry, Vol. X11, Thermal Analysis, Part A, Simultaneous thermoanalytical examinations by means of the derivatograph. By J. PAULIKAND F. PAULIK, Elsevier, Amsterdam/New York, 198 I. 278 pp., $83.00. The latest monograph in this well-known series discusses a number of thermoanalytical techniques and the advantages to be gained by recording changes in the
observable as its derivative against temperature. The authors are the inventors of the Derivatograph, a device produced specifically for this purpose. They provide an extensive survey of results obtained by these techniques, in a number of chemical fields, and a list of 1400 relevant publications (unfortunately without titles but rather broadly indexed by subject). So far, biochemical uses of these techniques seem to be few.
BIOCHEMISTRY
115,458-459
(1981)
BOOK REVIEWS Methods in Enzymology, Vol. 70, Immunochemical Techniques, Part A. Edited by H. V. VUNAKIS AND J. J. LANGONE, Academic Press, New York, 1980.
$48.00. This book contains some useful articles but I cannot recommend it as a general reference work for the biochemist who periodically needs to use immunological methods. The intended areas for review, “. . the basic principles of antigen-antibody reactions, production of reagent antibodies, . purification and characterization of antibodies and antigens,” are spottily covered. Many relevant subjects are either omitted completely or dealt with only superficially; from my own experience as an informal consultant, the inadequate information includes just that material that the biochemist has the most difficulty in retrieving from the literature, for example, the pH values, salts, heavy metals, detergents, reducing agents, etc., that can be used safely with antibodies; the chromatographic behavior of different immunoglobulins on a number of adsorbants; the application of antibody fragments and their means of preparation. The book contains a helpful short summary on the production of Fab fragments of IgG from several species, but inexplicably no review of their preparation from other classes of immunoglobulins, or of the preparation of F(ab’)r or Fab’ fragments. Continuing, no critical review of the solvents that are of practical use for eluting antigens from affinity columns is given, and there is no discussion of the application of Staphylococcal A protein as a substitute for a second antibody to precipitate immune complexes even though this is now widely used. (Protein A is mentioned but only in
of Proteins and Peptides. By G. ALLEN, Elsevier/North-Holland, Amsterdam, I98 1. Paper, $29.75. One may question whether classical methods of protein sequencing have been replaced by the sequence analysis of DNA. The author addresses this statement by alerting the reader to the problems of interpreting untranslated leader and intervening sequences found in eucaryotic genes by nucleotide sequencing techniques. Protein sequencing avoids this problem and also gives the correct sequence after post-translational modifications take place. With knowledge that protein sequencing is here to stay, the author proceeds to describe the subject from beginning to end. Sequencing
0003-2697/81/120458-02.$02.00/O Copyright 0 198 I by Academic Press. Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
458
quite different contexts.) Several articles refer to the potential for obtaining homgeneous antibodies through the hybridoma technique, but nowhere is there a discussion of those situations in which it may be appropriate or inappropriate to use them; or of the work involved in generating useful amounts of specific antibodies and the factors requiring consideration in developing suitable assays for screening them. The effect of antibody combining site diversity and antibody valence in various types of assays, and useful exploitation of these factors, is also not covered explicitly. One could go on. Such articles as “The Preparation of Antigenic Haptan-Carrier Conjugates: A Survey” (B. F. Erlanger) and “Radiodination by Use of the Bolton-Hunter and Related Reagents” (J. L. Langone) should be especially helpful. A series of articles on “Separation of Free Ligand from Antigen-Antibody Complexes” gives the reader an overview of the variety of clever strategems available, but that reader will have to go elsewhere to learn the principles of binding kinetics, appreciation of which is essential when stock methods must be modified in particular situations. Subsequent planned volumes in this series may correct this problem. There is an appendix which lists articles previously published in Methods in Enzymology on subjects related to the topic of this latest volume. This bibliography is very useful and the editors are to be congradulated for organizing it. HENRYMETZGER National
Institutes
of Health
The present volume is part of a continuing series of monographs on laboratory techniques in biochemistry and molecular biology. The volume introduces the uninitiated to each topic with general comments at the beginning of each chapter and again before describing individual methods in subsequent subsections. The introductory remarks cover concepts, strategies, pitfalls, and the selection of preferred methods. Detailed procedures are given and alternative methods are summarized in the text and in accompanying tables. The author is to be commended on his thorough discourse on a wide range of topics and on his selection of the accepted and preferred methods. The serious student, and particularly the research worker in the field,
BOOK will appreciate having a collection of detailed descriptions of procedures and techniques. The reviewer found the descriptions easy to follow and newcomers to the field will have no difficulty in learning how to apply the techniques to their specific problems. The volume includes current references (to 1980); it describes new procedures (o-iodosobenzoic acid for cleavage at tryptophan); and it reviews recent sequencing results (interferon). A chapter deals with the spe-
459
REVIEWS
cialized problems of sequence studies on integral membrane proteins. Other specialized topics are the identification of modified amino acid residues found by post-translational modification and partial sequence analysis used in structure-function relationships. ALBERT
LIGHT
Purdue CJniversity Received May I, 1981
Briefly Noted Wilson and Wilson’s Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry, Vol. X11, Thermal Analysis, Part A, Simultaneous thermoanalytical examinations by means of the derivatograph. By J. PAULIKAND F. PAULIK, Elsevier, Amsterdam/New York, 198 I. 278 pp., $83.00. The latest monograph in this well-known series discusses a number of thermoanalytical techniques and the advantages to be gained by recording changes in the
observable as its derivative against temperature. The authors are the inventors of the Derivatograph, a device produced specifically for this purpose. They provide an extensive survey of results obtained by these techniques, in a number of chemical fields, and a list of 1400 relevant publications (unfortunately without titles but rather broadly indexed by subject). So far, biochemical uses of these techniques seem to be few.