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The Biology of Glycoproteins
148
The Molecular Biology of the Yeast Saccharomyces (Metabolism and Gene Expression) Edited by J N S t r a t h e r n , E W J o n e s a n d J R Broach. pp 680. Cold Spring H a r b o r L a b o r a t o r y , New Y o r k , 1982. $94.50 or $113.40 outside the U S A . ISBN 0 - 8 7 9 6 9 - 1 4 9 - 2 This book (and its companion volume ~Life Cycle and Inheritance'*) was inspired by the Molecular Biology of Yeast meeting at Cold Spring Harbor in 1979. As the editors say, yeast molecular biology did not cease to grow during their compilation of the review articles that constitute the two volumes. In spite of this they have in fact done a splendid job in getting together a series of reviews from leading workers in the field. Slightly more than half of the book is ostensibly concerned with metabolism, including the cell wall, the secretory process, cell-surface assembly, as well as control, but in fact much of the genetics is appropriately interspersed with this material. Later chapters deal with suppression, organisation and expression of tRNA genes, ribosome structure, function and synthesis and RNA polymerases. Particularly useful and exciting in the final chapter entitled 'Principles and Practice of Recombinant DNA Research with Yeast' by D Bolstein and R W Davis. Although the field has indeed developed enormously since this chapter was written, it nonetheless provides a very helpful introduction to the potentialities. There are two Appendices, and giving the Genetic Map of S cerevisiae the other listing biochemical markers for yeast organelles. In addition, there is a Gene Index. The volumes are produced to a very high standard and will surely continue to form an important reference work, as well as an introduction to the area, for a number of years. *ISBN 0-87969-139-5:2 volume set $164.50 or $197.40 outside the USA
Henderson's Dictionary of Biological Terms (Ninth Edition) by S a n d r a H o l m e s . pp. 510. L o n g m a n , H a r l o w , U K . 1985. £4.50 ( p a p e r b a c k ) ISBN 0 - 5 8 2 - 4 4 7 5 9 - 3 Kremastoplankton, macrocytase, notonectal, numatak, pseudaposematic, trioikous, zambdodont . . . are a few of the words that can be looked up in this inexpensive paperback dictionary containing 22 500 entries. The words listed are mainly biological ones, but of course the overlap between biology, biochemistry and chemistry inevitably presents a problem. Thus there are no chemical formulae or structures at all, chemical compounds (eg urea) being defined rather vaguely. The twenty amino acids are described: " ' l e u c i n e . . . an essential amino acid" and the abbreviation for isoleucine is given incorrectly as "'ileu". From the biochemist's point of view the Dictionary will be useful for looking up biological terms such as those listed above. On the other hand, from the young student's point of view trying to look up the terms of biochemistry and molecular biology, there are dangers and misconceptions ahead. On the whole I thought that enzymes were dealt with satisfactorily (in general only generic names are given, but there are some with EC numbers), but that molecular biology terms were not well defined. Thus one can find 'mlRNA,qv' which takes one to 'messengerlike RNA' which takes one to ' h n R N A ' which is wrongly, or at least misleadingly defined as 'DNA-like RNA . . . [that] . . . never leaves the nucleus': nothing about introns and exons (which do not appear), or about editing. A chase from "sRNA' to 'soluble RNA' eventually gets us to 'tRNA' successfully and correctly however. Under 'Genetic Code' we have " . . . 3 bases
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 13(3) 1985
being thought to code for each amino acid (my italics), and under 'Nonsense Codon', 'A DNA triplet that does not appear to code for an amino acid'. This could have been more helpful. Similarly 'Nucleosome' is 'a chromomere of a chromosome when considered to be made of DNA and protein'. The biological aspect and emphasis means that 'membrane' is defined in terms of biology with no mention of bilayers, etc. A great number of rather old-fashioned biochemical terms are included, such as peptone, proteose etc, as in 'peptide . . . formerly used for a unit smaller than a peptone'. Haemosiderin is in but not transferrin, although ferritin is well defined. Most of the words of cell biology are missing, such as tubulin and fibronectin, which is a pity - - it surely is biology! [We are doing our best with Lexicon!] My final comment is that much space is wasted in giving Greek roots: on p 178-179 the phrase "Gk. haima, blood" must appear at least 25 times, occasionally being spelt haema. (Curiously tainia and taenia are also used interchangeably.) Space is also wasted in giving plurals separately (eg epithelia and epithelium) which could possibly have better and more helpfully been spent on giving American spellings (eg haem and heme) alphabetically. Well, it is easy enough to find fault with someone else's efforts and the title is 'Biological Terms' not biochemical ones. It is important not to mislead, though, and difficult to know where to draw the line between biology, biochemistry and chemistry. The book is, I think, better, and cheaper, than the MacMillan 'Dictionary of Life Sciences', but nowhere near as useful, for biochemical terms, as de Gruyter's 'Concise Encyclopedia' [Biochem Educ 11, 147, 1983] although this latter is about four times the price. E J Wood
The Biology of Glycoproteins E d i t e d by R J Ivatt. pp 449. P l e n u m Press, New York. 1984. $59.50 ISBN 0 - 3 0 6 - 4 1 5 9 6 - 8 Although this might at first glance appear to be a textbook or monograph, it is in fact a collection of review articles on a variety of topics. The first two chapters describe what is known about the role of glycoproteins in cell-cell and cell-substratum interactions. The third chapter deals with mammalian embryogenesis, the fourth with the development of erythroid cells, the fifth with recognition in the immune system, the sixth with nervous system glycoproteins and the seventh, and last, with Dictyostelium discoideum. Much of the material that, if properly and logically ordered, would form the basis of a monograph, or at least of a helpful introductory chapter, is hidden, and seems to be present only at the whim of file author(s) of a particular chapter. For example, a 'General outline of the glycosylation process' is found about halfway through chapter 3. The level throughout is for those involved in research, although the depth is somewhat patchy. Chapter 2, for instance, is quite short and does not give much more than is to be found in 'Molecular Biology of the Cell'. I had hoped for more in this exciting and rapidly expanding research area. In addition one only has to look at chapter 1 to start to get a little overwhelmed with abbreviations - - MMTE (mammalian tumour epithelial cells), SFM (serum free medium), CHO (chinese hamster ovary), to mention but a few. So, it is difficult to conceive of whom the book is aimed at. I have the feeling that the undergraduate reader would not find it easy going, while those in research will tend only to want to read a chapter or two on their own field. Furthermore the reference lists are not exactly overflowing with 1982 and 1983 citations. The editor should have taken more control for there is a wealth of exciting information there but which needs organising. P A Hanwell
The Molecular Biology of the Yeast Saccharomyces (Metabolism and Gene Expression) Edited by J N S t r a t h e r n , E W J o n e s a n d J R Broach. pp 680. Cold Spring H a r b o r L a b o r a t o r y , New Y o r k , 1982. $94.50 or $113.40 outside the U S A . ISBN 0 - 8 7 9 6 9 - 1 4 9 - 2 This book (and its companion volume ~Life Cycle and Inheritance'*) was inspired by the Molecular Biology of Yeast meeting at Cold Spring Harbor in 1979. As the editors say, yeast molecular biology did not cease to grow during their compilation of the review articles that constitute the two volumes. In spite of this they have in fact done a splendid job in getting together a series of reviews from leading workers in the field. Slightly more than half of the book is ostensibly concerned with metabolism, including the cell wall, the secretory process, cell-surface assembly, as well as control, but in fact much of the genetics is appropriately interspersed with this material. Later chapters deal with suppression, organisation and expression of tRNA genes, ribosome structure, function and synthesis and RNA polymerases. Particularly useful and exciting in the final chapter entitled 'Principles and Practice of Recombinant DNA Research with Yeast' by D Bolstein and R W Davis. Although the field has indeed developed enormously since this chapter was written, it nonetheless provides a very helpful introduction to the potentialities. There are two Appendices, and giving the Genetic Map of S cerevisiae the other listing biochemical markers for yeast organelles. In addition, there is a Gene Index. The volumes are produced to a very high standard and will surely continue to form an important reference work, as well as an introduction to the area, for a number of years. *ISBN 0-87969-139-5:2 volume set $164.50 or $197.40 outside the USA
Henderson's Dictionary of Biological Terms (Ninth Edition) by S a n d r a H o l m e s . pp. 510. L o n g m a n , H a r l o w , U K . 1985. £4.50 ( p a p e r b a c k ) ISBN 0 - 5 8 2 - 4 4 7 5 9 - 3 Kremastoplankton, macrocytase, notonectal, numatak, pseudaposematic, trioikous, zambdodont . . . are a few of the words that can be looked up in this inexpensive paperback dictionary containing 22 500 entries. The words listed are mainly biological ones, but of course the overlap between biology, biochemistry and chemistry inevitably presents a problem. Thus there are no chemical formulae or structures at all, chemical compounds (eg urea) being defined rather vaguely. The twenty amino acids are described: " ' l e u c i n e . . . an essential amino acid" and the abbreviation for isoleucine is given incorrectly as "'ileu". From the biochemist's point of view the Dictionary will be useful for looking up biological terms such as those listed above. On the other hand, from the young student's point of view trying to look up the terms of biochemistry and molecular biology, there are dangers and misconceptions ahead. On the whole I thought that enzymes were dealt with satisfactorily (in general only generic names are given, but there are some with EC numbers), but that molecular biology terms were not well defined. Thus one can find 'mlRNA,qv' which takes one to 'messengerlike RNA' which takes one to ' h n R N A ' which is wrongly, or at least misleadingly defined as 'DNA-like RNA . . . [that] . . . never leaves the nucleus': nothing about introns and exons (which do not appear), or about editing. A chase from "sRNA' to 'soluble RNA' eventually gets us to 'tRNA' successfully and correctly however. Under 'Genetic Code' we have " . . . 3 bases
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 13(3) 1985
being thought to code for each amino acid (my italics), and under 'Nonsense Codon', 'A DNA triplet that does not appear to code for an amino acid'. This could have been more helpful. Similarly 'Nucleosome' is 'a chromomere of a chromosome when considered to be made of DNA and protein'. The biological aspect and emphasis means that 'membrane' is defined in terms of biology with no mention of bilayers, etc. A great number of rather old-fashioned biochemical terms are included, such as peptone, proteose etc, as in 'peptide . . . formerly used for a unit smaller than a peptone'. Haemosiderin is in but not transferrin, although ferritin is well defined. Most of the words of cell biology are missing, such as tubulin and fibronectin, which is a pity - - it surely is biology! [We are doing our best with Lexicon!] My final comment is that much space is wasted in giving Greek roots: on p 178-179 the phrase "Gk. haima, blood" must appear at least 25 times, occasionally being spelt haema. (Curiously tainia and taenia are also used interchangeably.) Space is also wasted in giving plurals separately (eg epithelia and epithelium) which could possibly have better and more helpfully been spent on giving American spellings (eg haem and heme) alphabetically. Well, it is easy enough to find fault with someone else's efforts and the title is 'Biological Terms' not biochemical ones. It is important not to mislead, though, and difficult to know where to draw the line between biology, biochemistry and chemistry. The book is, I think, better, and cheaper, than the MacMillan 'Dictionary of Life Sciences', but nowhere near as useful, for biochemical terms, as de Gruyter's 'Concise Encyclopedia' [Biochem Educ 11, 147, 1983] although this latter is about four times the price. E J Wood
The Biology of Glycoproteins E d i t e d by R J Ivatt. pp 449. P l e n u m Press, New York. 1984. $59.50 ISBN 0 - 3 0 6 - 4 1 5 9 6 - 8 Although this might at first glance appear to be a textbook or monograph, it is in fact a collection of review articles on a variety of topics. The first two chapters describe what is known about the role of glycoproteins in cell-cell and cell-substratum interactions. The third chapter deals with mammalian embryogenesis, the fourth with the development of erythroid cells, the fifth with recognition in the immune system, the sixth with nervous system glycoproteins and the seventh, and last, with Dictyostelium discoideum. Much of the material that, if properly and logically ordered, would form the basis of a monograph, or at least of a helpful introductory chapter, is hidden, and seems to be present only at the whim of file author(s) of a particular chapter. For example, a 'General outline of the glycosylation process' is found about halfway through chapter 3. The level throughout is for those involved in research, although the depth is somewhat patchy. Chapter 2, for instance, is quite short and does not give much more than is to be found in 'Molecular Biology of the Cell'. I had hoped for more in this exciting and rapidly expanding research area. In addition one only has to look at chapter 1 to start to get a little overwhelmed with abbreviations - - MMTE (mammalian tumour epithelial cells), SFM (serum free medium), CHO (chinese hamster ovary), to mention but a few. So, it is difficult to conceive of whom the book is aimed at. I have the feeling that the undergraduate reader would not find it easy going, while those in research will tend only to want to read a chapter or two on their own field. Furthermore the reference lists are not exactly overflowing with 1982 and 1983 citations. The editor should have taken more control for there is a wealth of exciting information there but which needs organising. P A Hanwell