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Topics in nucleic acid structure
193
TIBS - May 1982 M e m b r a n e Transport: N e w Comprehensive Biochemistry, Vol. 2 edited by S. L. Bonting and J. J. H. 1t. M. de Pont, Elsevier~North-Holland Biomedical Press, 1981. $59.50/Dfl. 140.00 (i + 362 pages) I S B N 0 444 803076 This is an authoritative volume, of high quality throughout. It can be strongly recommended for every library and indeed for most serious workers in the field of membrane transport. Most of the book makes enjoyable and rewarding reading. Of a multi-author book one asks ideally that the chapters should all be written with the same readership in mind, that they be written by an authority who is active in the field, yet written impartially, putting both sides of debated issues. One also asks that each author is a master of didactic exposition who can write lucid prose. That is perhaps why multi-author books are often
Missing
conformations
Topics in Nucleic Acid Structure edited by Stephen Neidle, Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1981. £20.00 (x + 221 pages) I S B N 0 333 26678 1 The 'topics' referred to in the title of this book concern the conformation of nucleic acids, as studied by crystallography and by magnetic resonance. There are useful introductions (by Berman) to conformational principles and to crystal structures of nucleotides etc.; a chapter on nmr of oligo-nucleotides by Sarma and Dhingra; a summary of fibre diffraction analysis of DNA and RNA by Arnott; two chapters on tRNA, covering crystallography (Kim) and low-field hydrogen-bond nmr (Reid); a somewhat out-of-place article on eukaryotic chromatin by Lilley; and chapters on crystallography (Neidle) and nmr (Krugh) of drug-oligonucleotide complexes. The approach is not always uniform. Reid's contribution on tRNA nmr will be very useful for teaching, and for helping any of us sort out a field in which a lot of obscurity has occurred en route to the present relative clarity. Kim's chapter on the crystal structure is useful, but somewhat more summary, and earlier articles of his own or of others (especially A. Jack, in Chemistry o f Macromolecules HA, International Review of Biochemistry, vol. 24, 1979, or Rich inAccts. Chem. Res. 1977) are more helpful student introductions. Indeed, for teaching, the Jack article covers most of the ground of the present book quite nicely.
less satisfactory than single-author ones. The present volume scores reasonably well on all these counts. The authors are all authoritative. They have been given plenty of scope; indeed I occasionally got the impression half-way through a chapter, that the author was himself slightly surprised at the space at his disposal. The chapters are well documented with an average of 80 references. Most authors have taken the view that they were writing a work of reference, the book to which a reader could turn for a comprehensive account, though Meijer and van Dam, on 'Mitochondrial Ion Transport', occasionally send the reader elsewhere for the real story. Most of the authors write good prose, though two write maths. From my point of view Sha'afi's somewhat inconclusive chapter on the permeability by water and other polar molecules did not repay the intellectual effort of reading it; a clearer presentation of many of the concepts involved was given by Stein in the preceding chapter. Similarly, Rojas' chapter on
'Ion Permeability' is not where I personally shall turn for a deeper understanding of electrophonetic ion movements, or indeed for recent work on the rather specialized gates and channels of nervous tissue to which he devoted most of his chapter. I get more insight from Hall's chapter on 'Channels and Carriers', but that is no doubt my problem. The emphasis is mostly on general aspects, rather than on specific transport careers, though the (Na÷+K+)-ATPase, the (Ca2+h-ATPase and the (H++K+)ATPase each get a chapter to themselves. So when I ask myself what has been left out, I am not looking for individual carriers, but for areas of the subject. The only such area that might have deserved inclusion is the protein chemistry of membrane transport carriers.
But the main problem is what is not in the book. It was put together in 1980, just as the crystal structures of B and Z DNA fragments from Dickerson and Rich's laboratories were first appearing in print. The absence of reference to these structures makes parts of the book already out of date. Likewise, attention to the question of the structure of DNA in solution - the elegant experiments from the laboratories of Wang and of K l u g - is nowhere to be found. There is also lack of unity. The editor could have arranged Kim's contribution to mesh better with Reid's. Arnott shows that conformational 'genera' of A and B DNA differ by a
correlated 'crankshaft' isomerization at y and • (g-g+ to tt), and Kim shows a y/• correlation in tRNA that clusters about g g~ and tt, but no one tries to relate this information. In the general fashion for books with review chapters by many authors, scholarship is lost, and most of the prose can probably be found in other reviews by the same people. One advantage of the coming economic crisis may be to stifle the proliferation of such compendia. s. c. HARRISON
IAN WEST lun West is at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Newcastle upon Tvne, NE1 7RU. U.K.
S. C. Harrisonis at the Departmentof Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Harvard Universi~, Cambridge. MA 02138. U.S.A.
The Bari meetings continue to thrive Vectorial Reactions in Electron and Ion Transport in Mitochondria and Bacteria -Developments in Bioenergetics and Biomembranes, Vol. 5. by F. Palmieri, E. Quagliariello, W. Siliprandi and E. C. Slater, Elsevier/ North-Holland, 1981. $68.00/Dfl. 160.00 (xi + 429 pages) 1SBN 0 444 80372 6 This book demonstrates that the tradition of Bari meetings, which started in 1965, has survived in spite of the scepticism of certain bioenergeticists concerning the recent establishment of European Bioenergetics Conferences (EBEC) as alternative to any other meetings on this topic in Europe. It can be seen from these papers presented at the 13th Bad meeting (May '81) that this was a really good symposium.
The policy of the Bad meetings is that a few items are selected to be discussed in detail. The topics on this occasion were cytochrome oxidase, ubiquinol-cytochrome c oxidoreductase and the possible existence of lateral H+-conducting mechanisms in coupling membranes. The discussion of cytochrome oxidase was focused on the concept of H+-pumping activity of this enzyme. This concept put forward originally by M. Wikstr6m, is shared now by many bioenergeticists. It has now received additional support from observation that one of the cytochrome oxidase polypeptides, subunit III, is specifically required for H + pumping. The subunit HI-depleted enzyme proved to be competent in electron transfer and formation of V q ~ across proteoliposomal membrane, but there was no acidification of the
TIBS - May 1982 M e m b r a n e Transport: N e w Comprehensive Biochemistry, Vol. 2 edited by S. L. Bonting and J. J. H. 1t. M. de Pont, Elsevier~North-Holland Biomedical Press, 1981. $59.50/Dfl. 140.00 (i + 362 pages) I S B N 0 444 803076 This is an authoritative volume, of high quality throughout. It can be strongly recommended for every library and indeed for most serious workers in the field of membrane transport. Most of the book makes enjoyable and rewarding reading. Of a multi-author book one asks ideally that the chapters should all be written with the same readership in mind, that they be written by an authority who is active in the field, yet written impartially, putting both sides of debated issues. One also asks that each author is a master of didactic exposition who can write lucid prose. That is perhaps why multi-author books are often
Missing
conformations
Topics in Nucleic Acid Structure edited by Stephen Neidle, Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1981. £20.00 (x + 221 pages) I S B N 0 333 26678 1 The 'topics' referred to in the title of this book concern the conformation of nucleic acids, as studied by crystallography and by magnetic resonance. There are useful introductions (by Berman) to conformational principles and to crystal structures of nucleotides etc.; a chapter on nmr of oligo-nucleotides by Sarma and Dhingra; a summary of fibre diffraction analysis of DNA and RNA by Arnott; two chapters on tRNA, covering crystallography (Kim) and low-field hydrogen-bond nmr (Reid); a somewhat out-of-place article on eukaryotic chromatin by Lilley; and chapters on crystallography (Neidle) and nmr (Krugh) of drug-oligonucleotide complexes. The approach is not always uniform. Reid's contribution on tRNA nmr will be very useful for teaching, and for helping any of us sort out a field in which a lot of obscurity has occurred en route to the present relative clarity. Kim's chapter on the crystal structure is useful, but somewhat more summary, and earlier articles of his own or of others (especially A. Jack, in Chemistry o f Macromolecules HA, International Review of Biochemistry, vol. 24, 1979, or Rich inAccts. Chem. Res. 1977) are more helpful student introductions. Indeed, for teaching, the Jack article covers most of the ground of the present book quite nicely.
less satisfactory than single-author ones. The present volume scores reasonably well on all these counts. The authors are all authoritative. They have been given plenty of scope; indeed I occasionally got the impression half-way through a chapter, that the author was himself slightly surprised at the space at his disposal. The chapters are well documented with an average of 80 references. Most authors have taken the view that they were writing a work of reference, the book to which a reader could turn for a comprehensive account, though Meijer and van Dam, on 'Mitochondrial Ion Transport', occasionally send the reader elsewhere for the real story. Most of the authors write good prose, though two write maths. From my point of view Sha'afi's somewhat inconclusive chapter on the permeability by water and other polar molecules did not repay the intellectual effort of reading it; a clearer presentation of many of the concepts involved was given by Stein in the preceding chapter. Similarly, Rojas' chapter on
'Ion Permeability' is not where I personally shall turn for a deeper understanding of electrophonetic ion movements, or indeed for recent work on the rather specialized gates and channels of nervous tissue to which he devoted most of his chapter. I get more insight from Hall's chapter on 'Channels and Carriers', but that is no doubt my problem. The emphasis is mostly on general aspects, rather than on specific transport careers, though the (Na÷+K+)-ATPase, the (Ca2+h-ATPase and the (H++K+)ATPase each get a chapter to themselves. So when I ask myself what has been left out, I am not looking for individual carriers, but for areas of the subject. The only such area that might have deserved inclusion is the protein chemistry of membrane transport carriers.
But the main problem is what is not in the book. It was put together in 1980, just as the crystal structures of B and Z DNA fragments from Dickerson and Rich's laboratories were first appearing in print. The absence of reference to these structures makes parts of the book already out of date. Likewise, attention to the question of the structure of DNA in solution - the elegant experiments from the laboratories of Wang and of K l u g - is nowhere to be found. There is also lack of unity. The editor could have arranged Kim's contribution to mesh better with Reid's. Arnott shows that conformational 'genera' of A and B DNA differ by a
correlated 'crankshaft' isomerization at y and • (g-g+ to tt), and Kim shows a y/• correlation in tRNA that clusters about g g~ and tt, but no one tries to relate this information. In the general fashion for books with review chapters by many authors, scholarship is lost, and most of the prose can probably be found in other reviews by the same people. One advantage of the coming economic crisis may be to stifle the proliferation of such compendia. s. c. HARRISON
IAN WEST lun West is at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Newcastle upon Tvne, NE1 7RU. U.K.
S. C. Harrisonis at the Departmentof Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Harvard Universi~, Cambridge. MA 02138. U.S.A.
The Bari meetings continue to thrive Vectorial Reactions in Electron and Ion Transport in Mitochondria and Bacteria -Developments in Bioenergetics and Biomembranes, Vol. 5. by F. Palmieri, E. Quagliariello, W. Siliprandi and E. C. Slater, Elsevier/ North-Holland, 1981. $68.00/Dfl. 160.00 (xi + 429 pages) 1SBN 0 444 80372 6 This book demonstrates that the tradition of Bari meetings, which started in 1965, has survived in spite of the scepticism of certain bioenergeticists concerning the recent establishment of European Bioenergetics Conferences (EBEC) as alternative to any other meetings on this topic in Europe. It can be seen from these papers presented at the 13th Bad meeting (May '81) that this was a really good symposium.
The policy of the Bad meetings is that a few items are selected to be discussed in detail. The topics on this occasion were cytochrome oxidase, ubiquinol-cytochrome c oxidoreductase and the possible existence of lateral H+-conducting mechanisms in coupling membranes. The discussion of cytochrome oxidase was focused on the concept of H+-pumping activity of this enzyme. This concept put forward originally by M. Wikstr6m, is shared now by many bioenergeticists. It has now received additional support from observation that one of the cytochrome oxidase polypeptides, subunit III, is specifically required for H + pumping. The subunit HI-depleted enzyme proved to be competent in electron transfer and formation of V q ~ across proteoliposomal membrane, but there was no acidification of the