COMPANION TO BIOCHEMISTRY: SELECTED TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDIES

A.T. BULL, J.R. LAGNADO, J.O. THOMAS and K.F. TIPTON, EDS.

Summary: The proliferation of guises under which biochemistry appears, viz. biochemical science, biochemical cell biology, molecular "this and that", attests to the popularity of what may be collectively termed molecular biology. Publishers of textbooks are aware of this interest and have put out a list of excellent titles, both new and revised editions of standard texts, which are suitable for all types of introductory or beginning courses in biochemistry, be it at the freshman or graduate level.

However, there is a real need for an appropriate textbook which can be used in the senior undergraduate courses or in courses given to students enrolled in a M.S. degree program in biochemistry. Information concerning current facts, experimental approaches and concepts lie scattered in the literature, or are contained in the reports of recent symposia which may come out in print anywhere from one to five years after the events. In any case, these monographs and review articles address researchers working in the field and arc never quite useful to the novice preparing to plunge into the ardour of research.

"Companion to Biochemistry" is an attempt to overcome this need. Twenty-five authors have contributed twenty-one articles which have been selected by the editors because they are "either poorly treated in the textbooks, or poorly understood by the average final-year undergraduate (in U.K.) or are not at present regarded as central to the teaching of biochemistry but which may become increasingly important." The book has clearly been written with the student in mind for the chapters are divided into numbered and titled sections which are often in turn further subdivided into numbered units. The twenty odd topics cover proteins (biosynthesis, chemical modification, enzyme kinetics (both steady-state and relaxation), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, electronic spectra and optical activity, nucleic acid (structure and function), polysaccharides (structure and function, bacterial cell wall and plant cell wall), immunoglobulins (structure and genetics), viruses (structure and replication), microorganisms (growth conditions, prokaryotic genetics and microbial pathogenicity), protozoa (as tools in biochemistry), lysosomes (including peroxisomes), cell cycle, mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, hormonal control of metabolism (using insulin as model), and muscle contraction (molecular basis).

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Longman Group limited, London, 1974, pp. 700, ISBN 0 582 46004 2, pound 7.00