Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: Biochemical Education January 1977 Vol. 5 No. 1 21
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: Biochemical Education January 1977 Vol. 5 No. 1 21
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: Biochemical Education January 1977 Vol. 5 No. 1 21
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present physical biochemistry completely avoiding mathematical derivations, in order to enable advanced undergraduates and beginning graduates to understand the current literature. It fulfils this aim reasonably well and hardly any presently-used technique is omitted, with the deliberate exception of X-ray crystallography. In addition to an outline of a particular method, the reader is given a 'feel' for the technique by simple considerations of instrumentation followed by several examples of the use of the technique. The student working on his own would find the going easy and his interest would always be held by the ample practical details. Each chapter is followed by a few selected references and by some problems. Some of the problems seemed idiosyncratic at first, but on reading the brief solutions given, I warmed to them. After a brief introductory chapter on the chemical characterization of macromolecules the book is divided into six major sections. These deal with direct observation (e.g. light and electron microscopy), general methods (e.g. pH measurement, radioactivity), separation methods, hydrodynamic methods, spectroscopy (including perturbation, infra-red, fluorescence and polarization of fluorescence, ORD, CD, and NMR), and miscellaneous methods (e.g. equilibrium dialysis, concentrating solutions of macromolecules). In attempting to cover the whole field of biochemical methodology it is inevitable that some techniques will be dealt with in a more satisfactory way than others reflecting the direct experience of the author with the different methods. Thus the sections on pH measurement, isotope labelling, electron microscopy, separation methods, and spectroscopy are on the whole good, clear accounts. The sections on electrophoresis on the other hand are not so helpful. For example, with disc gel electrophoresis, we are told that 'the gel can be stained by immersion in dye' but there is no mention of precipitating the protein first or simultaneously, and one would get quite the wrong idea from the statement that follows, that 'the dye is coupled covalcntly to the protein and the protein is coupled to the gel' (p. 223). It is stated in the section on detergent-gel electrophoresis that thin-layer gelfiltration is 'of equal value' to SDS-gels in determining protein molecular weights. In fact the former is more often used for 'native' molecular weights and the latter can only give 'prutomer' molecular weights. I challenge the statement that SDS has supplanted urea in the elmination of secondary and tertiary structure, if only because it is extremely difficult to do things like sedimentation equilibrium and gel filtration in the presence of SDS. The hydrodynamic methods section is excellent on sedimentation velocity, and on zonal and band centrifugation, but is very nucleic acid-orientated. This is not a bad thing as many similar books are in fact heavily protein-orientated. However in the present case it means that the important technique of sedimentation equilibrium only receives 2 pages, and there is nothing on multi-component or interacting systems and little on non-ideality. The latter is unfortunate as the only plot of In c vs. r 2 given is one of serum albumin in 6M-guanidinium chloride. In other respects however this section gives good coverage, particularly on partial specific volumes and on diffusion coefficients. The section on viscosity is also good, although again DNA-orientated. In general the style of the book is chatty and readable, if a tittle sloppy at times. One might ask what '1% accuracy' means (p. 349), and it might be possible to be offended by phrases like 'What this means is that .' if they c~op up too often. Finally the glossary seemed particularly oversimplified and imprecise, for example, 'Svedberg: A unit of sedimentation', and 'Antibody: A protein synthesized by an animal in response to a foreign substance', and 'Density gradient: A change in density with position'. E. J. Wood
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