Chromosomes, as the genetic vehicles, provide the basic material for a large proportion of genetic investigations, from the construction of gene maps and models of chromosome organization, to the inves tigation of gene function and dysfunction. The study of chromosomes has developed in parallel with other aspects of molecular genetics, beginning with the first preparations of chromosomes from animal cells, through the development of banding techniques, which permitted the unequivocal identification of each chromosome in a karyotype, to the present analytical methods of molecular cytogenetics....

The synthesis of proteins from 20 or so constituent amino acids according to a strictly defined code with an accuracy of better than 1 in 10,000 at most loca tions is arguably the most complex task performed by cells. Protein Synthesis collects together methods and protocols covering a range of different approaches towards understanding how the cellular machinery accomplishes this task and how these ftinctions might be harnessed by the biotechnology industry to generate novel and useful proteins. The era in which the components of the translational machinery were being catalogued is over....

Putrescine and spermidine are ubiquitous in living organisms. Spermine, third of the three most commonly occurring natural polyamines, is probably present in all eukaryotes but is rare (or nonexistent) in prokaryotes. Polyamine residues are constituents of many compounds found in plants and insects. Putrescine, spermidine, or spermine-containing alkaloids are found in many plants, nonproteinaceous spider and wasp toxins contain polyamine residues, and glutathionyl-spermidine conjugates have been found in some pathogenic microorganisms. In most cells polyamines are the products of a highly...

The effort to sequence the human genome is now moving toward a c- clusion. As all of the protein coding sequences are described, an increasing emphasis will be placed on understanding gene function and regulation. One important aspect of this analysis is the study of how transcription factors re- late transcriptional initiation by RNA polymerase II, which is responsible for transcribing nuclear genes encoding messenger RNAs. The initiation of Class II transcription is dependent upon transcription factors binding to DNA e- ments that include the core or basal promoter elements, proximal...

Calcium plays an important role in a wide variety of biological processes. This divalent metal ion can bind to a large number of proteins; by doing so it modifies their biological activity or their stability. Because of its distinct che- cal properties calcium is uniquely suited to act as an on off switch or as a light dimmer of biological activities. The two books entitled Calcium-Binding Protein Protocols (Volumes I and II) focus on modern experimental analyses and methodologies for the study of calcium-binding proteins. Both extracel- lar and intracellular calcium-binding proteins are...

Min Li and a panel of hands-on experimentalists detail state-of-the-art molecular techniques for studying NMDA ligand-gated ion channels and developing assays for nontherapeutic lead selection. The topics range from cDNA cloning to in vitro and in vivo investigation of the channel complex in the mammalian brain. Additional topics include the biochemical analysis of the channel protein and the construction of various heterologous systems for both basic research and high throughput screens (HTS) for pharmaceutical chemicals. Although the focus is on NMDA receptors, the methods are applicable to...

Genomic imprinting is the process by which gene activity is regulated according to parent of origin. Usually, this means that either the maternally inherited or the paternally inherited allele of a gene is expressed while the opposite allele is repressed. The phenomenon is largely restricted to mammals and flowering plants and was first recognized at the level of whole genomes. Nuclear transplantation experiments carried out in mice in the late 1970s established the non-equivalence of the maternal and paternal genomes in mammals, and a similar conclusion was drawn from studies of interploidy...

The process whereby a single cell, the fertilized egg, develops into an adult has fascinated for centuries. Great progress in understanding that process, h- ever, has been made in the last two decades, when the techniques of molecular biology have become available to developmental biologists. By applying these techniques, the exact nature of many of the interactions responsible for forming the body pattern are now being revealed in detail. Such studies are a large, and it seems ever-expanding, part of most life-science groups. It is at newcomers to this field that this book is primarily...

The field of eukaryotic DNA repair is enjoying a period of remarkable growth and discovery, fueled by technological advances in molecular bi- ogy, protein biochemistry, and genetics. Notable achievements include the molecular cloning of multiple genes associated with classical human repair disorders, such as xeroderma pigmentosum, Cockayne syndrome, and ataxia telangiectasia; elucidation of the core reaction of nucleotide excision repair (NER); the discovery that certain NER proteins participate not only in repair, but also in transcription; recognition of the crucial role played by mismatch...