Cytochromes c are haemoproteins which carry out electron transfer in a wide variety of biological systems, necessitating different kinds of cytochrome c to fulfill different biological roles. The evolutionary relationship between cytochromes c and their host organisms are described, as well as their structural, spectroscopic and redox properties, including both electron-transfer rates and redox potentials. The treatment is aimed at the non-specialist so that both the techniques described and their application to cytochromes c can be understood. All classes of cytochrome c are dealt with to...

Contemporary views on the structure and function of chromatin are presented and the history of the development of these ideas as well as the nature of the nucleic acid and protein components of chromatin are reviewed. The structure of chromatin is studied at several levels, and its modes of transcription and replication are analyzed. Chromatin provides researchers with a critical evaluation of current knowledge. It combines much information that has never before been assembled, and evaluates and interrelates it in a critical way. This has not been done before so that readers are not...

During the past few decades we have witnessed an era of remarkable growth in the field of molecular biology. In 1950 very little was known of the chemical constitution of biological systems, the manner in which information was transmitted from one organism to another, or the extent to which the chemical basis of life is unified. The picture today is dramati- cally different. We have an almost bewildering variety of information de- tailing many different aspects of life at the molecular level. These great advances have brought with them some breath-taking insights into the molecular mechanisms...