Volume 6 of Biomembranes covers transmembrane receptors and channels. A particularly important role for the membrane is that of passing messages between a cell and its environment. Part I of this volume covers receptors for hormones and growth factors. Here, as in so many other areas of cell biology, the application of the methods of molecular biology have led to the recognition of a number of families of receptors. Typically, such receptors contain an extracellular ligand binding domain, a transmembrane domain, and an intracellular catalytic domain whose activation, as a result of ligand...

The quantity of information available about membrane proteins is now too large for any one person to be familiar with anything but a very small part of the primary literature. A series of volumes concentrating on molecular aspects of biological membranes therefore seems timely. The hope is that, when complete, these volumes will provide a convenient introduction to the study of a wide range of membrane functions.
Application of the techniques of molecular biology has provided the sequences of a very large number of membrane proteins, and has led to the discovery of superfamilies of...

Volume 5 of Biomembranes covers an important group of membrane proteins, the ATPases. The P-type ATPases couple the hydrolysis of ATP to the movement of ions across a membrane and are characterized by the formation of a phosphoyrlated intermediate. Included are the plasma membrane and muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca²⁺ -ATPases, the (Na⁺ -K⁺) -ATPase, the gastric (H⁺ -K⁺) -ATPase, the plasma membrane H⁺ -ATPase of fungi and plants, the Mg2+ - transport ATPase, the Salmonella typhimurium, and the K⁺ -ATPase of...