In the past few years quite a few books on molecular biology and genetics have appeared, and all of these have been exceptionally well-written. Most have been updates of previous editions, and if compared with these, the most recent editions have displayed an enthusiasm and excitement that dwarfs their earlier editions. This book, now in its fourth edition, is an example of one of these, and I believe the reason for their increasing quality is the excitement that biologists are now feeling. This is due no doubt to the incredible strides that have been taken in biology in the last few years. Biologists are with complete justification very excited that they understand in greater detail what life is all about, and are looking forward to an even deeper understanding in the decades ahead.
As a non-biologist but one deeply embedded in bioinformatics and certain areas of computational biology, this book served my need to understand in greater detail the underlying biology behind these fields. It is a beautiful book, both from an aesthetic viewpoint and because of its content. The book reads more like a story than a textbook, but the information gain when reading it is considerable, with less entropy than what might be expected from such a deep subject with myriads of terms that must be understood before moving on to others. The author's approach to the book is well-organized, with many accompanying diagrams that illustrate the complicated processes and structures that can occur in the molecular realm. In addition, helpful summaries are put at several places in the book. There are no exercises in this book but there is a workbook that one can purchase separately.
Space prohibits a detailed review of such a large book, but some of the more interesting discussions in the book include: 1. The paragraph on the role of sex in bringing about horizontal genetic exchanges within a species. The thinking is that the genomes of modern eubacteria, archaea, and eucaryotes originated in three different "anthologies" of genes that survived from an ancestral pool in which genes were frequently exchanged. This hypothesis is tempting, argue the authors, since it would explain the fact that eucaryotes are similar to archaea in terms of genetic "information-handling" but more similar to eubacteria from a metabolic standpoint. Horizontal gene transfer has become a very important topic of late, due in part to the uproar on bioengineered foods. 2. The suggestion that eucaryotic cells originated as predators, pointing to the presence of mitochondria as one piece of evidence. 3. The entire chapter on proteins, but especially the discussion on protein folding, allosteric enzymes and allosteric transitions. The discussion on protein folding is qualitative but the authors give interesting insights on this topic. In answering the question as to why only a few of the 20^300 different polypeptide chains will be useful to a living organism, they point to natural selection, and the resulting conformations being stable due to its fine tuning. The extreme sensitivity of protein function to small changes in their structure has recently fueled speculation by religionists as being evidence of "intelligent design", but such speculations, even if true, will not improve the understanding of proteins, and can therefore be safely ignored from a scientific viewpoint. The authors do devote a short paragraph to the discussion of computational methods in the protein folding problem, and also discuss briefly the experimental difficulties in determining the conformations of proteins. They also give some of the mathematical details of steady state enzyme kinetics. 4. The discussion on the need for low mutation rates in order to have life. 5. The section on abnormally folded proteins and their relation to diseases, such as prion diseases. Prions have been a contentious issue of late, due to the issues with "mad cow disease" in Great Britain. 6. The section on the "RNA world" and the origins of life. The authors discuss the need in early cells for molecules to perform reactions that lead to the production of more molecules like themselves. From the standpoint of modern cells, polypeptides, they point out, can serve to be catalysts, but they emphasize that there is no known way in which this type of molecule can copy itself by the specification of another of precisely the same sequence. The talk about one theory, the "pre-RNA" world, as justification for the need for simpler compounds to act as template and catalyst for the synthesis of complementary RNA. 7. The section on heterodimerization and its use in "combinatorial control", the latter being a process in which combinations of different proteins control a cellular process. Although not discussed in this book, the mathematical modeling of combinatorial control and its role in signal transduction systems has taken on more importance in recent years. 8. The section on how genetic switches work and the role of operons thereof. 9. The phenomenon of "transcriptional synergy" in gene activator proteins. Here the transcription rate is higher when several activator proteins are working together than when any of the activators are working alone. 10. The discussion on how circadian clocks can be created using feedback loops in gene regulation. The authors describe an interesting experiment that produced a simple gene clock using techniques from genetic engineering. 11. The section discussing RNA interference, a topic that has taken on enormous importance lately, since using it allows researchers the ability to turn off the expression of individual cellular genes. Indeed pharmaceutical bioinformatics and the role of "in silico" molecular target identification makes use of the ability to "tune" phenotypes by using RNA interference for laboratory validation of the bioinformatic algorithms.
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Shivendu Shree
The BEST BOOK of Cell biology.
Reviewed in India on January 11, 2018
Shivendu Shree
Reviewed in India on January 11, 2018
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This huge book contains all the topics that are related with cell biology.
Pages are of good quality with multicolored diagrams and illustrations.
I purchased a hardbound edition, and I'm satisfied with its sturdy binding.
All the aspects of Cell biology viz. Molecular genetics, biochemistry of the Cell, histological view of Cell biology, cancer, immunology, cell organisation are vividly covered.
** The book also includes a CD-ROM which contains many ORIGINAL videos related with various topics. For example: you can see the original video of a moving amoeba or a dying cell (apoptosis).
This book is equally useful for undergraduate, postgraduate and research students. If you're preparing for CSIR NET (Life Science), you should definitely go for this book to build crystal-clear concepts.
If you want to learn the Cell Biology in most pleasing way, go for this exceptionally well-written book.
In short: Don't get confused, just get THIS BOOK, because it is THE BEST BOOK OF CELL BIOLOGY in this world.
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It is a wonderful book and covers a lot of topics
Reviewed in India on April 18, 2018
Amazon Customer
Reviewed in India on April 18, 2018
Have no doubts, just get it!
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