Membrane Protein Assembly

From The Critics

Reviewer: Juergen Mollenhauer, PhD, DSc(Rush Medical College of Rush University)
Description: This is a collection of 15 reviews describing structural aspects of prokaryotic and eukaryotic membrane proteins; their folding, assembly, and targeting to specialized membrane compartments; and modeling and simulation experiments with membrane proteins. The editor is an expert, with more than 35 peer-reviewed contributions in the field during the past 5 years.
Purpose: According to the editor, the assembled articles should reflect the state-of-the-art for 1996 and mix general insights in the biology of membrane proteins with specific results of the most recent research. The major emphasis of the contributions is on the description of structural domains in proteins that provide specific functional properties needed for membrane proteins, such as helical domains, signal sequences, channel peptides, patterns of distribution for hydrophilic and hydrophobic stretches, and the assembly of these elements into macromolecular aggregates.
Audience: The book is written for biochemists, protein chemists, and researchers from related fields. Throughout, the individual contributors take care to introduce their topics in general terms. This procedure makes the book potentially interesting for a broader readership, including teaching scientists.
Features: Many illustrations accompany the text. Unfortunately, molecular models and three-dimensional images are given in black-and-white, so sometimes these images are hard to read since they depend so much on color (despite the fact that we all know that fancy colors do not exist at the atomic level). A major deficit of the book is the complete lack of an index; one has to read entire chapters to obtain a subset of information.
Assessment: This is a useful book for anyone interested in membrane proteins, to provide insights in the specific structural features of these proteins. It is one of many recent books dealing with membrane proteins, a sign of how the research field develops into maturity.

Juergen Mollenhauer

This is a collection of 15 reviews describing structural aspects of prokaryotic and eukaryotic membrane proteins; their folding, assembly, and targeting to specialized membrane compartments; and modeling and simulation experiments with membrane proteins. The editor is an expert, with more than 35 peer-reviewed contributions in the field during the past 5 years. According to the editor, the assembled articles should reflect the state-of-the-art for 1996 and mix general insights in the biology of membrane proteins with specific results of the most recent research. The major emphasis of the contributions is on the description of structural domains in proteins that provide specific functional properties needed for membrane proteins, such as helical domains, signal sequences, channel peptides, patterns of distribution for hydrophilic and hydrophobic stretches, and the assembly of these elements into macromolecular aggregates. The book is written for biochemists, protein chemists, and researchers from related fields. Throughout, the individual contributors take care to introduce their topics in general terms. This procedure makes the book potentially interesting for a broader readership, including teaching scientists. Many illustrations accompany the text. Unfortunately, molecular models and three-dimensional images are given in black-and-white, so sometimes these images are hard to read since they depend so much on color (despite the fact that we all know that fancy colors do not exist at the atomic level). A major deficit of the book is the complete lack of an index; one has to read entire chapters to obtain a subset of information. This is a useful book for anyone interested inmembrane proteins, to provide insights in the specific structural features of these proteins. It is one of many recent books dealing with membrane proteins, a sign of how the research field develops into maturity.

3 Stars from Doody