Download The Plant Viruses, Volume I: Polyhedral Virions with Tripartite

796
BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY TRANSACTIONS
to fling at the reader: ten years in the making, 150 000 terms
defined from a starting list of 220 000, computerized database of 27.5 million characters (whatever that means!),
prestigious Editorial Board chaired by E. Love11 Becker,
Adjunct Professor of Medicine of Cornell University Medical School and represented from the U.K. by Sir John
Buttefield, Regius Professor of Physic from the University
of Cambridge, 71 subject areas presided over by 81 advisory
editors and a whole army of contributors. Biochemistry is in
the safe editorial hands of Hal B. F. Dixon and Sir Hans
Kornberg, Genetics is with Victor A. McKusick and so on;
eminence presides over every aspect of the living, including
marine biology but not plants and agriculture. The emphasis, nonetheless, is on medicine.
Defining the terms, many for the first time, took about
five years. More than 70% have been independently refereed.
Some have been renamed in the light of progress; ‘gay
immunocompromise syndrome’ is now called ‘AIDS’, for
example. Updating was continued until early 1985 when
printing began.
Because the work is so comprehensive a search may take
more than a few moments. There are four and a half pages
of definitions of anaemia, for example, and nearly another
four on different sorts of ‘angle’ from ‘angle of abberation’
to ‘xiphoid angle’, each name-phrase being placed in alphabetical order as though it were a single word. Once this
principle has been grasped it greatly speeds tracking down
an entry, the beginning of such long sections being indicated
by a bold heading centred over the column.
Access to this work will certainly place the layman on a
new plane regarding comprehension of medical termino-
logy, while a gentle browse will enable you to baffle your
friends with questions such as ‘what d o the following have
in common: Herrick’s anaemia, drepanocytic anaemia,
Dresback’s anaemia, meniscocytic anaemia and microdrepanocytic anaemia?’ The answer is that they are all
alternative names for sickle cell disease! How many biochemists know that?
It is a feature of dictionaries that unexpected information
may infuse itself owing to the curious juxtaposition of
words. Thus whilst looking up ‘restriction endonuclease’
under ‘enzyme’, which definition incidentally surprised me
by not mentioning the palindromic nature of the nucleotide
sequence specificity, I inadvertently learned that ‘penis envy’
is ‘. . . part of the castration complex’. This work is definitely not for the sensitive!
My greatest achievement within the 2% of allocated text
was, being deprived of any putative section on alligator or
crocodile (vide supra), to learn that ‘bond, energy rich’,
which term ‘ . . . does not refer to bond energy in the physicochemical sense of the energy required to break the bond
with the formation of radicals o r ions.’ is also called a ‘high
energy bond’.
Individuals lacking a Consultancy or private practice are
unlikely to purchase this set for themselves. It should, however, be closer than the institutional library and every
department should scrutinize its budget with this in mind.
The publishers point out there is nothing remotely like it
and so up to date. They are to be complimented on bringing
a bold and imaginative project to such a successful fruition.
D. C. WATTS
The Plant Viruses, Volume I: Polyhedral Virions with Tripartite Genomes
R. I. B. FRANCKI (Editor)
Plenum Press, New York and London, 1985, p p . 309,
$49.50
Our understanding of the molecular biology of plant viruses
has always lagged behind that of the animal viruses and
bacteriophages. However, over the past 20 years tremendous advances have been made in the study of plant viruses.
This is the first in a planned set of seven specialist volumes
dedicated to ‘The Plant Viruses’ in the series ‘The Viruses’
from Plenum.
It is surprising that this first volume should deal with
plant viruses whose genomes consist of not one, but three,
unique molecules of single-stranded, positive-sense RNA
which are encapsidated to form small polyhedral or bacilliform particles (the proposed ‘Family’ Tricornaviridae). The
authors of the nine chapters will be familiar names to plant
virologists and together they provide an admirable comparative account of the biology of these particular virus
groups. Plant virologists will welcome this volume and
many of the chapters will be of interest to a far wider range
of readers. There are reviews on capsid construction of
spherical and bacilliform particles (like Alfalfa Mosaic
Virus) which have attracted a great deal of biochemical and
physical study and also on the structure of the tripartite
virus genome.
The chapter on virus multiplication (by R. Hull and
A. J. Maule) provides a thorough coverage of more recent
findings on the events in infection from virion entry into the
plant cell, through the biochemistry of replication to formation of progeny virus particles. These authors rightly draw
attention to the special experimental difficulties of working
with plant viruses, and end on a word of caution on the
‘non-critical application of the present in vitro techniques’,
pointing out that infection occurs inside the complex plant
cell structure. Also worthy of mention is the article (by
L. van Vloten-Doting) on virus genetics. The particular
plant viruses that are the subject of this volume are more
amenable to genetic analysis than most because their
genomes are divided between a number of separate RNA
molecules. They have been the subject of more intense
genetic study than any other of the plant virus groups, and
this review summarizes the important advances that have
been made during the last 10 years on genome organization
and function in the tripartite viruses.
The text and diagrams in this volume are well presented
and its main limitation seems to be that the literature
covered only goes as far as the beginning of 1984. Nevertheless this book will be of interest to researchers, teachers
and final year undergraduate students reading advanced
courses. This set of seven volumes entitled ‘The Plant
Viruses’ looks like becoming a new landmark in the literature on plant viruses.
S . W. KETTERIDGE
1986
797
BOOK REVIEWS
Publications Received
Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biochemistry, R.
Stuart Tipson and D. Horton (Editors), Academic Press,
Orlando, FL, 1985, pp. 459, E63.50.
Advances in Microbial Physiology, A. H. Rose and D. W.
Tempest (Editors), Academic Press, Orlando, FL, 1985,
pp. 320, E49.50
Advances in Nutritional Research, Volume 7, H. H. Draper
(Editor), Plenum Press, New York, 1985, pp. 273, $49.50
The Autoimmune Diseases, N. R. Rose and I. R. Mackay
(Editors), Academic Press, Orlando, FL, 1985, pp. 727,
E75.00
Biochemistry of Macrophages, Ciba Symposium no. 118,
CIBA Foundation, Pitman, London, 1986, pp. 256,
E27.95
Biochemistry in the Service of the Clinical Scientist, T. J.
Peters, Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, 1986, pp. 68,
E3.60 paperback
Biohalogenation, S. L. Neidleman and J. Geigert, John
Wiley, Chichester, 1986, pp. 203, E25.00
Biology of Sewage Treatment and Water Pollution Control,
K. Mudrack and S. S. Kunst, John Wiley, Chichester,
1986, pp. 193, E27.50
The Biophysical Basis of Excitability, H. G. Ferreira and
M. W. Marshall (Editors), Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1985, pp. 484, E50.00
Diffusion, E. L. Cussler, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1986, pp. 525, E15.00
Economic Aspects of Biotechnology, A. J. Hacking, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 306, E35.00
VOl. 14
Gene Manipulation and Expression, R. E. Glass and
J. Spizek (Editors), Croom Helm, Beckenham, 1986,
pp. 559, E45.00
Growth Factors in Biology and Medicine, Ciba Symposium
no. 116, D. Evered, J. Nugent and J. Whelan (Editors),
Pitman, London, 1985, pp. 283, E27.95
Hormones, Receptors and Cellular Interactions in Plants,
C. M. Chadwick and D. R. Garrod (Editors), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 375, E40.00
Lichen Physiology and Cell Biology, D . H. Brown (Editor),
Plenum Press, New York, 1985, pp. 362, $59.50
Molecular Cytology, Volume I , J. Brachet, Academic Press,
Orlando, FL, 1985, pp. 424, E52.00
Nucleic Acid Hjh-idisation ( A Practical Approach), B. D .
Hames and S. J. Higgins (Editors), IRL Press, Washington, 1985, pp. 245, E22.00 hardback, E14.00 paperback
Practical Statistics for Experimental Biologists, A. C. Wardlaw, John Wiley, Chichester, 1985, pp. 290, E27.50 hardback, E l 1.95 paperback
Reconstitutions of Transporters, Receptors and Pathological
States, E . Racker, Academic Press, Orlando, FL, 1985,
pp. 271, E24.50.
Regulation of HMG CoA Reductase, B. Preiss (Editor),
Academic Press, 1985, pp. 330, E48.00
Trichothecenes and Other Mycotoxins, J. Lacy (Editor),
John Wiley, Chichester, 1985, pp. 571, E55.00
X - Ray Microanalysis in Electron Microscopy for Biologists,
A. J. Morgan, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985,
pp. 79, E5.95