Download Comprehensive Biochemistry, Vol. 19A: Amino Acid Metabolism and

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BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY TRANSACTIONS
as a viewpoint from about early 1980. Insofar as its general aim
is to examine the effect of antibodies, or more properly of
antisera, on lymphocytes, its chapters are now being re-written
very rapidly by monoclonalists with their exquisite reagents.
That is not to criticise the book; unavoidable publishing delays
in a rapidly advancing science necessarily mean that events are
almost certain to overtake the printed page. The position of
antibody interactions of various classes and specificities with the
lymphocyte populations recognized at the time of writing are
accurately stated, and the book deserves every credit. At the
price it is a worthwhile addition to any library.
A. R. SANDERSON
The Living Cell
H. HILLMAN and P. SARTORY
Packard Publishing, Chichester, 1980,pp. 112, f3.95
By his own admission Dr. Hillman has been pestering cell
biologists vigorously over several years with his views on the
currently accepted ideas of cell structure, and it would seem that
no-one has yet taken up his gauntlet and given serious battle.
For those of you who have not been present at one of the
fourteen International meetings or seventeen University seminars at which these views have been presented, here is the ‘Book
of the Film’.
In the circumstances, the first question one must ask is, ‘is this
a serious and meaningful criticism which may produce a useful
clarification of ideas or of the questions with which research is
concerned, or is it trivial and cranky? The main feature of the
cranky theory is that it is hard work to produce a refutation, not
because it is difficult, but because it is tedious and unrewarding
and thus few professionals will give the time to embark upon the
task. The thesis expounded in ‘The Living Cell’ is, I think,
cranky, and that is why no cell biologist has entered the lists
against Dr. Hillman and Dr. Sartory.
Why do I think the whole think cranky? Firstly, there is a
concern with truth, with a highly individual idea as to what
represents ‘truth’. Similarly many other commonly used terms
are employed but given rather unique definitions. Immediately,
established ideas are then put at a disadvantage because they do
not operate within the same terms of reference as laid down by
the authors. This political style of argument is then supported by
the use of selected evidence, failure to deal with detail, and the
use of erroneous facts and theories. It is sufficient to select only
a few illustrative cases, but every paragraph contains one or
more examples: ( a ) the definition of living tissue is not given
precisely, while that for dead tissue is, and there is also a strong
suggestion that there is a belief in a form of vitalism; hence, on p.
23 ‘They (i.e. tissue cultures, surviving tissue slices, and isolated
cells) are less alive than whole tissue’; ( b ) p. 33, the energy of the
electrons interacting with the specimen in the electron microscope may be equivalent to 15 000cal- g-’. s-], but this is only a
thermal equivalent, a great deal of the energy being dissipated in
secondary electron and X-ray emission; furthermore the amount
of energy absorbed is independent of magnification, which is
purely a function of the lens operation; (c) repeated references to
the ‘precipitation’ of proteins by the preparative procedures used
by the electron microscopist are no substitute for a more
detailed criticism of the chemistry of fixation: (d) p. 76,
immunofluorescence is cited as a property of living cells; (e)
Brownian motion is frequently cited as an observable property
of living cells, yet it is particularly a property of the inanimate
world, and in living cells obvious Brownian motion of organelles
frequently augurs the imminent demise of the cells; (f)although
obsessed with the dynamic aspect of the ‘living’ cell, the authors
appear to be unable to accept the electron micrograph in terms
of a ‘still’ frame; (g) there is no serious effort to refute the
structure correspondence and succession seen in normal phase
contrast and Nomarski phase contrast of living cells with the
normal transmission electron microscopy of thin sections,
scanning transmission electron microscopy of thick sections and
freeze-fractured preparations. If the structure of the cell derived
from these is wrong, then how is it that ‘if such a structure did
not exist in healthy cells, it would be unlikely to arise so clearly
and regularly while the cell was dying’.
This is the argument used by the authors for justifying the
existence of nucleolar membrane (p. 78).
One could go on and on, but I have neither the time nor the
passion to do so. In conclusion I might add that I think that the
book will prove useful in providing topics for discussion in
tutorials and essays and examination questions. The Devil’s
Advocate has always been useful in providing training in
countering false argument.
N. GREGSON
Comprehensive Biochemistry, Vol. 19A: Amino Acid Metabolism and Sulphur Metabolism
A. NEUBERGER and L. L. M. VAN DEENEN (Editors)
Elsevier, Amsterdam, Oxord and New York, 1981, pp. 481,
$85.00
This volume is produced in the usual style we associate with
other volumes in this comprehensive series. However, I found
two features irritating. Left-hand pages did not carry the title of
the chapter but that of the minor section in the chapter (in
common with the right-hand page). I would also prefer to see the
list of contents of each chapter preceding that chapter rather
than merely appearing after the title page.
Contents
Umbarger presents a concise and authoritative account of
regulation of amino acid metabolism with three very useful
summary tables. Next, Reinbothe, Miersch and Mothes, from
the important centre in Halle, review special problems of
nitrogen metabolism in plants. How interesting that plants form
y-glutamyl peptides with the very amino acids (p-alanine,
P-aminoisobutyric acid and y-aminobutyric acid) which are not
actively transported in the mammalian tissues operating the
y-glutamyl cycle. Presumably this trio do not therefore form
y-glutamyl peptides in mammals. It also calls into question the
possible functioning of this cycle in plants.
Next there follows an account of simple sulphur compounds
by Trudinger and Loughlin in Australia. By concentrating on
assimilatory and dissimilatory processes leading to the formation and oxidation of reduced and carbon-bonded sulphur,
the content is largely microbial. However, mammalian enzymes
are mentioned where appropriate.
1981
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BOOK REVIEWS
The metabolism of glycine and serine is next discussed by
Neuberger. It is surprising to see that threonine aldolase is cited
as being responsible for threonine degradation in the liver and
kidney. Two separate groups (Dale: Nunn and Bird) have
suggested that mammalian liver mitochondria mimic the
well-known bacterial pathways discovered by Neuberger.
Glycine formation from glutamine and glutamic acid is also
ignored. It is nice to see this resurgence of interest in glycine and
serine after the sustained pioneering efforts of Neuberger,
Leuthardt, Rowsell and their disciples.
Finally we come to the last section, comprising almost
one-third of the volume. It is devoted by Nyhan to inheritable
abnormalities of amino acid metabolism. He includes clinical
features, metabolism, biochemical features, the molecular defect,
diagnosis, genetics and treatment. His definitive account,
coupled with 857 literature references, includes the following
inborn errors: phenylketonuria, tyrosinaemia, alkaptonuria,
albinism, histidinaemia, hyperlysinaemia, maple-syrup-urine
disease (branched-chain ketoaciduria), the various organic
acidaemias, sulphur amino acid defects, sarcosinaemia, nonketonic hyperglycinaemia, with disorders of imino acid metabolism, the y-glutamyl cycle and the ornithine cycle. In such a
comprehensive over-view it is surprising to note the omission of
the Fanconi syndrome, the Hartnup syndrome and cystinuria,
presumably by virtue of being transport defects rather than
metabolic disorders. It is fashionable to exclude the most
frequent inborn error of metabolism, namely ,8-aminoisobutyric
aciduria. The frequency is 1.2% in the United Kingdom, but
over 40% in Orientals. The Japanese subjects have been shown
to lack functional aminotransferase utilizing this amino acid in
the liver.
In recommending this splendid volume I have but one
reservation. Who is going to buy it apart from libraries? 1 am
reminded of the novelist G. K. Chesterton, who at the beginning
of a long rail journey purchased a hardback novel (before the
days of paperbacks). He would rend the volume into halves and
consign each half to a separate pocket of his capacious overcoat.
On completing his reading of the first half he would fling it from
the window of the moving railway carriage!
About half of the contents of this volume would fascinate
biochemists with a particular interest in the tricks that plants
and micro-organisms play upon amino acids and their biosynthesis. The other half would be interesting for biochemists,
geneticists and medical scientists.
D. F. EVERED
Neurotransmitter Receptors, Part I: Amino Acids, Peptides and Benzodiazepines
S. J. ENNA and H. I. YAMAMURA (Editors)
Chapman and Hall, London, 1980,pp. 212, E15.00
Ten years ago a book with such a title would be concerned
almost entirely with accounts of experiments in which a
transmitter or related pharmacological agent was applied to an
excitable tissue and the response analysed. A rough page count
suggests that less than one-third of this book concerns such
matters, the remainder being devoted to describing what are now
known as ligand-binding studies, i.e. studies of the association of
transmitters, their agonists and antagonists to fragments of
nerve-cell membrane usually presumed to contain their physiological receptor in a more or less intact condition. It has always
been part of the classical theory of transmitter action that the
first stage was an association of the agonist to the receptor which
could be described in simple mass-action terms without
prejudice to the nature of the chemical bonding to the receptor
or the result in terms of physiological response of the formation
of the receptor-agonist complex. The present popularity of
binding studies is undoubtedly due to the successful utilization of
this principle in the isolation and biochemical characterization of
the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor by using the natural
antagonist a-bungarotoxin as a marker. a-Bungarotoxin binds
very firmly to the acetylcholine receptor, and it is important to
note that there was a large amount of pharmacological
information on a physiologically defined system to check the
specificity of the binding, and other important characteristics in
terms of measurable synaptic function. The binding studies
described in this book however attempt the converse of what
was achieved with a-bungarotoxin: they attempt to enlarge our
understanding of the receptor from a rather marginal base of
physiological information. I doubt that binding studies, no
matter how extensive or sophisticated, will ever supplant the
classical physiological criteria of transmitter action (i.e. release
on stimulation, and identity of pharmacological action at the
receptor), and it remains to be seen to what extent they will be
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able to supply relevant information that is inaccessible to
physiological experimentation.
However, for those whose enthusiasm for binding studies is
not diminished by these caveats, the book will be a useful source
of reference to studies on amino acids, peptides and benzodiazepines. The biogenic amine transmitters are to be dealt
with in a second volume, and a further volume is to describe
purinergic receptors. Whether purinergic systems are separated
because of a feeling that it might yet be indelicate to classify
them as transmitter systems or simply because of a desire by the
publisher to maximize profits is not clear. At any rate the
enthusiast will have to buy three volumes in order to get a global
view of transmitter-receptor binding, which is tiresome, and
expensive, since at E l 5 for 200 pages these volumes are not
cheap. The volumes are multi-authored and the editors are to be
congratulated on the effort they have made to ensure some
uniformity of treatment. Each chapter contains a substantial
assessment of the physiological and pharmacological data that
provide a framework for the binding studies, the literature review
is comprehensive in every case, and likely to be the most useful
feature of the volume. The chapter divisions are rather a mixed
bag: excitatory amino acid receptors (glutamate and aspartate)
are dealt with by J. T. Coyle, Glycine and y-aminobutyrate lie
rather uneasily with a two-page account of benzodiazepine
receptors (S. J. Enna & J. F. De France). Substance P (M. R.
Hanley & L. L. Iversen) and the opioid receptors (S. R.
Childers) get a chapter to themselves, but D. R. Burt has the
unenviable task of concluding the volume with an account of
‘other’ peptide receptors: fortunately for him and us he
concentrates on six only.
This book will be useful to the worker already in the field who
wants a source book for references. But the acolyte will not find
any systematic and critical exposition of the methods for
studying binding, nor will he find a general discussion of
interpretational problems or any analysis of what binding
studies have achieved or are likely to contribute to neurobiology
generally.
R. M. MARCHBANKS