THIS BOOK collects together papers given at a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held at Il Ciocco (Lucca), Italy, from the 9th to the 15th April, 1989. It sets out to present the current state of understanding of the principles governing the way fluxes and concentrations are maintained and controlled in metabolic systems. Although this is a topic that has held the interest of biochemists for many years, it is only quite recently that the methods of analysing the kinetics of multi-enzyme pathways developed over the past two decades have come to be widely discussed or applied experimentally. Many biochemists remain sceptical that the new methods offer a real advance (except in complexity) over the landmark discoveries of the 1950s and 1960s relating to inhibition of enzymes at branch-points by the end products of metabolic pathways, and the interpretation of allosteric effects and cooperativity. Even those who have become convinced that the classical ideas provide only the starting point for understanding metabolic control have been by no means unanimous in their assess ment of the direction in which one should advance. In this book we have tried to include all of the current points of view, including the view that the classical theories tell us all that we need to know. We have not seen it as our role as editors to paper over the cracks that exist and to pretend that we can speak to the world with one voice.

In this work we present the basic principles of metabolic control which we hope will serve as a foundation for the vast array of factual matter which the biochemist and the physician engaged in metabolic research must accumulate. Accordingly, we attempt to set forth these principles, along with sufficient explanation, so that the reader may apply them to the ever-expanding literature of biochemistry. If we are successful, this will provide a theoretical approach which can be applied to any given set of metabolic reactions. It is impossible to enumerate each and every biochemical reaction and pathway since such a work would be too unwieldy for efficient use. Rather, we hope our presentation of the principles of metabolic control will be sufficiently basic to be of lasting usefulness no matter how detailed biochemistry may become. We would like to be able to con dense biochemistry into a theoretical biology that will not only allow for the general treatment of any given reaction but will enable predic tions to be made as to the existence of necessary pathways and the con sequences of altered control. Such is not possible today, but this may be accomplished in the future. We believe it is now possible to institute the beginnings of such a theoretical biology.

This volume provides an overview of the biochemical basis of metabolic diseases and molecular basis of chemical pathologies. Metabolic disorders occur when metabolic processes in the body are disrupted. They contribute a significant burden to human health globally. They can be congenital or acquired, for example, diabetes mellitus, obesity, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, osteopenia, mild-moderate hypovitaminosis D, erectile dysfunction, dyslipidemia, and thyroiditis. Metabolic disorders have gained significant importance due to the exponential increase in obesity worldwide. Early diagnosis of metabolic disorders is important in order to employ lifestyle and risk factor modification. Features: An overview of the biochemical basis of metabolic diseases and molecular basis of chemical pathologies Describes recent trends in diagnosis of metabolic disorders Discusses management and treatment of metabolic diseases Allows quick identification and retrieval of material by researchers learning the efficacy, associated dosage and toxicity of each of the classes of compounds Suitable globally for graduate and postgraduate students studying metabolic diseases

Freshwater turtles and goldfish can survive for several days without oxygen, some diving turtles for several months; hibernating animals can exist without food for long periods; others can survive extreme conditions such as desiccation, freezing, and thawing. These creatures are, in effect, self-sustaining life-support systems, with a mysterious ability to regulate their own metabolisms. These capabilities raise important questions, which Hochachka and Guppy explore in this seminal new book. What mechanisms turn down (or off) cell metabolism and other cell functions? How does an animal such as an opossum know when to activate mechanisms for slowing or stopping tissue and organ functions? How does it know when to turn them on again? How extensive is metabolic arrest as a defense against harsh environmental conditions? Can we decipher universal principles of metabolic arrest from available data? The lessons to be learned are of potentially great interest to clinicians, because the authors provide a theoretical framework in which to organize an attack on the all-too-practical problem of protecting tissues against hypoxia. Areas that may be influenced include research on cardiac arrest, strokes, acute renal failure, liver ischemia, lung injury, respiratory defense syndrome, claudication, shock, and organ transplant. Investigation of other metabolic arrest mechanisms may be similarly useful in both clinical and agricultural fields. This is a pioneering book of great use to biomedical/clinical researchers and to biologists, biochemists, and physiologists generally.

Two decades have passed since the mechanisms of protein synthesis became well enough understood to permit the genetic modification oforganisms. An impressive amount of new knowledge has emerged from the new technology, but much ofthe promise of20years ago has notyet been fulfilled. In biotechnology, efforts to increase the yields of commercially valuable metabolites have been less successful than ex pected, and when they have succeeded it has often been as much from selective breeding as from new methods. The cell is more complicated than what is presented in the classical teaching of biochemistry, it contains more structure than was dreamed of 20 years ago, and the behaviour ofany systemofenzymes is more elaborate than can be explained in terms ofa single supposedly rate-limiting enzyme. Even if classical enzymology and meta bolism may have seemed rather unfashionable during the rise ofmolecular biology, they remain central to any modification ofthe metabolic behaviour oforganisms. As such modification is essential in much ofbiotechnology and drug development, bio technologists can only ignore these topics at their peril.

Techniques in the Behavioral and Neural Sciences, Volume 12: Neglected Factors in Pharmacology and Neuroscience Research: Biopharmaceutics, Animal Characteristics, Maintenance, Testing Conditions can be used as reference in the improvement of test designs for biochemists and physiologists in the control of test conditions. The book is divided into five sections. The introduction deals with the uncertainty of animal characteristics and test conditions as hindrances to the development of general insight into biological regulatory mechanism. The first section discusses biopharmaceutics — the interaction of drugs when interacting with molecules or enzymes in sufficient concentration at a specific site of action. The second section reviews animal characteristics in terms of strain differences, sex differences, and changes during development and aging of the subject. The third section discusses the maintenance of experimental animals such as housing conditions, food composition, and water intake as these kinds of environmental factors may shape the phenotype and responsiveness of the experimental animal. The fourth section explains the testing conditions such as metabolic effects and drug interactions, anesthesia, stress, and even the effects on circadian rhythms. The last section is a discussion on the importance of experimental results. This section covers internal and external validities and statistical inference. The author concludes that the design of any experiment should include a power analysis so that reliable and valuable conclusions can follow. Biochemists, physiologists, pharmacokineticists, toxicologists, chemical researchers, and others for whom drugs are their main focus of study will find this book valuable.

This comprehensive textbook presents a self-contained guide to bioinformatics, defined in its broadest sense as the application of information science to biology. Thoroughly updated and greatly expanded, this third edition now includes material on the growing array of “-omics”; covering metagenomics, toxicogenomics, glycomics, lipidomics, microbiomics and phenomics. New chapters have also been added on ecosystems management and the nervous system. Emphasis is placed on providing both a firm grounding in the core concepts and a clear overview of the complete field of bioinformatics. Features: explains the fundamentals of information science relevant to biology; covers both organismal (ontogeny and phylogeny, as well as genome structure) and molecular aspects; examines the most important practical applications of bioinformatics, providing detailed descriptions of both the experimental process and the data analysis; provides a varied selection of problems throughout the book, to stimulate further thinking.