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Books in Biological transport

    • Bioenergetics

      • 4th Edition
      • David G. Nicholls
      • English
      Extensively revised, the fourth edition of this highly successful book takes into account the many newly determined protein structures that provide molecular insight into chemiosmotic energy transduction, as well as reviewing the explosive advances in 'mitochondrial physiology'-the role of the mitochondria in the life and death of the cell. Covering mitochondria, bacteria and chloroplasts, the fourth edition of Bioenergetics provides a clear and comprehensive account of the chemiosmotic theory and its many applications. The figures have been carefully designed to be memorable and to convey the key functional and mechanistic information. Written for students and researchers alike, Bioenergetics is the most well-known, current and respected text on chemiosmotic theory and membrane bioenergetics available.
    • Gap Junctions

      • 1st Edition
      • J.E. Hall + 2 more
      • English
      Gap junctions are present in nearly all tissues, regardless of their embronic origin and have long been of great interest to scientists from many different disciplines. The international meeting on which this book is based brought together 157 scientists from 12 countries and almost as many scientific disciplines. The papers presented at the meeting were reviewed and updated prior to publication in this book. The seven parts of the book progress from general topics to the more specific ones (role of gap junctions in various tissues, regulation and biochemistry, and cancer).
    • Metal Transporters

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 69
      • English
      This volume of Current Topics in Membranes focuses on metal transmembrane transporters and pumps, a recently discovered family of membrane proteins with many important roles in the physiology of living organisms. The book summarizes the most recent advances in the field of metal ion transport and provides a broad overview of the major classes of transporters involved in homeostasis of heavy metals. Various families of the transporters and metal specificities are discussed with the focus on the structural and mechanistic aspects of their function and regulation. The reader will access information obtained through a variety of approaches ranging from X-ray crystallography to cell biology and bioinformatics, which have been applied to transporters identified in diverse biological systems, such as pathogenic bacteria, plants, humans and others.
    • Cilia: Model Organisms and Intraflagellar Transport

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 93
      • English
      Cilia are highly conserved organelles that serve motile functions, sensory functions, or both. These organelles power cell movement, generate fluid flow in various organs, act as sensors of the extracellular environment and have been modified for various specialized tasks such as light reception and smell. Defects in these ubiquitous organelles lead to a broad array of human genetic disorders that range from polycystic kidney disease, retinal degeneration, epilepsy and infertility to developmental defects such as situs inversus and polydactyly. This volume is the third in a three-part series on cilia that focuses on the use of model organisms to gain insight into ciliary function and on the process of intraflagellar transport that is essential for the assembly and maintenance of ciliary structures.
    • Chloride Movements Across Cellular Membranes

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 38
      • English
      All living cells are surrounded by a lipidic membrane that isolates them from the often harsh environment. However, to take up nutrients, to excrete waste, and to communicate among each other, Nature has invented an incredibly diverse set of transmembrane transport proteins. Specialized transporters exist to shuttle electrically charged ions, positive cations like sodium or negative anions like chloride, across the membrane. In the recent years, tremendous progress has been made in the field of chloride transport. The present book presents the state of the art of this rapidly expanding and interest-gaining field of membrane transport. It is addressed at a broad medically, physiologically, biologically, and biophysically interested readership.
    • Copper-Containing Molecules

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 60
      • Joan S. Valentine + 1 more
      • English
      A wide range of researchers are currently investigating different properties and applications for copper-containing proteins. Biochemists researching metal metabolism in organisms ranging from bacteria to plants to animals are working in a completely different area of discovery than scientists studying the transportation and regulation of minerals and small molecule nutrients. They are both working with copper-containing proteins, but in very different ways and with differing anticipated outcomes.
    • Gap Junctions

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 30
      • E.L. Hertzberg
      • English
      The objective in editing this volume was twofold: to provide a reasoned overview of the field as well as to furnish one that provided this overview within the context of the intellectual boundaries of those who initially attempted to define the purview of gap junction research. The latter objective has been realized by selecting the topics for review in this volume. The former objective was achieved by securing the cooperation of leaders in their fields as chapter co-authors.
    • Phagocytosis: The Host

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 5
      • S. Gordon
      • English
      An accompanying volume (Volume 6) in this series presents strategies of cellular invasion from the viewpoint of the microbe.This filed of study is growing rapidly after a somewhat slow start over recent decades. This collection of invited chapters attempts to reflect current research, and brings together cell biologists, microbiologists and immunologists with disparate interests. However, there is a certain unity, even repetition of key themes, hopefully like a symphony rather than a boring catalogue. It will be evident that editorial bias favors intracellular paratism and medically important organisms. The neutrophil is far more than a supporting player to the macrophage, and some attempt is made to remind the reader of some of its unique skills. To retain a manageable size, the emphasis is on relatively early events such as mutual recognition, cell entry, and response, rather than on longterm changes in gene expression by either host cell or pathogen. Viruses are excluded not because of lack of importance but because of somewhat different research approaches, although it is cytogenes, share common strategies in invasion and intercellular spread.
    • Ion Pumps, Part A

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 23
      • J.P. Andersen
      • English
      Both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells depend strongly on the function of ion pumps present in their membranes. The term ion pump, synonymous with active ion-transport system, refers to a membrane-associated protein that translocates ions uphill against an electrochemical potential gradient. Primary ion pumps utilize energy derived from chemical reactions or from the absorption of light, while secondary ion pumps derive the energy for uphill movement of one ionic species from the downhill movement of another species. In the present volume, various aspects of ion pump structure, mechanism, and regulation are treated using mostly the ion-transporting ATPases as examples. One chapter has been devoted to a secondary ion pump, the Na+-Ca2+ exchanger, not only because of the vital role played by this transport system in regulation of cardiac contractility, but also because it exemplifies the interesting mechanistic and structural similarities between primary and secondary pumps.
    • Protein Targeting to Mitochondria

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 17
      • F.U. Hartl
      • English
      A large number of newly-synthesized polypeptides must cross one or several intracellular membranes to reach their functional locations in the eukaryotic cell. The mechanisms of protein trafficking, in particular the post-translational targeting and membrane translocation of proteins, are of fundamental biological importance and are the focus of intensive research world-wide. For more than 15 years, mitochondria have served as the paradigm organelle system to study these processes. Although key questions, such as how precisely proteins cross a membrane, still remain to be answered, exciting progress has been made in understanding the basic pathways of protein import into mitochondria and the components involved. In addition to a fascinating richness and complexity in detail, the analysis of mitochondrial protein import has revealed mechanistic principles of general significance: Major discoveries include the demonstration of the requirement of an unfolded state for translocation and of the essential role of molecular chaperones on both sides of the membranes in maintaining a translocation-compet... conformation and in protein folding after import. It is becoming clear how a polypeptide chain is "reeled" across the membrane in an ATP-dependent process by the functional cooperation of membrane proteins, presumably constituting part of a transmembrane channel, with peripheral components at the trans-side of the membrane.In this volume, eminent experts in the field take the time to review the central aspects of mitochondrial biogenesis. The logical order of the 16 chapters is determined by the sequence of steps during protein import, starting with the events taking place in the cytosol, followed by the recognition of targeting signals, the translocation of precursor proteins across the outer and inner membranes, their proteolytic processing and intramitochondrial sorting, and finally their folding and oligomeric assembly. In addition, the mechanisms involved in the export of mitochondrially encoded proteins as well as recent advances in understanding the division and inheritance of mitochondria will be discussed.