By
R.E. Dalbey, Department on Chemistry, The Ohio State University, Ohio, USA
Description
The incentive for putting together Volume 4 of this series was to review the wealth of new information that has become available in prokaryotic
organisms in protein export and membrane biogenesis. Just in the last several years, protein translocation has now been efficiently reconstituted
using defined components and the mechanism by which proteins are moved across membrane bilayers is now being examined at a higher resolution.
In addition, because of a new technical breakthrough using osmolytes, it is now possible to reconstitute a number of channel proteins,
ATPase, receptors, and transporters. In many cases, it is possible to successfully predict the membrane topology of these types of proteins
using both "hydrophobicity analysis" and the "positive inside" rule.
In this volume, two chapters focus on protein translocation
across membranes (
Biochemical Analyses of Components Comprising the Protein Translocation Machinery of E. Coli; Protein Translocation
Genetics), while several others on how proteins assemble into the ineer membrane of E. Coli (
Membrane Protein Assembly; Membrane
Insertion of Small Proteins: Evolutionary and Functional Aspects; Pigment-Protein Complex Assembly in Rhodobacter sphaeroides and Rhodobacter
Capsulatus). Other sections review recent progress on transporters (
Identification and Reconstitution of Anion Exchange Mechanisms
in Bacteria; Helic Packing in the C-Terminal Half of Lactose Permease) and signal transduction (
Mechanism of Transmembrane Signaling
in Osmoregulation) as well as the assembly of prints into the outer membrane (
Export and Assembly of Outer Membrane Proteins
in E. coli). Although the emphasis of the book is on proteins, the role of phospholipids in controlling various cell surface processes
is reviewed (
Role of Phospholipids in coli Cell Function). I should point out the reason for the rapid progress in bacteria
research is because of the possibility to apply biochemistry and genetics in this organism.
Included in series
Advances in Cellular and Molecular Biology of Membranes and Organelles
