A collection of papers that comprehensively describe the major areas of research on lipid metabolism of plants. State-of-the-art knowledge about research on fatty acid and glycerolipid biosynthesis, isoprenoid metabolism, membrane structure and organization, lipid oxidation and degradation, lipids as intracellular and extracellular messengers, lipids and environment, oil seeds and gene technology is reviewed. The different topics covered show that modern tools of plant cellular and molecular biology, as well as molecular genetics, have been recently used to characterize several key enzymes of plant lipid metabolism (in particular, desaturases, thioesterases, fatty acid synthetase) and to isolate corresponding cDNAs and genomic clones, allowing the use of genetic engineering methods to modify the composition of membranes or storage lipids. These findings open fascinating perspectives, both for establishing the roles of lipids in membrane function and intracellular signalling and for adapting the composition of seed oil to the industrial needs. This book will be a good reference source for research scientists, advanced students and industrialists wishing to follow the considerable progress made in recent years on plant lipid metabolism and to envision the new opportunities offered by genetic engineering for the development of novel oil seeds.

Black & white print. Concepts of Biology is designed for the typical introductory biology course for nonmajors, covering standard scope and sequence requirements. The text includes interesting applications and conveys the major themes of biology, with content that is meaningful and easy to understand. The book is designed to demonstrate biology concepts and to promote scientific literacy.

Free energy constitutes the most important thermodynamic quantity to understand how chemical species recognize each other, associate or react. Examples of problems in which knowledge of the underlying free energy behaviour is required, include conformational equilibria and molecular association, partitioning between immiscible liquids, receptor-drug interaction, protein-protein and protein-DNA association, and protein stability. This volume sets out to present a coherent and comprehensive account of the concepts that underlie different approaches devised for the determination of free energies. The reader will gain the necessary insight into the theoretical and computational foundations of the subject and will be presented with relevant applications from molecular-level modelling and simulations of chemical and biological systems. Both formally accurate and approximate methods are covered using both classical and quantum mechanical descriptions. A central theme of the book is that the wide variety of free energy calculation techniques available today can be understood as different implementations of a few basic principles. The book is aimed at a broad readership of graduate students and researchers having a background in chemistry, physics, engineering and physical biology.

This new book provides comprehensive coverage of the subjects of deuterium oxide and deuteration in biosciences, with an emphasis on the biochemical, biomedical, and pharmacological aspects. Deuterium oxide and deuteration effects also offer various implications for health-related issues, including diseases, vaccines and drugs. Organized in six sections, the chapter topics include the role of regular and heavy water in biosciences, and their implications to biomolecules, biochemical processes, health-related research, and pharmacology. Due to the broad scope, the book may be used as a supplemental text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in the related fields of biochemistry, biology, biomedical sciences, biophysics, and pharmacology. Researchers and pharmaceutical industry professionals will also find the content useful in order to gain knowledge and better understand the implications of deuterium oxide and deuteration research.

Concise chapters, written by experts in the field, cover a wide spectrum of topics on lipid and membrane formation in microbes (Archaea, Bacteria, eukaryotic microbes).All cells are delimited by a lipid membrane, which provides a crucial boundary in any known form of life. Readers will discover significant chapters on microbial lipid-carrying biomolecules and lipid/membrane-associated structures and processes.