MOLECULAR CELL BIOLOGY
James DarneD, Harvey Lodish and David Baltimore.
Freeman (Scientific American Books), New York, 1986.
1222 pp., illus.
$42.95.
Molecular Cell Biology is a gigantic new textbook attempting to integrate molecular and cellular bioscience into a "new biology."
The book's 25 chapters are divided into four groups. The first group discusses research history, chemical molecules, biochemical metabolism, cytology, subcellular organelles, research models and tools, and basic procedures for experimental molecular genetics. The second group deals with the structure, replication and expression of genes.
The third group features traditional aspects of cell structure and function (membranes, cytoskeleton, cell-cell interactions, bioelectrical activities and energy conversions); an excellent chapter on protein dynamics, organelle assembly and secretion concludes this part. The final group explores cell specificity, cancer, immunology and evolution in great detail.
The book will inevitably be compared with the excellent Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts et al. (Garland,...