Cell Cycle And Growth Control

This comprehensive work provides detailed information on all known proteolytic enzymes to date. This two-volume set unveils new developments on proteolytic enzymes which are being investigatedin pharmaceutical research for such diseases as HIV, Hepatitis C, and the common cold. Volume I covers aspartic and metallo petidases while Volume II examines peptidases of cysteine, serine, threonine and unknown catalytic type. A CD-ROM accompanies the book containing fully searchable text, specialised scissile bond searches, 3-D color structures and much more.

The Cell Cycle: Principles of Control provides an engaging insight into the process of cell division, bringing to the student a much-needed synthesis of a subject entering a period of unprecedented growth as an understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying cell division are revealed.

Recent breakthroughs in the field of cell growth, particularly in the control of cell size, are reviewed by experts in the three major divisions of the field: growth of individual cells, growth of organs, and regulation of cell growth in the contexts of development and cell division. This book is an introductory overview of the field and should be adaptable as a textbook.

The fundamental question of how cells grow and divide has perplexed biologists since the development of the cell theory in the mid-19th century, when it was recognized by Virchow and others that “all cells come from cells.” In recent years, considerable effort has been applied to the identification of the basic molecules and mechanisms that regulate the cell cycle in a number of different organisms. Such studies have led to the elucidation of the central paradigms that underpin eukaryotic cell cycle control, for which Lee Hartwell, Tim Hunt, and Paul Nurse were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 2001 in recognition of their seminal contributions to this field. The importance of understanding the fundamental mechanisms that modulate cell division has been reiterated by relatively recent discoveries of links between cell cycle control and DNA repair, growth, cellular metabolism, development, and cell death. This new phase of integrated cell cycle research provides further challenges and opportunities to the biological and medical worlds in applying these basic concepts to understanding the etiology of cancer and other proliferative diseases.

Cell Growth and Cell Division is a collection of papers dealing with the biochemical and cytological aspects of cell development and changes in bacterial, plant, and animal systems. One paper discusses studies on the nuclear and cytoplasmic growth of ten different strains of the genus Blepharisma, in which different types of nutrition at high and low temperatures alter the species to the extent that they became morphologically indistinguishable. The paper describes the onset of death at high and low temperatures as being preceded by a decrease in the size of the cytoplasm and a corresponding decrease in the size of the macronucleus. The moribund organisms, still possessing structure, are motionless with no distinguishable macronuclear materials. Another paper presents the response of meiotic and mitotic cells to azaguanine, chloramphenicol, ethionine, and 5-methyltryptophan. The paper describes the failure of spindle action, arrest of second division, inhibition of cytokinesis, aberrant wall synthesis, and alterations in chromosome morphology in meiosis cells. In the case of mitosis, a single enzyme—thymidine phosphorylase—shows that reagents which inhibit protein synthesis also inhibit the appearance of that enzyme if the reagent is applied one day before it normally appears. Other papers discuss control mechanisms for chromosome reproduction in the cell cycle, as well as the force of cleavage of the dividing sea urchin egg. The collection can prove valuable for bio-chemists, cellular biologists, micro-biologists, and developmental biologists.