Sunday, 20 October 2013

Toxic Plants of North America, 2nd Edition

Posted by R Santhosh Kalash

on 10/20/2013 01:06:00 pm

Toxic Plants of North America, Second Edition is an up-to-date, comprehensive reference for both wild and cultivated toxic plants on the North American continent. In addition to compiling and presenting information about the toxicology and classification of these plants published in the years since the appearance of the first edition, this edition significantly expands coverage of human and wildlife—both free-roaming and captive—intoxications and the roles of secondary compounds and fungal endophytes in plant intoxications.

More than 2,700 new literature citations document identification of previously unknown toxicants, mechanisms of intoxication, additional reports of intoxication problems, and significant changes in the classification of plant families and genera and associated changes in plant nomenclature. Toxic Plants of North America, Second Edition is a comprehensive, essential resource for veterinarians, toxicologists, agricultural extension agents, animal scientists, and poison control professionals.

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Synthetic Biology

Posted by R Santhosh Kalash

on 10/20/2013 12:56:00 pm

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Synthetic Biology utilizes the design and construction principles of engineering to develop new biological components and systems or embed novel functions into existing ones, and standardize their behavior. This systematic approach to improving and increasing the programmability and robustness of biological components is expected to lead to the facile assembly of artificial biological components and integrated systems. While there has been considerable success in the field, it is still far from its full potential, with major challenges including standardization of parts so that they function reliably, with functional stability in face of mutations and other biophysical constraints such as noise, and integration of different parts.

The ambitious goals and interdisciplinary nature of this new research field have prompted the advancement of molecular biology techniques to meet the need for rapid development of biological building blocks as well as for their functional characterization and quality control. In parallel, researchers in the field of Systems Biology have recognized that the development of novel components necessitates advanced computational design tools that are capable of analyzing the behavior of parts and of constructing synthetic biological networks. This volume aims to review the latest developments in molecular biology techniques that find use in Synthetic Biology and to present some of the enabling computational tools that will aid in systematizing the design and construction of parts and systems. For a more comprehensive set of the latter, readers should look for our sister volume.

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Stem Cell Biology in Normal Life and Diseases

Posted by R Santhosh Kalash

on 10/20/2013 12:54:00 pm

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Stem cells have a prominent role in biology of normal life and also in pathogenesis of diseases. Life starts with generation of an embryo (the most primitive form of a stem cell) and goes through all of the embryonic and fetal stages of life. It forms all of the tissue and organs of a living organism and then has a role in maintenance of normal cellular composition of body. And finally these cells maintain body in a steady state of cell loss and substitution of normal lost/died cells by new normal cells. Nearly in every organ of body we have these cells, although location characteristic and biological property of them is not completely understood. Despite of their role in normal life, these cells also have a prominent role in many diseases. Deficiency/depletion of these cells is very important in pathogenesis diseases. For example aplastic anemia (a fatal form of hematopoietic stem cell disease) is stem cell damage in bone marrow, due to environmental or immunologic dysregulation.

Cancer is also a stem cell disease. Genetic/metabolic abnormalities of tissue stem cells (or some times more mature progenitor cells) may disrupt normal proliferation of immature cells in an organ and start process of carcinogenesis. Although clinical application of the best known stem cells (Hematopoietic stem cells) is possible today and they are useful for treatment of many malignant and non-malignant disorders, clinical knowledge and application of these cells is in infancy. These cells are potentially applicable in regenerative medicine and also cancer treatment. For safe and effective application of these cells, we need better knowledge of their biology, their interaction with other cells (especially supporting niche cells), growth, maturation and also immigration of stem cells through body in normal and abnormal conditions. Also for clinical application we need to know their characterization, their separation methods and safe manipulation.

This book is written to clarify some aspects of stem cell biology, their characteristics, assessment of damage to cells during ex vivo manipulation and also their role in a model of cancers (chronic myeloid leukemia).

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Sirtuins

Posted by R Santhosh Kalash

on 10/20/2013 12:49:00 pm

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The sirtuins are a family of genes encoding NAD(+)-dependent protein deacylases conserved in several organisms including yeast, worms, flies, and mammals. This family of genes has been shown to play crucial roles in the molecular pathways that regulate cell survival, metabolism, and the diseases of aging. Because of the diverse roles sirtuins play, research in the area of sirtuins has expanded into multiple disciplines at an accelerated pace, identifying new and unexpected roles for this family of genes. A diverse array of model organisms and scientific techniques are used to study the sirtuins, which are presented in a comprehensive manner in this volume of Methods in Molecular Biology. After an introductory chapter, the first four chapters (Part I) focus on “Methods to generate sirtuin biology tools,” one each for yeast, C . elegans, Drosophila , and mammalian model organisms. In addition to reviewing common tools, some techniques are presented along with these tools as examples for their use. The next five chapters (Part II) focus on “Methods to identify sirtuin substrates,” covering several enrichment and proteomic strategies to measure changes in acylation of sirtuin substrates. The following five chapters (Part III) cover “Methods to measure sirtuin activity,” which is one of the major challenges currently facing the sirtuin field. Both direct and indirect measurements of sirtuin activity are presented.

Finally, the last five chapters (Part IV) on “Methods to study sirtuin biology” describe protocols to measure some of the major biological pathways controlled by the sirtuins, including metabolism, autophagy, genomic stability, circadian rhythms, and calorie restriction.

Together, the chapters in this volume present detailed protocols for sirtuin research that can be followed directly or modified to investigate new areas of sirtuin biology. We deeply thank the contributing authors to this volume and wish success to the scientists using these protocols for discoveries in this rapidly evolving and exciting field.

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Sex Determination in Fish

Posted by R Santhosh Kalash

on 10/20/2013 12:38:00 pm

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Sex Determination in Fish is the first to report that research in allogenics/xenogenics has conclusively shown that fishes have retained bisexual potency even after sexual maturity and spermiation. The XY genotype found in the unexpected female phenotypes sired by supermales (Y¹Y²) and androgenic males (Y²Y²) points out the need to employ sex specific molecular markers to identify the true genotype of a juvenile, which matures either as a male or female, depending upon the sex of its pair (female or male) and thereby critically assessing the environmental role in sex determination. This book is meant to assist molecular biologists in the search of sex determining gene(s), fishery biologists endeavouring to develop techniques for profitable monosex aquaculture and ecologists interested in conservation of fishes and their genomes.

The title of the book is a ‘hot area’ of research. Not surprisingly, there are many reviews and books on this topic. However, these are more concerned with sex differentiation than sex determination; they have not considered unisexualism in the context of sex determination in fishes. In an attempt to find clues to resolve the riddle of sex determination in fishes, this comprehensive book explores it from cytogenetics through hybrids, gynogenics, androgenics, ploidies, allogenics/xenogenics to sexonomics of gonochores, hermaphrodites and unisexuals. About 77 and 50% of references cited here are dated after 1991 and 2001, respectively; they were collected from widely scattered 375 sources of journals, book proceedings, theses and so on. As the book is a continuum of the earlier book ‘Sexuality in Fishes’, there are a few unavoidable but obligatorily required duplications to keep each chapter complete and independent, besides pointing out areas of research requiring critical inputs. None of the earlier reviews/books have ever considered allogenics/xenogenics; this book is the fi rst to report that researches in this frontier area have conclusively shown that fishes have retained bisexual potency even after sexual maturity and spermiation. The XY genotype found in the unexpected female phenotypes sired by supermales (Y1Y2) and androgenic males (Y2Y2) points out the need to employ sex specific molecular markers to identify the true genotype of a juvenile, which matures either as a male or female, depending upon the sex of its pair (female or male) and thereby critically assess the environmental role in sex determination.

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Proteomics for Biomarker Discovery

Posted by R Santhosh Kalash

on 10/20/2013 12:36:00 pm

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With the advent of proteomics came the development of technologies, primarily mass spectrometry, which allowed high-throughput identification of proteins in complex mixtures. While the mass spectrometer resides at the heart of proteomics, its ability to characterize biological samples is only as good as the sample preparation and data analysis tools used in any study. Not only has proteomics increased our capacity to identify proteins, it has enabled other characteristics of proteomes to be measured. Of utmost interest has been the development of techniques for measuring posttranslational modifications such as phosphorylation and glycosylation. Since the amount of any specific protein within a cell is important to its function, methods to quantitate protein levels have also been developed. These quantitative methods include both label-free approaches and those that utilize stable isotopes incorporated both during cell growth or added via a chemical reaction once the proteome is extracted from the cell.

The purpose of this book is to provide the student and researcher in the fields of Biochemistry, Biomedicine, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Bioinformatics a detailed description of many of the different sample preparation and data analysis tools used in proteomics today. The editors are indebted to each of the authors for providing their time and expertise in making this edition an invaluable resource to anyone involved or interested in proteomics.

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Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding; Second Edition

Posted by R Santhosh Kalash

on 10/20/2013 12:34:00 pm

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To respond to the increasing need to feed the world's population as well as an ever greater demand for a balanced and healthy diet there is a continuing need to produce improved new cultivars or varieties of plants, particularly crop plants. The strategies used to produce these are increasingly based on our knowledge of relevant science, particularly genetics, but involves a multidisciplinary understanding that optimizes the approaches taken.

Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding, 2^nd Edition introduces both classical and molecular tools for plant breeding. Topics such as biotechnology in plant breeding, intellectual property, risks, emerging concepts (decentralized breeding, organic breeding), and more are addressed in the new, updated edition of this text. Industry highlight boxes are included throughout the text to contextualize the information given through the professional experiences of plant breeders. The final chapters provide a useful reference on breeding the largest and most common crops.

It represents a thoroughly overhauled version of the preceding edition, following recommendations and suggestions from users and reviewers. The major changes in the new edition include restructuring and reordering the chapters to follow more closely with how plant breeding is done in practice, and expanding the molecular genetics component. Also, the basic science information has been reduced. Two of the chapters in the first edition have been transferred to the back of the textbook as supplementary material, so it may be referred to by users only as needed. In this way, students and users who already have a background in genetics will not feel obligated to study those chapters before advancing to more plant breeding related topics. A feature of the first edition that is retained and expanded in the second edition is the inclusion of contributions on selected topics by industry professionals. The book is copiously illustrated to facilitate teaching and learning of the topics.

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