THIS BOOK HAS BEEN WRITTEN BECAUSE WE FEEL THAT THERE IS A NEED FOR AN up-to-date compact book on cell organelles that transmits the excitement and challenge of modern subcellular biology. We hope that the book will be interesting and useful to students of the biological sciences and medicine, and to those in the teaching professions who do not have ready access to research papers. Since space is at a premium, we have denied ourselves the luxury of a philosophical discussion of the problems of defining organelles. Rather we have chosen to include all those intracellular structures which have limiting membranes and definable compartments. The separate chapters consider nuclei, plastids, mitochondria, microbodies, endoplasmic and sarcoplasmic reticulum, Golgi bodies, lysosomes and various secretory vesicles, including chromaffin granules and synaptic vesicles. Nucleoli, ribosomes, and centrioles are included in the chapter on nuclei. New and exciting information about all these structures has emerged in recent years-for example, the nucleosome, interrupted genes, signal sequences on proteins destined for the bioenergetic organelles, mapping and sequencing of organelle genes, and consolidation of chemiosmosis as a unifying principle in energy transduction. We have outlined as many of these developments as possible and pointed out some areas of controversy. The literature on subcellular biology is so extensive that it would have been easier to have written a separate book on each organelle.

Inhalt

1. Cell Compartmentation.- 2. The Nucleus.- The Interphase Nucleus.- Chromatin - gene transcription - post-transcriptional modification - ribosome formation - nuclear protein synthesis - DNA replication - DNA repair - nucleo-cytoplasmic traffic.- The Dividing Nucleus.- Chromosome segregation - nuclear membrane breakdown.- 3. Plastids and Chloroplasts.- Structure of plastids in higher plants - structure of chloroplasts in higher plants - the chloroplast envelope - the chloroplast stroma - the chloroplast granai fretwork system - plastoglobuli - chloroplast development - chloroplast photosynthesis - light harvesting and energy transduction - the utilization of photosynthetic assimilatory power in carbon dioxide reduction - "C-4 photosynthesis" - the chloroplast in its cellular environment - the cooperative function of chloroplasts in biosynthetic processes.- 4. Mitochondria.- Structure and distribution of mitochondria - cellular origin of mitochondria - DNA replication and protein synthesis - mapping the mitochondria) genome - the assembly of mitochondria - intermediary metabolism - the electron transport chain - models of oxidative phosphorylation - anion and cation carriers in the mitochondria] membrane - the outer membrane.- 5. Microbodies.- Peroxisomes - glyoxysomes - the origin and development of microbodies.- 6. Endoplasmic Reticulum, Golgi Complexes and Secretory Vesicles.- Protein secretion - the role of Golgi bodies in plant cells - exocytosis in animal cells - other functions of endoplasmic reticulum - biosynthesis and assembly of endoplasmic reticulum.- 7. Lysosomes.- Lysosomes - lysosome synthesis - lysosome function - the internal environment of the lysosome - lysosome-like bodies in plant cells.- 8. Organelles in Space and Time.- Integration of metabolic processes - plasticity and origin of organelles.- 9. Organelles and Neuromuscular Activity.- Chromaffin granules - synaptic vesicles-sarcoplasmic reticulum.