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Amino acids and the asymmetry of life : Caught in the act of formation
This book describes how the basic building blocks of life, the amino acids, formed. After a comprehensible introduction into stereochemistry, the author addresses the inherent property of amino acids in living organisms, namely the preference for left-handedness. What was the cause for violation of parity of amino acids in the emergence of life on Earth? All the fascinating models proposed by physicists, chemists and biologist are vividly presented including the scientific conflicts.
Amino acid biosynthesis : Pathways, regulation and metabolic engineering
Amino Acids Biosynthesis presents the current knowledge of fundamental as well as applied microbiology of amino acids. Topics discussed are the amino acid biosynthetic pathways, their genetic and biochemical regulation, transport of amino acids and genomics of producing microorganisms. The characterization of the control mechanisms of amino acid biosynthesis has revealed insights into principles of genetic and biochemical regulation, such as transcriptional regulators and a new class of regulatory elements, the riboswitch. The volume further deals with the metabolic engineering of microorganisms for the biotechnological production of amino acids for use as pharmaceuticals and, particularly, as food and feed additives.
Alicyclobacillus : Thermophilic Acidophilic Bacilli
Soft drinks with pHs lower than 4. 0 are subjected to minimum pasteuri- tion at 65 °C for 10 min as required by the Japanese Food Sanitation Law. Not only pathogenic bacteria but most spore-forming bacteria are unable to grow at this low pH condition, and thus reports of microbial spoilage in pasteurized acidic soft drinks are rare. Since 1982, when the spoilage of aseptically packed apple juice was - tributed to a new type of acidophilic spore-forming bacteria in Germany, a succession of similar complaints regarding other fruit juice concentrates and their products has been received. In the beginning, the bacteria were classified in the genus Bacillus, but later, in 1992, the new genus Ali- clobacillus was proposed owing to their characteristic cellular membranes containing omega-alicyclic fatty acids. A group of Alicyclobacillus strains, responsible for the tainting of fruit juices, was then described as A. a- doterrestris in 1999. They are acidophilic and grow preferably at around pH 4. 0. They are thermophilic and grow better at temperatures above 40 °C. This indicates that we might have been missing them by our or- nary methods of bacterial detection at pH 7. 0 and 35 °C.
Advances in Fracture Research : Honour and plenary lectures presented at the 11th International Conference on Fracture (ICF11), held in Turin, Italy, on March 20-25, 2005
Biological materials are bottom-up designed systems formed from billions of years of natural evolution. In the long course of Darwinian competition for survival, nature has evolved a huge variety of hierarchical and multifunctional systems from nucleic acids, proteins, cells, tissues, organs, organisms, animal communities to ecological s- tems. Multilevel hierarchy a rule of nature. The complexities of biology provide an opportunity to study the basic principles of hierarchical and multifunctional s- tems design, a subject of potential interest not only to biomedical and life sciences, but also to nanosciences and nanotechnology. Systematic studies of how hierarchical structures in biology are related to their functions and properties can lead to better understanding of the effects of aging, diseases and drugs on tissues and organs, and may help developing a scienti?c basis for tissue engineering to improve the standard of living.
Advanced Dairy Chemistry ; Vol.2 : Lipids
The book is unique in the literature on milk lipids, a broad field that encompasses a diverse range of topics, including synthesis of fatty acids and acylglycerols, compounds associated with the milk fat fraction, analytical aspects, behavior of lipids during processing and their effect on product characteristics, product defects arising from lipolysis and oxidation of lipids, as well as nutritional significance of milk lipids.
A Guide to Methods in the Biomedical Sciences
A Guide to Methods in the Biomedical Sciences gives a basic description of common methods used in research. This is not intended to be a methods book. Rather, it is intended to be a book that outlines the purpose of the methods described, their limitations and provide alternative approaches as appropriate. Thousands of methods have been developed in the various biomedical disciplines and those covered in this book represent the basic, essential and most widely used methods in several different disciplines. The historical background (including some interesting anecdotes) leading to the development of ground-breaking techniques are described, especially those that significantly advanced the field of biomedical research. Advances that earned their inventors prestigious Nobel Prizes are emphasized. The book is divided into six sections, highlighting selected methods in protein chemistry, nucleic acids, recombinant DNA technology (including forensic based methods), antibody-based techniques, microscopy and imaging, and the use of animals in biomedical sciences.
