2360
JOURNAL OF CELL SCIENCE 114 (13)
Molecular trafficking:
are some organelles
more important than
others?
Essays in Biochemistry, Vol.
36: Molecular Trafficking
edited by Philip Bernstein
Portland Press (2000) 145 pages.
ISBN 1 85578 131 X
£19
I recently gave a tutorial on protein
translocation across membranes to a
handful of carefully selected graduate
students at a prestigious institution with
a lot of groups working on protein
trafficking. None of the students knew
who Günter Blobel is, nor had they ever
heard of the signal hypothesis.
Sadly, this edition of Essays in
Biochemistry on Molecular Trafficking
is not going to improve matters: neither
Blobel nor his seminal hypothesis are
mentioned in the chapter on protein
translocation into the endoplasmic
reticulum (ER). Signal recognition
particle is discussed in great detail, but
its function – the coupling of translation
and translocation – remains unexplained.
There is also no discussion of co- versus
post-translational translocation and no
mention of the great amount of work that
has been done on this subject in S.
cerevisiae. While on the whole the first
chapter is still informative and useful, it
would have been substantially better had
the editor caught these omissions.
Likewise, the second chapter – ER
chaperones – might have benefited from
vigorous editing to moderate its
eccentric pitch: it deals mainly with
obscure functions of chaperones in
peptide loading of the MHC class I
complex and tumour-antigen pres-
entation. In combination with the
confusing figures, I doubt that any
student or non-specialist will be able to
distil the main function of chaperones in
the ER – i.e. aiding protein folding –
from this review.
After that, it gets a lot better: the chapters
on vesicular transport and chloroplast
and mitochondrial import are what they
ought to be – well written, informative,
timely and comprehensible. The use of
figures to clarify complex biological
processes, however, is an art that is
difficult to master; here, Danny Schnell
succeeds for chloroplast import, whereas
Gordon and colleagues could have used
some help from a professional illustrator
to improve their depictions of the
admittedly complicated stages of
mitochondrial import.
I was surprised by the complete
omission of peroxisomal import in this
collection of reviews, especially given
the recent advances in this field. I
understand that it can be difficult to
persuade scientists to sacrifice time to
write book chapters, but surely, in a field
of significant size, somebody could have
been found to fill this gap. Equally
surprising was the extensive treatment of
transport into and out of the nucleus.
Having said that, I think that three of the
four chapters covering this subject are
extremely worthwhile. Rout and
Aitchison’s review of nuclear pore
structure is outstanding in its clarity,
especially given the enormous
complexity of the subject and the fact
that we are only beginning to understand
nuclear pore structure/function
relationships. Likewise, Barry and
Wente admirably summarize the wealth
of information on nuclear import and
export, and the tables and figures in this
chapter are particularly helpful.
Schwoebel and Moore’s treatise on
modulation of nuclear localization as a
method to regulate gene expression is as
elegant as the processes they describe. In
contrast, the chapter on viral RNA
export, while well written, seems rather
too specialized for a book that is aimed
primarily at students.
Altogether, this book is a useful teaching
aid for most aspects of protein
trafficking, and I would certainly
recommend it to my students – but not
without pointing out that the root of all
this work was the signal hypothesis.
Karin Römisch
Cambridge Institute for Medical
Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Crawling cells and
elastic stockings
Cell Movements: from
Molecules to Motility (2nd
Edition)
by Dennis Bray
Garland Publishing (2001) 372 pages. ISBN 0-8153-
3282-3
£29.95
‘All
mankind is divided into three
classes: those that are immovable, those
that are movable, and those that move’.
If only Benjamin Franklin had laid his
hands on a copy of Cell Movements by
Dennis Bray, he might have been
tempted to change ‘mankind’ to ‘life’