B O O K REVIEWS 180, triethylenemelamine is incorrectly called tetraethylenemelamine and is incorrectly identified as TEPA. The citation of Roblin on page 103 does not, appear in the bibliography. If the reader can overcome these objcctions to the above criticized style, he will find Chapters 6 through 13 t o be a useful review of the modes of action of various selectively toxic agents.
JACKSON P ENGLISH American Cganamid Company Pearl River, New York
A428
/
Journal of Chemical Education
Amino Acids, Biochemistry
Proteins, and Cancer
Edited by John T. Edaall, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Collection of papers presented by the Jesse P. Greenstein Memorial Symposium, Division of Biological Chemistry, ACS, September 16, 1959. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1960. in 244 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.5 X 23.5 em. $7.
+
The Memorial Symposium and Featschrift both afford unique opportunities for critical evaluation and speculation. Their very nature seems t o eliminate
the formality and sometimes labored detail of the typical review. The authors appear less constrained by the convections of scientific writing and the discussions are free and interesting. "Amino Acids,' Proteins. and Cancer Biochemistry." a
discussion of recent concepts and techniques in several areas of biochemistry. The articles form a coherent unit, perhaps because they review areas of biochemical research that were of importance in the investigations of one brilliant. and versatile scientist. The introductory chapter, a critical tribute to Greenstein by Edsall and Meister, and the concluding section, a bibliography of Greenstein's published work, measure the breadth and competance of this man. The remainder of the symposium can be divided into two seetiona. The first aectinn discusses techniques in amino acid and protein biochemistry while the second summarizes and evaluates concepts in intermediary metabolism which may be related t o cancer biochemistry. Winitz, Birnbaum, Sigimura, and Otey discuss the preparation of optically pure amino acids and their incorporation in water-soluble chemically defined diets. The application of these diets to problems in metabolism is a striking example of the information yet available in the socalled exhausted area of nutrition. Scheraga, Cha, Hermans, and Schildkraut discuss the internal hydrogen bonding in ribonuclease in a chapter as stimulating as the' always interesting studies of Scheraga and his collaborators. Neurath, Rupley, and Vallee summarize the chemistry of metal free and native carboxypeptidase. These studies are especially interesting since they suggest that metal ions contribute to the formation of enzyme-substrate complexes. Sober and Peterson review their extensive contributions t o the purification of proteins with cellulosic adsorhents. This chapter includes a, number of examples of specific proteins and the partial enzymatic digest of RNA and is the more interesting since Kit discusses these techniques in his chapter on the characterization of nucleic acids h normal tissues and tumors. The discussion of intermediary metabolism begins with a good critical review of amino acid activation and protein biosynthesis by Alton Meister. This chapter is followed by a discussion of Greenstein's generalization that the biochemical cha"racteristics of tumors tend toward a common pattern. Weinhouse has written an interesting discussion of this generalization and a critical evaluation of Warburg's theory of impaired respiration in tumors. Roberts and Simonsen then summarize their very recent studies on free amino acids in normal and neoplastic tissue. Glutamine metabolism and the possibility of chemotherapeutic control of tumors through glutamine metabolism is an interesting aspect of this work. The chapter by Kit mentioned previously is a highly critical and necessary review of the characterization of nucleic acids. Racker, Wu, and Alpers then discuss carbohydrate metabolism, the Pastcur and (Continued on page -4430)
