Downloaded by KAOHSIUNG MEDICAL UNIV on June 10, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: July 2, 1992 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1992-0497.pr001
Preface I s O P E N T E N O I D S A R E A C L A S S O F LIPIDS that are vital to all aspects of growth, development, and reproduction in living systems. In proliferating cells, the isopentenoid pathway gives rise to primary metabolites such as sterols, which are necessary components for membrane structure and function, and to secondary metabolites (usually in growth-arrested cells or unique compartments), which are formed after sterol production for other purposes. These secondary metabolites may or may not be important to the specific cell type that produces them but are nevertheless essential to survival (monoterpenes) and to reproductive fitness (hormones). Developmental change can be negative (as in cancerous cells where regulatory strictures are lost or in the deadly accumulation of cholesterol in human arteries) or positive. In either case, an important key to this change is the regulation (or lack thereof) of isopentenoid genesis. Because the natural product chemistry of isopentenoids has been determined and there have been several major recent advances in analysis, the biochemistry of these compounds can now be investigated. To present an overview of this rapidly escalating field, several divisions of the American Chemical Society and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) (HMGCoA-reductase satellite session) jointly sponsored a four-day symposium comprising more than 25 plenary lectures and a poster session. Perhaps the most important outcome of the symposium was a cross-fertilization of research efforts by the medical and agriculture communities to solve common problems regarding regulation of the isopentenoid pathway. The pathway operates similarly in animals and plants, but with different control points (rate-limiting enzymes) in different organisms and tissues. The design of inhibitors specific for the various regulatory steps is currently at the cutting edge of this effort because of their importance in improvement of animal and plant health. Consequently, the contributors selected for this book, for the most part, address the rational design of potent inhibitors of isopentenoid production that occurs before and after the cyclization of squalene
ix Nes et al.; Regulation of Isopentenoid Metabolism ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1992.
oxide to sterols. Additional chapters cover newly emerging areas of iso pentenoid research, including prenylated proteins and cancer, carotenoids and biotechnology, sterol homeostasis, and molecular biology.
Downloaded by KAOHSIUNG MEDICAL UNIV on June 10, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: July 2, 1992 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1992-0497.pr001
W. DAVID NES U.S. Department of Agriculture Athens, GA 30613 EDWARD J. PARISH Auburn University Auburn, AL 36849 JAMES M. TRZASKOS Du Pont Merck Pharmaceutical Company Wilmington, DE 19880-0400 March 18, 1992
NOTE: Modern usage for the classical terms isoprenoids and terpenoids, see Nes and McKean, Biochemistry of Steroids and Other Isopentenoids; University Park Press: Bal timore, 1977.
χ Nes et al.; Regulation of Isopentenoid Metabolism ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1992.
