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There was once an old Chinese man working on a hill with a boy. On the plain, near the sea, rested the village, the inhabitants eagerly engaged in their daily activities. Suddenly, the old man noticed that a huge wave, far distant in the sea, was approaching the shore endangering all. The only safe place was the hill. So, he began waving his hands and screaming aloud, to no avail. The villagers were too busy with their own work and paid little heed to the old man, who was considered a bit eccentric. But soon flames were on the hill, the wheat fields ablaze. The old man had resorted to this ultimate step to alert his fellow citizens. Now, they all went running towards him, angry about their burning crop, and in the process, avoided the imminent danger. For some mysterious reason, my mind focused on this story prior to the Symposium on the Role of DNA, which took place in Ravello, Italy at the end of May 1985. Having made a call for people to meet and reflect for a few days, the analogy began to take shape. Ravello was indeed a hill, magically overlooking the sea from medieval quarters. True, its countryside is filled with vineyards, not wheat fields, but that is an improvement on the story. However, what was the wave? Perhaps, the growing amount of data on cloned brain genes that threatens to engulf neurobiologists.

This volume collects a number of the invited lectures and a few selected contrib­ utions presented at the International Symposium on Structure and Dynamics of Nucleic Acids, Proteins and Membranes held August 31st through September 5th, 1986, in Riva del Garda, Italy. The title of the conference as well as a number of the topics covered represent a continuation of two previous conferences, the first held in 1982 at the University of California in San Diego, and the second in 1984 in Rome at the Accademia dei Lincei. These two earlier conferences have been documented in Structure and Dynamics: Nucleic Acids and Proteins, edited by E. Clementi and R. H. Sarma, Adenine Press, New York, 1983, and Structure and Motion: Membranes, Nucleic Acids and Proteins, edited by E. Clementi, G. Corongiu, M. H. Sarma and R. H. Sarma, Adenine Press, New York, 1985. At this conference in Riva del Garda we were very hesitant to keep the name of the conference the same as the two previous ones. Indeed, a number of topics discussed in this conference were not included in the previous ones and even the emphasis of this gathering is only partly reflected in the conference title. An alternative title would have been Structure and Dynamics of Nucleic Acids, Proteins, and Higher Functions, or, possibly,'higher components'rather than'higher functions.

Proceedings of the Sixteenth Jerusalem Symposium on Quantum Chemistry and Biochemistry held in Jerusalem, Israel, May 2-5, 1983

DNA and RNA fractions have been isolated from the whole blood, serum, plasma, the surface of blood cells, urine, saliva and spinal fluid from both healthy individuals and clinical patients. Recent developments are presented concerning the isolation, quantification and analysis of these molecules and their use in the identification of specific nucleic acid fragments related to a variety of clinical disorders thereby permitting their early diagnosis and prognosis.

This book is dedicated to the multiple aspects, that is, biological, physical and computational of DNA and RNA molecules. These molecules, central to vital processes, have been experimentally studied by molecular biologists for five decades since the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953. Recent progresses (e.g. use of DNA chips, manipulations at the single molecule level, availability of huge genomic databases...) have revealed an imperious need for theoretical modelling. Further progresses will clearly not be possible without an integrated understanding of all DNA and RNA aspects and studies.The book is intended to be a desktop reference for advanced graduate students or young researchers willing to acquire a broad interdisciplinary understanding of the multiple aspects of DNA and RNA. It is divided in three main sections:The first section comprises an introduction to biochemistry and biology of nucleic acids. The structure and function of DNA are reviewed in R. Lavery's chapter. The next contribution, by V. Fritsch and E. Westhof, concentrates on the folding properties of RNA molecules. The cellular processes involving these molecules are reviewed by J. Kadonaga, with special emphasis on the regulation of transcription. These chapters does not require any preliminary knowledge in the field (except that of elementary biology and chemistry).The second section covers the biophysics of DNA and RNA, starting with basics in polymer physics in the contribution by R. Khokhlov. A large space is then devoted to the presentation of recent experimental and theoretical progresses in the field of single molecule studies. T. Strick's contribution presents a detailed description of the various micro-manipulation techniques, and reviews recent experiments on the interactions between DNA and proteins (helicases, topoisomerases,...). The theoretical modeling of single molecules is presented by J. Marko, with a special attention paid to the elastic and topological properties of DNA. Finally, advances in the understanding of electrophoresis, a technique of crucial importance in everyday molecular biology, are exposed in T. Duke's contribution.The third section presents provides an overview of the main computational approaches to integrate, analyse and simulate molecular and genetic networks. First, J. van Helden introduces a series of statistical and computational methods allowing the identification of short nucleic fragments putatively involved in the regulation of gene expression from sets of promoter sequences controlling co-expressed genes. Next, the chapter by Samsonova et al. connects this issue of transcriptional regulation with that of the control of cell differentiation and pattern formation during embryonic development. Finally, H. de Jong and D. Thieffry review a series of mathematical approaches to model the dynamical behaviour of complex genetic regulatory networks. This contribution includes brief descriptions and references to successful applications of these approaches, including the work of B. Novak, on the dynamical modelling of cell cycle in different model organisms, from yeast to mammals.. Provides a comprehensive overview of the structure and function of DNA and RNA at the interface between physics, biology and information science.

Nucleic Acid Research: Future Development reflects the exchange of ideas and information among the participants of''The Future of Nucleic Acid Research''symposium held at Kyoto on December 1981. This publication aims to extend the ideas presented in the symposium and to provide facts that can answer various scientific questions, particularly, in molecular biology. The book is divided into five parts. It explains the structure of DNA and chromosome and the interaction of nucleic acids with proteins. It also discusses the gene organization of prokaryotes as well as the gene expressions in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Moreover, it talks about the DNA replication and recombination prokaryotes. This publication is a masterful reference for genetics and molecular biology researchers and lecturers. It will also be an excellent learning material for students taking different courses in biology, including genetics, cell and molecular biology, molecular biophysics, and biochemistry.

Progress in Nucleic Acid Research and Molecular Biology

Nucleic Acid-Protein Recognition covers the proceedings of a symposium on''Nucleic Acid-Protein Recognition'', held at Arden House, Harriman Campus of Columbia University on May 30-June 1, 1976. The symposium inaugurated the''P & S Biomedical Sciences Symposia''under the sponsorship of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. This book is organized into nine part encompassing 31 chapters. The opening parts describe the principles of DNA replication and the unique chromatin structure. These parts also examine the physical chemistry of the interactions of melting proteins with nucleic acids. The third part presents the different types of approaches that can be used to study the function of RNA polymerases and the development of a cell-free system that favors Pol II-catalyzed transcription from type 2 adenovirus DNA. Parts IV and V deal with the sequence determination of wild-type and mutant repressor and the restriction and modification of DNA endonucleases, while parts VI and VII focus of the recognition of tRNA. Part VIII discusses some significant studies on the assembly of ribosomes and the principles of ribosomal interactions. Lastly, Part IX considers the role of small RNA template in the reaction mechanism of RNA replicases and ribonucleases. This part also surveys the so-called RNase III cleavage of different types of RNA and the structure of nucleic acid-protein complexes.

The Novartis Foundation Series is a popular collection of the proceedings from Novartis Foundation Symposia, in which groups of leading scientists from a range of topics across biology, chemistry and medicine assembled to present papers and discuss results. The Novartis Foundation, originally known as the Ciba Foundation, is well known to scientists and clinicians around the world.