Chromatin Structure and Function. Molecular and Cellular Biophysical Methods. Chromatin Structure and Function. Levels of Organization and Cell Structure

This two-volume publication contains the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute, held in April 1978. The material is organized in five sections. In the first section J. Bonner presents a historic review of chromatin research. The following section describes biophysical and chemical methods used in the study of isolated chromatin, such as electron microscopy, circular dichroism, X-ray diffraction, and nuclear magnetic resonance. Several of these chapters are written for the non-specialist and serve as a useful introduction to the methodology; others are quite detailed, and a few are of questionable relevance. The third section describes chromatin organization at different levels, the nucleosome, multimers, chromosomal proteins and their enzymatic modifications, and changes in chromatin structure related to gene expression. This section is uneven in quality, but contains some excellent reviews (e.g., chromatin fractionation and the properties of transcriptionally active regions of chromatin) which compensate for the fact that major contributors to this field of research did not participate in the meeting and, therefore, the collection of papers included does not represent the whole field. Section IV takes the topic of chromatin structure to a higher level of biology and includes papers on cellular aging, transformation, carcinogenesis, DNA repair, and electromagnetic studies of the cell surface. The relationship of these chapters to chromatin structure is often unclear, but they point out interfaces between areas of research for future studies. A discussion between participants at the end of each section and a panel review at the end of the conference (Section V) convey the constructive working atmosphere and illustrate different viewpoints and open questions. These books are recommended as an introductory text for those who want to engage in active research in this field and as a reference source for biomedical libraries.