000 02536nam a2200157Ia 4500
999 _c295392
_d295392
020 _a9780815341888
082 _a572.33 KUR-M
100 _a John Kuriyan
245 _aThe Molecules of Life
260 _aNew York
_bGarland Science, Taylor & Francis Group
_c2013
300 _a xxii, 1008 pages : color illustrations ; 28 cm
505 _a From genes to RNA and proteins -- Nucleic acid structure -- Glycans and lipids -- Protein structure -- Evolutionary variation in proteins -- Energy and intermolecular forces -- Entropy -- Linking energy and entropy : the Boltzmann Distribution -- Free energy -- Chemical potential and the drive to equilibrium -- Voltages and free energy -- Molecular recognition : the thermodynamics of binding -- Specificity of macromolecular recognition --Allostery -- The rates of molecular processes -- Principles of enzyme catalysis -- Diffusion and transport -- Folding -- Fidelity in DNA and protein synthesis.
520 _aThe field of biochemistry is entering an exciting era in which genomic information is being integrated into molecular-level descriptions of the physical processes that make life possible. The Molecules of Life is a new textbook that provides an integrated physical and biochemical foundation for undergraduate students majoring in biology or health sciences. This new generation of molecular biologists and biochemists will harness the tools and insights of physics and chemistry to exploit the emergence of genomics and systems-level information in biology, and will shape the future of medicine. The book integrates fundamental concepts in thermodynamics and kinetics with an introduction to biological mechanism at the level of molecular structure. The central theme is that the ways in which proteins, DNA, and RNA work together in a cell are connected intimately to the structures of these biological macromolecules. The structures, in turn, depend on interactions between the atoms in these molecules, and on the interplay between energy and entropy, which results in the remarkable ability of biological systems to self-assemble and control their own replication. The Molecules of Life deepens our understanding of how life functions by illuminating the physical principles underpinning many complex biological phenomena, including how nerves transmit signals, the actions of chaperones in protein folding, and how polymerases and ribosomes achieve high fidelity.
650 _aBiochemical Processes, Genomics, Methods, Molecular Biology, Physiology
942 _cBK