RNA (2001), 7:331-333 Cambridge University Press
Copyright © 2001 RNA Society Book Review
Translational Control of Gene Expression, edited by Nahum Sonenberg, John W.B. Hershey,
and Michael B. Mathews. 2000. Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Cloth, 1,020 pp. $113.
Virginia M. Pain & and
Nancy Standart
Biochemistry Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, University
of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK
& Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Tennis
Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1GA, UK; e-mail: nms@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk
Abstract
For two decades, up to the mid-1980s, study of the translation
phase of gene expression was conducted by a relatively small
group of protein biochemistry, cell physiology, and developmental
biology labs. These workers labored against a widely held view
that anything and everything exciting in the control of gene
expression must occur at the level of transcription. Since that
time, however, the use of molecular genetics has revealed an
amazing array of mechanisms for regulating both overall protein
synthesis and selective control of translation of individual
mRNAs in response to physiological conditions. This led to a
remarkable influx of workers into the field, severely challenging
the catering facilities at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
during the biannual meetings on Translational Control, which
were inaugurated in 1987. The first Cold Spring Harbor "Translational
Control" monograph was published in 1996, and its excellent
articles have provided a valuable resource to established workers
and newcomers alike. However, it is a reflection of the rapid
development of knowledge in this field that this volume now looks
decidedly middle-aged. It was therefore decided to produce a
new volume of articles for the year 2000. Although a few of the
36 chapters in the new monograph are necessary updates of subjects
covered previously, by far the majority of the articles are by
different authors and cover new directions, many of which were
barely a gleam in the eye in 1996.
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