Engineering the Genetic Code: Expanding the Amino Acid Repertoire for the Design of Novel Proteins - Hardcover

Budisa, Nediljko

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3527312439 ISBN 13: 9783527312436

Publisher: Wiley-VCH, 2005

Synopsis

Rare Book

About this title

Review:

"In his book, Nediljko Budisa covers this highly interdisciplinary field and allows people not directly involved in protein engineering to get acquainted and up-to-date with the most recent and exciting developments. The book, which is the first of its kind dedicated entirely to this area of research, provides a comprehensive overview of the field. The book comprises seven chapters and has a clear structure supported by a multitude of fine illustrations, thus making the book a good read for those interested in protein engineering. ... Moreover, an excellent update on protein translation in general is given, which is useful for students and newcomers in the field. (...) The book provides an excellent introduction for first-time readers to the field of genetic-code engineering and, as stated on the back of the book, this is 'essential reading to all molecular life scientists who want to stay ahead in their research'." ChemBioChem

"The numerous examples illustrate the new prospects that are opened up by genetic code engineering. We can expect novel proteins with properties that cannot be foreseen in detail, when one considers that, even for polypeptides based on the 20 proteinogenic amino acids, the rules of folding are still not known."
Angewandte Chemie International Edition

From the Back Cover:

The chemistry of the life is based on defined number of the generic monomeric building blocks. For example, twenty canonical alpha-amino acids are encoded for basic protein syntheses in all organisms.
The central issue of this book are experimental strategies and techniques to expand the number of the amino acids for protein biosyntheses. This requires the reprogramming of protein translation machinery by changing the coding capacities of standard genetic code - a main goal of the genetic code engineering as new research field.
Such genetically encoded protein modifications achieved by introducing non-canonical amino acids both in vitro and in vivo have greatly expanded the repertoire of accessible proteins for basic research and biotechnological application.
The researchers and students are provided with a comprehensive coverage of important new principles of different methods and strategies to incorporate new or modified amino acids into proteins including a lot of practical advice for first-time users of these powerful approaches.
Numerous examples, made possible by the expansion of the genetic code, are given in order to cover the entire spectrum of novel applications in protein biochemistry, genomics, biotechnology and biomedicine.
Some other interesting aspects discussed in this book include the relations between prebiotic (extraterrestrial, meteoritic, interstellar) and encoded amino acids; the possibility to couple engineered metabolic circuits with reprogrammed translation; to remodel current life and progressively develop truly novel life forms, as well as possible ethical implications of such experiments on human societies.

Essential reading for all molecular life scientists who want to stay ahead in their research.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley-VCH
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 3527312439
• ISBN 13: 9783527312436
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312