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Book Review |
Institut Curie, Paris, France
Blackwell Science (2001) 284 pages. ISBN 0-865-42743-7 £27.50
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Bryan Turner engaged himself in a very challenging task with the writing of a book on a topic that is evolving at a considerable rate and has seen an incredible amount of information accumulate in recent years. The most important aspect of this book is that it is aimed at a student and nonspecialist readership, and thus a real effort has been made in the writing style to present chromatin and gene expression as a story. To this end, Bryan introduces his book by setting the stage and the key players: the helpless gene, which in different cell types is the same but differently expressed, and its packaging into chromatin, a very influencial partner. The story of the relationship can then begin.
As a specialist, I do not fall into the target audience; yet I enjoyed reading the book, mostly for the general picture and the colourful comparison with daily life. The metaphor that he borrowed from Richard Dawkins, which compares our genes to a recipe used to bake a cake, is particularly well developed: "even if we leave our cookery book open at the right page in a well-equipped kitchen with all the right ingredients close by, a cake is unlikely to appear. Unless, that is, a sympathetic friend who can take a hint happens to enter the kitchen. Then a cake may materialize". This allows him to make an important point, which is that there is information beyond just the recipe itself. In other words, this opens the discussion as to what conditions genes require in order that the information they contain can be `converted' into a living organism.
The story is developed over twelve chapters. First, a brief overview is given of the basic principles involved in controlling transcription in prokaryotes. He next introduces the problems of complexity (genomic and cellular) in eukaryotes. The basic unit of chromatin, the nucleosome and its protein component, histones, is presented with a specific emphasis on the histone tails and their various post-translational modifications. The less-defined aspects of higher-order chromatin structure and nuclear organization are also considered. The way in which transcription occurs in the context of chromatin is then discussed. The recent concepts of `chromatin remodeling machines' are highlighted to explain newly refined control mechanisms. A chapter is dedicated to heterochromatin, thus raising the issue of long-term silencing of gene expression. The final part consists of a comparison of mechanisms used for dosage compensation in different organisms (mammals, Drosophila and C. elegans). This section is not meant to provide a real end to the story but rather to stimulate the imagination. It illustrates how ideas developed thoughout the text can come together to help in our understanding of the fascinating mechanisms underlying the coordinated regulation of gene expression across an entire chromosome. Like any good relationship, the story has no end, but surely has the potential for much future development.
Aside from some pictures taken from original publications, a series of schematic figures, mainly grayscale line drawings adapted from various sources, are provided, and their major asset is their simplicity as useful teaching aids.
In conclusion, and to get back to the culinary metaphor (which rang a chord with me as a French reader), it seems that reading this book could be likened to a good appetizer - it should stimulate students to be curious about the rest of the meal and, therefore, run off and read up on more specific information on the individual aspects of the story.
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