James R. Harris - Böcker

In step with the surge of interest in the endoplasmic reticulum, the current volume takes an integrated look at this functionally diverse organelle. Coverage includes protein translocation and export, lipid metabolism, antigen presentation, and many other subjects, gleaned from such diverse fields as cell biology, enzymology and membrane biochemistry, immunology, and signal transduction.

This latest volume summarizes the current state of knowledge of membrane assembly. It covers subjects germane to most membranes as well as to membranes of different organelles for prokaryote, plant, and animal cells.

The last several years have been a landmark period in the ubiquitin field. The breadth of ubiquitin's roles in cell biology was first sketched, and the importance of ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis as a regulatory mechanism gained general acceptance. The many strands of work that led to this new perception are re­ counted in this book. A consequence of this progress is that the field has grown dramatically since the first book on ubiquitin was published almost a decade ago [M. Rechsteiner (ed. ), Ubiquitin, Plenum Press, 1988]. In this span, students of the cell cycle, transcription, signal transduction, protein sorting, neuropathology, cancer, virology, and immunology have attempted to chart the role of ubi quit in in their particular experimental systems, and this integration of the field into cell biology as a whole continues at a remarkable pace. We hope that for active researchers in the field as well as for newcomers and those on the fence, this book will prove helpful for its breadth, historical perspective, and practical tips. Structural data are now available on many of the components of the ubiquitin pathway. The structures have provided basic insights into the unusual biochemical mechanisms of ubiquitination and proteasome-mediated proteolysis. Because high-speed computer graphics can convey structures more effectively than print media, we have supplemented the figures of the book with a Worldwide Web site that can display the structures in a flexible, viewer-controlled format.

This text looks at subcellular chemistry, particularly at intermediate filaments. Topics include fish intermediate filament proteins in structure, evolution, and function, and lessons from keratin transgenic and knockout mice.

Political histories of the Soviet Union have portrayed a powerful Kremlin leadership whose will was passively implemented by regional Party officials and institutions. Drawing on his research in recently opened archives in Moscow and the Urals—a vast territory that is a vital center of the Russian mining and metallurgy industries—James R. Harris overturns this view. He argues here that the regions have for centuries had strong identities and interests and that they cumulatively exerted a significant influence on Soviet policy-making and on the evolution of the Soviet system.After tracing the development of local interests prior to the Revolution, Harris demonstrates that a desperate need for capital investment caused the Urals and other Soviet regions to press Moscow to increase the investment and production targets of the first five year plan. He provides conclusive evidence that local leaders established the pace for carrying out such radical policies as breakneck industrialization and the construction of forced labor camps. When the production targets could not be met, regional officials falsified data and blamed "saboteurs" for their shortfalls. Harris argues that such deception contributed to the personal and suspicious nature of Stalin's rule and to the beginning of his onslaught on the Party apparatus.Most of the region's communist leaders were executed during the Great Terror of 1936–38. In his conclusion, Harris measures the impact of their interests on the collapse of the communist system, and the fate of reform under Gorbachev and Yeltsin.