Biochemistry (3rd ed.)

Abstract

Biochemistry (3rd Ed.) Voet, D., and Voet, J., John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2004, 1591 pp., ISBN 0-471-39223-5, $145.95. It is 8 years since the second edition of the Voet & Voet book appeared, and a lot has happened in biochemistry (and molecular biology) since that time. As the authors remark, for example, 8 years ago not a single genome had been sequenced: now we have many, including the human one. There are many more examples—the PCR had appeared but not DNA microarrays, the increasing importance of mass-spectrometric methods, the importance of bioinformatics, protein folding, etc. How can the authors of a comprehensive textbook keep up with developments, and how can they condense to contain the biochemical information that is increasing exponentially? I don't really know the answer to this, but there is no doubt that the present authors have done a very good job. They have kept and indeed explained the important basics in a form that the diligent student can comprehend, and they have also included most of the important developments in the subject. The result is a 3.5-kg comprehensive treatise that fully justifies the one-word title "Biochemistry": this is a pretty good statement of what biochemistry in 2004 is. Early chapters deal adequately with a background in molecular biology and also are good on methods (that will be referred to), including mass spectrometry, which, as mentioned, is now a very important technique. The sections on bioinformatics and DNA microchips are also good, exemplifying the uptodateness of the text. The same may be said of the sections on protein folding and prions. I thought the chapter on viruses was particularly good. The introductory section on DNA (in Section V, see below) is extremely erudite, not the outline, sketchy description that one so often finds. Like previous editions, the third edition of Voet and Voet is definitely "information rich" (as is the subject), but this is not to say that what it offers is a vast number of bald, unjustified, unconnected facts. Quite the contrary: although there cannot be room for the experimental evidence supporting every statement, sufficient background is always given on how information was obtained and interpreted. For example, in the section on messenger RNA (p.1220), the concept of mRNA is introduced from a genetic viewpoint, which allows the student to understand how this form of RNA was discovered. This is in my opinion better than giving a bald statement along the lines of "this is mRNA and this is what it does." In training the future biochemist researcher, we need the conceptual approach, not the "easy biology" approach. The authors say in their preface that biochemistry is a body of knowledge compiled by people through experimentation. Therefore, the future practitioners have to understand how the knowledge was generated and be critical of the processes and the interpretations. The book's cover records that it has been used by over 250,000 students since the first edition (1990) and has been translated into Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Czech. I used the phrase "diligent student" above. This is not the book for the student wishing to obtain a superficial knowledge of biochemistry, e.g. memorizing the Krebs Cycle and passing the exam. I am talking about the student who has a good background understanding in chemistry (physical and organic), who is not frightened of mathematical equations, who is prepared to put in the time on task to understand quite complicated concepts by reading and by tackling end-of-chapter problems—in short, someone who, one hopes, will turn into the future research biochemist, one of the next generation. In the authors' words, students need to make this body of knowledge their own, and this requires thinking and doing problems rather than regurgitating. Similar to previous editions, the book is divided into five sections: a brief introduction about life, water, and thermodynamics; nine chapters about biomolecules; three chapters about enzyme action; 13 chapters on metabolism; and finally seven chapters on molecular biology (actually "expression and transmission of genetic information"). In fact, the last chapter is "virtual" in the sense that it will be web-based and will deal with blood clotting, immunity, and motility. Like previous editions, the third uses many of Irving Geis's illustrations rather than computer-produced graphics of biomolecules (personally I don't know if there is much to choose between them these days). At chapter ends there are resources: extended chapter summaries, references to further reading, and some problems to tackle. These, the authors say, are not "regurgitation exercises" but "think" problems, and they hope that students will have a go at them without looking at the answer book (see below)! The central section of the book is on metabolism, which some people now think of as being a little old-fashioned, but in fact, although we have complete genomes, it is the proteins that are expressed that do the work in the cell. Thus an understanding of pathways and the logic behind them is vital. Except for some alternative pathways and the glyoxylate cycle, the metabolism explained is mostly mammalian (although there is much detail on photosynthesis later of course). Students might be a little confused by the use of "COX" for cytochrome oxidase and the abbreviation "COX-2" later on (p. 965) for cyclooxygenase. The metabolism section gives historical perspectives and is also strongly chemical in approach—but how otherwise can we really understand pathways? Also in this section is signal transduction. I felt this was a little breathless, but one has to admit that this is now an enormous area and one that is changing and developing day by day. At this stage, students need to have a basic understanding. If they are brave, they may then go into this important and dynamic area of research later. Also in this section we find membrane transport including nervous conduction. Although the authors expect students to have a considerable background in chemistry, their approach, for example to biomolecules, is to deal with the chemistry first, and in metabolism, the thermodynamics first, and then to move into the biochemistry. This might be regarded as a rather traditional approach, but I think it is appropriate at this level. The subject is bio-"chemistry"—but too many students these days seem to think that the subject is understandable without a good knowledge of chemistry. In any case, the transition from chemistry to biochemistry, I thought, was in most cases rather painless. For example, in the chapter on lipids we move from lipid structures to micelles, to membranes, to lipoproteins and cholesterol. This is surely a logical way to teach this part of the subject area. Incidentally, there is much to interest the pharmacologist and medical student here, but I doubt that the latter will find the book all that alluring. There is some very solid material—not only the cholesterol just mentioned, but also drug developments, HIV protease, cytochromes P450, and drug interactions and the like—but it is not easy to find or isolate these from the text. I think this is right—these things are part of the story but not the whole story for a biochemist. At appropriate places there are also helpful sections on how to find/deal with the biochemical literature, on enzyme nomenclature, and all the programs available for bioinformatics. I wondered if some of the end-of-chapter references would be easy to find for at least some students. Some are "classical" articles (which may not have been archived yet by the journals), while others are to oldish texts including problem books. I have some of these on my shelves, but I doubt that my university library could provide them. Overall I was tremendously impressed by this work. It will be a frequent source of inspiration as well as factual information on my shelves. No student is going to learn all of this, but the student who delves, reads productively, works at the problems, and tried to understand the amazing phenomena of biochemistry that are so clearly explained here is the sort of student you want working in your laboratory. The book also contains a CD-ROM with a range of educational aids. These include structures of a wide range of proteins in a variety of formats (space filling, ribbon, etc.) that can be rotated on the screen, animated graphs (e.g. of titration curves, hemoglobin oxygen binding), animated illustrations of techniques such a gel filtration and ion exchange chromatography, and animated metabolic pathways. One could see that these animations could be very useful in lecturing. Moreover, the authors mention that teachers, for various reasons, have been exploring more active learning methods such as problem-based-, discussion-based, and cooperative learning. The question is whether students will use them sensibly (rather than "button pushing" their way through them). Certainly if students applied themselves, worked through the Interactive Exercises and Guided Explorations and took notes as they went along, then I would say that these are excellent aids to learning. There is an answers book available [Solutions Manual, ISBN 0-471-46858-4], which gives brief but comprehensible answers to the end-of-chapter problems. However, the answers to mathematical problems are given in great detail with practically all the steps in calculations being shown.

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