This is the first volume on the role of metal ions in regulating genes to focus not only on toxicity effects of metals but also on the role of metal ions in normal metabolisms, in both prokaryotes and in eukaryotes. This book is a comprehensive treatment of the role of metal ions in gene regulation, and it will be of great utility for those doing basic biological and biomedical research.

This volume of Current Topics in Membranes focuses on metal transmembrane transporters and pumps, a recently discovered family of membrane proteins with many important roles in the physiology of living organisms. The book summarizes the most recent advances in the field of metal ion transport and provides a broad overview of the major classes of transporters involved in homeostasis of heavy metals. Various families of the transporters and metal specificities are discussed with the focus on the structural and mechanistic aspects of their function and regulation. The reader will access information obtained through a variety of approaches ranging from X-ray crystallography to cell biology and bioinformatics, which have been applied to transporters identified in diverse biological systems, such as pathogenic bacteria, plants, humans and others. Field is cutting-edge and a lot of the information is new to research community Wide breadth of topic coverage Contributors of high renown and expertise

Metal ions and metal complexes have long been recognized ascritically important components of nucleic acid chemistry, both inregulation of gene expression and as promising therapeutic agents.Understanding how metal complexes interact with DNA has become anactive research area at the interface between chemistry, molecularbiology and medicine. Metal Complex - DNA Interactions provides a comprehensiveoverview of this increasingly diverse field, presenting recentdevelopments and the latest research with particular emphasis onmetal-based drugs and metal ion toxicity. The text is divided intofour parts: Basic Structural and Kinetic Aspects: includes chapterson sequence-selective metal binding to DNA and thermodynamicmodels. Medical Applications: focuses on anticancer platinumdrugs, including discussions on DNA repair in antitumor effects ofplatinum drugs and photo-dynamic therapy. DNA-Recognition - Nucleases and Sensor: describesprobes for DNA recognition, artificial restriction agents,metallo-DNAzymes for metal sensing applications and metal iondependent catalysis in nucleic acid enzymes. Toxicological Aspects: deals with structural studies ofmercury–DNA interactions, chromium-induced DNA damage andrepair, and the effect of arsenic and nickel on DNAintegrity. This book will be a valuable resource for academic researchersand professionals from a range of pharmaceutical and chemicalindustries, particularly those involved in the development of newand less toxic anticancer metallo-drugs, and in the field ofenvironmental and toxicological chemistry.

Over the last three decades a lot of research on the role of metals in biochemistry and medicine has been done. As a result many structures of biomolecules with metals have been characterized and medicinal chemistry studied the effects of metal containing drugs. This new book (from the EIBC Book Series) covers recent advances made by top researchers in the field of metals in cells [the “metallome”] and include: regulated metal ion uptake and trafficking, sensing of metals within cells and across tissues, and identification of the vast cellular factors designed to orchestrate assembly of metal cofactor sites while minimizing toxic side reactions of metals. In addition, it features aspects of metals in disease, including the role of metals in neuro-degeneration, liver disease, and inflammation, as a way to highlight the detrimental effects of mishandling of metal trafficking and response to "foreign" metals. With the breadth of our recently acquired understanding of metals in cells, a book that features key aspects of cellular handling of inorganic elements is both timely and important. At this point in our understanding, it is worthwhile to step back and take an expansive view of how far our understanding has come, while also highlighting how much we still do not know. The content from this book will publish online, as part of EIBC in December 2013, find out more about the Encyclopedia of Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry, the essential online resource for researchers and students working in all areas of inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry.

Metal ions play key roles in biology. Many are essential for catalysis, for electron transfer and for the fixation, sensing, and metabolism of gases. Others compete with those essential metal ions or have toxic or pharmacological effects. This book is structured around the periodic table and focuses on the control of metal ions in cells. It addresses the molecular aspects of binding, transport and storage that ensure balanced levels of the essential elements. Organisms have also developed mechanisms to deal with the non-essential metal ions. However, through new uses and manufacturing processes, organisms are increasingly exposed to changing levels of both essential and non-essential ions in new chemical forms. They may not have developed defenses against some of these forms (such as nanoparticles). Many diseases such as cancer, diabetes and neurodegeneration are associated with metal ion imbalance. There may be a deficiency of the essential metals, overload of either essential or non-essential metals or perturbation of the overall natural balance. This book is the first to comprehensively survey the molecular nature of the overall natural balance of metal ions in nutrition, toxicology and pharmacology. It is written as an introduction to research for students and researchers in academia and industry and begins with a chapter by Professor R J P Williams FRS.

Chapters in this book review the remarkable advances in the field of zinc biology over the last decade. Zinc is essential for life, in particular for growth and development, through its role in hundreds of zinc enzymes and thousands of zinc proteins. Its catalytic, structural, and regulatory functions in these proteins impact metabolism, gene expression, and signal transduction, including neurotransmission. Among the micronutrients, zinc may rank with iron as to its importance for public health. The topics covered range from single molecules to cells and to whole organisms: the chemistry, design, and application of fluorophores for the determination of cellular zinc; the role of zinc in proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis of cells; proteins that transport, sense, and distribute zinc and together form a cellular homeostatic system; the coordination chemistry of zinc in metalloproteins; the role of zinc in the brain as a neuromodulator/transmitter; the dependence of the immune system on zinc; zinc homeostasis in the whole human body.

The present volume contains 17 lectures of the 41 st Mosbach Colloquium of the Gesellschaft fiir Biologische Chemie, held from April 5-7, 1990 on the topic "The Molecular Basis of Bacterial Metabolism". From the beginning it was not the intention of the organizers to present a comprehensive account, but rather to select new, exciting progress on sometimes exotic reactions of specifically bacterial, mainly anaerobic metabolism. Members of our society had contributed to this progress to an extent that greatly stimulated the scientific exchange with international colleagues during the days in Mosbach. The editors hope that this stimulation will be conveyed to the readers of the articles, which reach from the biochemistry of methanogenesis, via anaerobic radical reactions, metal biochemistry in hydrogen and nitrogen metabolism, conversions of light - and redox energy, to the regulation of metabolic adaptation, and the attempts to bioengineer novel pathways for the degradation of xenobiotica. We believe that the book represents a highly progressive field of over lapping disciplines, comprising microbiology and molecular genetics, chemistry of biomimetic interest, and biophysics, and that it gives insight into the impact modern technologies have on microbiological research today. The colloquium was generously supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Paul-Martini-Stiftung, and the Fonds fiir Biologische Chemie. A. Trebst, G. Schafer, and D. Oesterhelt were a great help in preparing the program and we wish to thank them for their advice.

Bacteria in various habitats are subject to continuously changing environmental conditions, such as nutrient deprivation, heat and cold stress, UV radiation, oxidative stress, dessication, acid stress, nitrosative stress, cell envelope stress, heavy metal exposure, osmotic stress, and others. In order to survive, they have to respond to these conditions by adapting their physiology through sometimes drastic changes in gene expression. In addition they may adapt by changing their morphology, forming biofilms, fruiting bodies or spores, filaments, Viable But Not Culturable (VBNC) cells or moving away from stress compounds via chemotaxis. Changes in gene expression constitute the main component of the bacterial response to stress and environmental changes, and involve a myriad of different mechanisms, including (alternative) sigma factors, bi- or tri-component regulatory systems, small non-coding RNA’s, chaperones, CHRIS-Cas systems, DNA repair, toxin-antitoxin systems, the stringent response, efflux pumps, alarmones, and modulation of the cell envelope or membranes, to name a few. Many regulatory elements are conserved in different bacteria; however there are endless variations on the theme and novel elements of gene regulation in bacteria inhabiting particular environments are constantly being discovered. Especially in (pathogenic) bacteria colonizing the human body a plethora of bacterial responses to innate stresses such as pH, reactive nitrogen and oxygen species and antibiotic stress are being described. An attempt is made to not only cover model systems but give a broad overview of the stress-responsive regulatory systems in a variety of bacteria, including medically important bacteria, where elucidation of certain aspects of these systems could lead to treatment strategies of the pathogens. Many of the regulatory systems being uncovered are specific, but there is also considerable “cross-talk” between different circuits. Stress and Environmental Regulation of Gene Expression and Adaptation in Bacteria is a comprehensive two-volume work bringing together both review and original research articles on key topics in stress and environmental control of gene expression in bacteria. Volume One contains key overview chapters, as well as content on one/two/three component regulatory systems and stress responses, sigma factors and stress responses, small non-coding RNAs and stress responses, toxin-antitoxin systems and stress responses, stringent response to stress, responses to UV irradiation, SOS and double stranded systems repair systems and stress, adaptation to both oxidative and osmotic stress, and desiccation tolerance and drought stress. Volume Two covers heat shock responses, chaperonins and stress, cold shock responses, adaptation to acid stress, nitrosative stress, and envelope stress, as well as iron homeostasis, metal resistance, quorum sensing, chemotaxis and biofilm formation, and viable but not culturable (VBNC) cells. Covering the full breadth of current stress and environmental control of gene expression studies and expanding it towards future advances in the field, these two volumes are a one-stop reference for (non) medical molecular geneticists interested in gene regulation under stress.

In the early 1980s, a few scientists started working on a Xenopus transcription factor, TFIIIA. They soon discovered a novel domain associated with zinc, and named this domain "zinc finger. " Th e number of proteins with similar zinc fingers grew quickly and these proteins are now called C2H2, Cys2His2 or classical zinc finger proteins. To date, about 24,000 C2H2 zinc finger proteins have been recognized. Approximately 700 human genes, or more than 2% of the genome, have been estimated to encode C2H2 finger proteins. From the beginning these proteins were thought to be numerous, but no one could have predicted such a huge number. Perhaps thousands of scientists are now working on C2H2 zinc finger proteins fi-om variou s viewpoints. This field is a good example of how a new science begins with the insight of a few scientists and how it develops by efforts of numerous independent scientists, in contrast to a policy-driven scientific project, such as the Human Genome Project, with goals clearly set at its inception and with work performed by a huge collaboration throughout the world. As more zinc finger proteins were discovered, several subfamilies, such as C2C2, CCHC, CCCH, LIM, RING, TAZ, and FYVE emerged, increasing our understanding of zinc fingers. The knowledge was overwhelming. Moreover, scientists began defining the term "zinc finger" differently and using various names for identical zinc fingers. These complications may explain why no single comprehensive resource of zinc finger proteins was available before this publication.

This book covers allocation of metals in cells, metal transporter, storage and metalloregulatory proteins, cellular responses to metal ion stress, transcription of genes involved in metal ion homeostasis, uptake of essential metals, metal efflux and other detoxification mechanisms. The book also discusses metal bioreporters for the nanomolar range of concentration and tools to address the metallome. In addition, coverage details specific metals.