Architecture Of The Bacteriophage Lambda Tail

The Bacteriophage Lambda

The Bacteriophages

It has been 10 years since Plenum included a series of reviews on bacte riophages, in Comprehensive Virology. Chapters in that series contained physical-genetic maps but very little DNA sequence information. Now the complete DNA sequence is known for some phages, and the se quences for others will soon follow. During the past 10 years two phages have come into common use as reagents: A phage for cloning single copies of genes, and Ml3 for cloning and DNA sequencing by the dideoxy termi nation method. Also during that period the use of alternative sigma fac tors by RNA polymerase has become established for SPOl and T4. This seems to be a widely used mechanism in bacteria, since it has been implicated in sporulation, heat shock response, and regulation of nitro gen metabolism. The control of transcription by the binding of A phage CII protein to the -35 region of the promoter is a recent finding, and it is not known how widespread this mechanism may be. This rapid progress made me eager to solicit a new series of reviews. These contributions are of two types. Each of the first type deals with an issue that is exemplified by many kinds of phages; chapters of this type should be useful in teaching advanced courses. Chapters of the second type provide comprehensive pictures of individual phage families and should provide valuable information for use in planning experiments.

New Macromolecular Architecture and Functions

This volume summarizes the papers presented at the second Osaka University Macromolecular Symposium OUMS '95 on "New Macromolecular Architecture and Functions" which was held at Senri Life Science Center, Osaka, Japan, on June 2 through June 5, 1995. The symposium covered the three topics, (1) Controlled Polymerizations, (2) Macromolecular Organized Systems and (3) Biomimetic Polymers, and invited leading scientists in these fields. At present, any of these topics is a hot issue in itself and frequently taken up separately on many occasions. It is noted, however, that all these topics are correlated with each other with the keyword "molecular design of new types of polymers" and their combination provides a unique feature of the present symposium in reflecting the interactions among investigators working in these important fields with the common ground expressed by the keyword "molecular design of new types of polymers". Twenty five invited lectures and twenty nine posters were presented at the Symposium, and twenty of the lectures contribute to this volume. In the first topic, preparations of sequentially of stereoregularly controlled polymers were discussed from the view points of precise design of polymer preparation on the molecular level; attention was paid to a possibility of living radical polymerization, preparations of new types of living polymers, recent advances in preparation of stereospecific living polymers, sequential control in block copolymers, and molecular design of initiators and/or catalysts for the controlled polymerizations.