This detailed volume presents a comprehensive technical overview of DNA nanotechnology with an emphasis on 3D DNA nanostructure design and applications. Coverage spans from basic design principles for DNA and RNA nanostructures to their cutting-edge applications in a variety of fields, with the book divided into basic DNA and RNA nanostructure design strategies as well as applications utilizing DNA nanostructures, including but not limited to nanomedicine, bioimaging, biosensing, nanoplasmonics, nanoelectronics, nanofabrication, crystallography, biophysics, and analytical chemistry. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Comprehensive and authoritative, 3D DNA Nanostructure: Methods and Protocols provides the most up-to-date tutorial style overviews and technical style protocols to benefit researchers in a wide variety of areas.

This volume explores various methodologies to study biochemical, molecular, and cellular biology aspects of some processes regulated by protein SUMOylation. SUMO: Methods and Protocols is organized into four parts, and starts with an historical overview on protein SUMOylation and a presentation of the methods included in the book. The first part also includes a review on chromatin regulation by dynamic SUMO modifications. The second part focuses on in vitro techniques, including biochemical methods to study mechanistic aspects of protein SUMOylation. The third part includes protocols to be used with cell cultures, which often are the first approaches used in most laboratories. The final part includes methodologies adapted for the analysis in vivo using distinct model organisms. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include a brief introduction to the subject, a list of necessary materials and reagents, a step-by-step reproducible laboratory protocol ending with a Notes section on troubleshooting tips, and tips and strategies to avoid known pitfalls. Unique and cutting-edge, SUMO: Methods and Protocols provides a comprehensive source of protocols for specialists and researchers not familiar with this vital system.

One of the major goals of researchers in the field of apoptosis is to identify targets for novel therapies in cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer s disease. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of the various components of the apoptotic pathways is the first step to reaching this goal.
The 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Sydney Brenner (United Kingdom), H. Robert Horvitz (US) and John E. Sulston (UK) "for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death." Cell death is a fundamental aspect of embryonic development, normal cellular turnover and maintenance of homeostasis (maintaining a stable, constant environment) on the one hand, and aging and disease on the other. This volume addresses the significant advances with the techniques that are being used to analyze cell death.
* This volume provides the necessary, trusted methods to carry out this research on these latest therapeutic techniques. Once researchers understand the molecular mechanisms of the apoptotic pathways, they can begin to develop new therapies.
* Presents key methods on studying tumors and how these cancer cells evade cell death.
* Eliminates searching through many different sources to avoid pitfalls so the same mistakes are not made over and over."

The current scenario of increasing sensitivity towards the sustainable agriculture has given a large space to extensively utilize natural resources that are environmental friendly and are a good replacement of chemicals in agriculture. Application of organic additives in the sustainable disease management can provide new insight in sustenance of plant productivity along with improved host stress tolerance. In the present book we have focussed upon a range of organic strategies to control plant pathogens of wide spectrum in addition to maintaining robust plant health. A detailed account on the application of organic additives has been discussed, irrespective of their origin and nature. In addition, the methods of utilising these organic supplements in the management of plant diseases and promotion of plant yield in more economic way have also been presented with reference to developing, underdeveloped and developed countries. The book has included the works of eminent scholars from across the world thus flashing light on the key literature related to application of organic matters including phytoextracts, chopped leaves, composted organic manures and liquid manures in eco-friendly agriculture. The mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of these organic amendments in promoting plant health has also been presented and discussed in understandable ways.

This book presents a collection of articles on various aspects of current research on aging. These include model systems, cellular, biochemical and molecular aspects of experimental aging research, as well as selected intervention studies on age-related diseases. Aging is a global challenge to human society. Children are always in a hurry to become adults, while adults produce offspring and add to the gene pool. However, after adulthood or the attainment of reproductive maturity, all physiological parameters of the living organism start to undergo the aging process. Old age sets in slowly but surely, and usually continues for a prolonged period. If vigor and vitality are the main advantages of adulthood, old age offers the rewards of experience and maturity. Biologists ask questions such as: Why do we age? How do we become old? Is it possible to slow down, postpone or even prevent aging? In turn, medical experts ask: What are the diseases associated with old age? Are there medicines that can help affected elderly patients? In fact both groups are asking themselves how can we add more health to old age. Healthy aging is the dream of every individual. But to achieve this, it is fundamental that we first understand the cellular, biochemical and molecular basis of the aging process in mammalian cells, tissues and intact living organisms, which can serve as experimental model systems in Biomedical Gerontology. Once the biology of aging is understood at the genetic and molecular levels, interventional approaches to aging and its associated diseases may be easier to plan and implement at the preclinical level.

"International Review of Cell & Molecular Biology" presents current advances and comprehensive reviews in cell biology-both plant and animal. Articles address structure and control of gene expression, nucleocytoplasmic interactions, control of cell development and differentiation and cell transformation and growth.
* Authored by some of the foremost scientists in the field
* Provides up-to-date information and directions for future research
* Valuable reference material for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and professional scientists

This second volume in the series covers such topics as DNA fingerprinting of fishes, the cytochromes P450 in fish, the molecular biology of bacterial fish diseases, and new insights into the origins of the diversity and distribution of fish antifreeze proteins. The book will be of great value to fisheries scientists, animal biochemists, physiologists and endocrinologists, and aquaculturists. It will provide researchers and students alike with a pertinent information source from theoretical and experimental angles.

Myxobacteria have fascinated generations of scientists since their discovery over a century ago. These bacteria represent the epitome of complex prokaryotic behaviour. In this book, expert myxobiologists describe important recent advances in understanding their behaviour at a molecular and cellular level.

Specific complexes of protein and RNA carry out many essential biological functions, including RNA processing, RNA turnover, RNA folding, as well as the translation of genetic information from mRNA into protein sequences. Messenger RNA (mRNA) decay is now emerging as an important control point and a major contributor to gene expression. Continuing identification of the protein factors and cofactors, and mRNA instability elements, responsible for mRNA decay allow researchers to build a comprehensive picture of the highly orchestrated processes involved in mRNA decay and its regulation.
Covers the difference in processing of mRNA between eukaryotes, bacteria and archea. Benefit: Processing of mRNA differs greatly between eukaryotes, bacteria and archea and this affords researchers readily reproducible techniques to understand and study the molecular pathogenesis of disease.
Expert researchers introduce the most advanced technologies and techniques to identify mRNA processing, transport, localization and turnover which are central to the process of gene expression. Benefit: Keeps MIE buyers and online subscribers up-to-date with the latest research
Offers step by step lab instructions including necessary equipment and reagents. Benefit: Provides tried and tested techniques which eliminate searching through many different sources. Tested techniques are trustworthy and avoid pitfalls so the same mistakes are not made over and over.

DESCRIPTION:
International Review of Cell & Molecular Biology presents current advances and comprehensive reviews in cell biology both plant and animal. Articles address structure and control of gene expression, nucleocytoplasmic interactions, control of cell development and differentiation, and cell transformation and growth. Authored by some of the foremost scientists in the field, each volume provides up-to-date information and directions for future research
Key Features
* Authored by some of the foremost scientists in the field
* Provides up-to-date information and directions for future research
* Valuable reference material for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and professional scientists

DESCRIPTION:
International Review of Cell & Molecular Biology presents current advances and comprehensive reviews in cell biology-both plant and animal. Articles address structure and control of gene expression, nucleocytoplasmic interactions, control of cell development and differentiation, and cell transformation and growth. Authored by some of the foremost scientists in the field, each volume provides up-to-date information and directions for future research.
Key Features
* Authored by some of the foremost scientists in the field
* Provides up-to-date information and directions for future research
* Valuable reference material for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and professional scientists

The 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Sydney Brenner (United Kingdom), H. Robert Horvitz (US) and John E. Sulston (UK) "for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death." Cell death is a fundamental aspect of embryonic development, normal cellular turnover and maintenance of homeostasis (maintaining a stable, constant environment) on the one hand, and aging and disease on the other. This volume addresses the significant advances with the techniques that are being used to analyze cell death.
* This volume provides the necessary, trusted methods to carry out this research on the latest techniques. Once researchers understand the molecular mechanisms of the apoptotic pathways, they can begin to develop new therapies.
* Presents key methods on studying tumors and how these cancer cells evade cell death.
* Eliminates searching through many different sources to avoid pitfalls so the same mistakes are not made over and over.

This book serves as an introduction to the continuum mechanics and mathematical modeling of complex fluids in living systems. The form and function of living systems are intimately tied to the nature of surrounding fluid environments, which commonly exhibit nonlinear and history dependent responses to forces and displacements. With ever-increasing capabilities in the visualization and manipulation of biological systems, research on the fundamental phenomena, models, measurements, and analysis of complex fluids has taken a number of exciting directions. In this book, many of the world's foremost experts explore key topics such as: Macro- and micro-rheological techniques for measuring the material properties of complex biofluids and the subtleties of data interpretation Experimental observations and rheology of complex biological materials, including mucus, cell membranes, the cytoskeleton, and blood The motility of microorganisms in complex fluids and the dynamics of active suspensions Challenges and solutions in the numerical simulation of biologically relevant complex fluid flows This volume will be accessible to advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in engineering, mathematics, biology, and the physical sciences, but will appeal to anyone interested in the intricate and beautiful nature of complex fluids in the context of living systems.

Over the last decades cell biology and biological chemistry have increasingly turned their attention to the space between cells and revealed an elaborate network of macromolecules essential for structural support, cell adhesion and signaling. This comprehensive handbook of the extracellular matrix will give an overview of the current state of knowledge of matrix components (structure and function), their role in heath and disease (matrix pathobiology) and new aspects related to pharmacological targeting. It will provide an introduction to the extracellular matrix and detailed sections and chapters on: Importance of extracellular matrix in health and disease Matrix proteoglycans (aggrecan, versican, perlecan, SLRPs, syndecans, glypicans, serglycin) Matrix proteinases (remodeling, would healing, regulatory roles in health and disease, metalloproteinases, cystein proteases, plasmin and plasminogen activator system) Glycobiology (hyaluronan and sulfated glycosaminoglycans in cancer, inflammation and metabolic control) Collagens (supramolecular assembly, proteins binding collagen, scaffolds, bacterial and mutated collagens, procollagen proteinases) Cell surface receptors (integrins, syndecans, mechanical strain and TGFb, CD44 and DDR). Biotechnological and pharmacological outlook (matrix regulation by growth factors, hyaluronidases, pathobiology, disease targeting, delivery systems, EMT and proteomics). "The book Extracellular Matrix: Pathobiology and Signaling provides a comprehensive and up to date collection of very relevant topics for understanding the various facets of extracellular matrix and its interactions with cells in normal tissue as well as in disease. It represents the current front-line and will serve as a reference for extracellular matrix and posttranslational modifications." Dick Heinegard, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Section Rheumatology, Lund University, Sweden

Chloroplasts are vital for life as we know it. At the leaf cell level, it is common knowledge that a chloroplast interacts with its surroundings - but this knowledge is often limited to the benefits of oxygenic photosynthesis and that chloroplasts provide reduced carbon, nitrogen and sulphur. This book presents the intricate interplay between chloroplasts and their immediate and more distant environments. The topic is explored in chapters covering aspects of evolution, the chloroplast/cytoplasm barrier, transport, division, motility and bidirectional signalling. Taken together, the contributed chapters provide an exciting insight into the complexity of how chloroplast functions are related to cellular and plant-level functions. The recent rapid advances in the presented research areas, largely made possible by the development of molecular techniques and genetic screens of an increasing number of plant model systems, make this interaction a topical issue.

This book provides an overview of new mathematical models, computational simulations and experimental tests in the field of biomedical technology, and covers a wide range of current research and challenges. The first part focuses on the virtual environment used to study biological systems at different scales and under multiphysics conditions. In turn, the second part is devoted to modeling and computational approaches in the field of cardiovascular medicine, e.g. simulation of turbulence in cardiovascular flow, modeling of artificial textile-reinforced heart valves, and new strategies for reducing the computational cost in the fluid-structure interaction modeling of hemodynamics. The book's last three parts address experimental observations, numerical tests, computational simulations, and multiscale modeling approaches to dentistry, orthopedics and otology. Written by leading experts, the book reflects the remarkable advances that have been made in the field of medicine, the life sciences, engineering and computational mechanics over the past decade, and summarizes essential tools and methods (such as virtual prototyping of medical devices, advances in medical imaging, high-performance computing and new experimental test devices) to enhance medical decision-making processes and refine implant design. The contents build upon the International Conference on Biomedical Technology 2015 (ICTB 2015), the second ECCOMAS thematic conference on Biomedical Engineering, held in Hannover, Germany in October 2015.

Display technologies have become a very powerful way of generating therapeutic lead molecules and specific reagents for increasing our understanding of biology; however, despite being first described shortly after phage display, the use of ribosome display and related methods have been much less widespread. Since this is in part due to the complexity of the methods, "Ribosome Display and Related Technologies: Methods and Protocols" seeks to extend their use by collecting expert contributions describing these detailed protocols. The protocols described range from well-established methods that have been used for a decade to generate high affinity antibodies, which are already in the clinic, to methods that are in their early stages of application such as display of peptides incorporating non-canonical amino acids. Written in the highly successful "Methods in Molecular Biology " series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.

Invaluable and easy to use, "Ribosome Display and Related Technologies: Methods and Protocols" will be of great benefit to those with general molecular biology or protein engineering experience who wish to select peptides or proteins by display, those with phage display experience who would benefit from the application of ribosome display, as well as those with some ribosome display experience who would like to expand the range of applications to which they are applying the technology."

This book provides readers with an overview of the frequent occurrence of asymmetric cell division. Employing a broad range of examples, it highlights how this mode of cell division constitutes the basis of multicellular organism development and how its misregulation can lead to cancer. To underline such developmental correlations, readers will for example gain insights into stem cell fate and tumor growth. In turn, subsequent chapters include descriptions of asymmetric cell division from unicellular organisms to humans in both physiological and pathological conditions. The book also illustrates the importance of this process for evolution and our need to understand the background mechanisms, offering a valuable guide not only for students in the field of developmental biology but also for experienced researchers from neighboring fields.

"Mechanobiology of Cell-Matrix Interactions" focuses on characterization and modeling of interactions between cells and their local extracellular environment, exploring how these interactions may mediate cell behavior. Studies of cell-matrix interactions rely on integrating engineering, (molecular and cellular) biology, and imaging disciplines. Recent advances in the field have begun to unravel our understanding of how cells gather information from their surrounding environment, and how they interrogate such information during the cell fate decision making process. Topics include adhesive and integrin-ligand interactions; extracellular influences on cell biology and behavior; cooperative mechanisms of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions; the mechanobiology of pathological processes; (multi-scale) modeling approaches to describe the complexity or cell-matrix interactions; and quantitative methods required for such experimental and modeling studies.

This book will cover both the evidence for biofilms in many chronic bacterial infections as well as the problems facing these infections such as diagnostics and treatment regimes. A still increasing interest and emphasis on the sessile bacterial lifestyle biofilms has been seen since it was realized that that less than 0.1% of the total microbial biomass lives in the planktonic mode of growth. The term was coined in 1978 by Costerton et al. who defined the term biofilm for the first time.In 1993 the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) recognised that the biofilmmode of growth was relevant to microbiology. Lately many articles have been published on the clinical implications of bacterial biofilms. Both original articles and reviews concerning the biofilm problem are available.

This book covers topics on mechanosensing, mechanotransduction, and actin cytoskeletal dynamics in cell motility. It will contribute to a better understanding of how cells functionally adapt to their mechanical environment as well as highlighting fundamental concepts for designing material niches for cell manipulation. With topics from multidisciplinary fields of the life sciences, medicine and engineering, the book is the first of its kind, providing comprehensive, integrated coverage of innovative approaches to cell biomechanics. It provides a valuable resource for seniors and graduate students studying cell biomechanics and is also suitable for researchers interested in the application of methods and strategies in connection with the innovative approaches discussed. Each section of the book has been supplemented with concrete examples and illustrations to facilitate understanding even for readers unfamiliar with cell biomechanics.

The quantity of information available about membrane proteins is now too large for any one person to be familiar with anything but a very small part of the primary literature. A series of volumes concentrating on molecular aspects of biological membranes therefore seems timely. The hope is that, when complete, these volumes will provide a convenient introduction to the study of a wide range of membrane functions.
Application of the techniques of molecular biology has provided the sequences of a very large number of membrane proteins, and has led to the discovery of superfamilies of membrane proteins of related structure. The classic example of the superfamily is the seven helix receptor superfamily, all related in structure to bacteriorhodpsin, and named after the seven trans-membrane a-helices identified in bacteriorhodpsin. This volume explores the structures and functions of this super family.

International Review of Cell & Molecular Biology presents current advances and comprehensive reviews in cell biology - both plant and animal. Authored by some of the foremost scientists in the field, each volume provides up-to-date information and directions for future research. Articles in this volume include Transgenic Mouse Models in Angiogenesis and Lymphangiogenesis,
Morphogenesis in Giant-celled Algae,
Plasmodium in the Post-Genomic Era: New Insight into the Molecular Cell Biology of Malaria Parasites, Role of Nuclear Lamins in Nuclear Organization, Cellular Signalling and Inherited Diseases, New Insights into the Mechanisms of Macroautophagy in Mammalian Cells.
*Covers the latest on transgenic mouse models in angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis.
*Includes information on morphogenesis in giant-celled algae.
*Provides new insights into the mechanisms of macroautophagy in mammalian cells.

The intent in initiating this volume was to bring together a series of essays which would define our present understanding of the endosome and lysosome and their interrelationship. The editors deliberately encouraged the contributors to be speculative; to strive to put order to the "real" world of incomplete and sometimes conflicting data. Seeing science from the laboratory bench can often be like viewing an impressionistic painting from up close; a series of paint dabs with no apparent order. The contributors to this volume were asked to step back and leave the reader with a sense of the whole as well as the detail. To the extent that this has happened, the credit should go to the individual authors.
Our understanding of endosomes and lysosomes has undergone a molecular revolution over the last decade. Hence, we now know much about the molecular features required for internalization of an endocytic receptor, or the function of mannose 6-phosphate receptors in the transport of lysosomal enzymes. We can trace and follow the flow of molecules. In this volume current molecular knowledge concerning the function and relationship of endosomes and lysosomes is presented. Because of this vast increase in knowledge of molecules, we have realized that endosomes in particular are very ephemeral organelles. In fact, endosomes may well not be discrete entities but rather continuously changing and evolving in their molecular composition. The dynamic nature of the relationship between endosomes and lysosomes is the unifying focus of the genetic, biochemical, microscopic, and molecular biological approaches described in the chapters which follow.