The conference entitled "The Translational Apparatus" was held in Berlin from October 31 to November 5, 1992, in honorem et memoriam of H. G. Wittmann. The presentations of the rewarding, enjoyable and scientifically exciting week in Berlin were a fitting appreciation of this great man, and all participants and speakers contributed to the success of the meeting. The second reason for holding the Berlin meeting was to convene a group of scientists for a state-of-the-art presentation on ribosomes and related subjects; the outcome is this book. We have broadened the spectrum of topics to cover activities preceding and following pure ribosomal functions, such as "Synthetases" and "Protein Sorting", respectively, and we took the liberty of ordering the contributions in a way which does not always reflect the order of speakers. We are grateful to the authors who patiently tolerated our organization and our regulations for manuscripts. K.H. Nierhaus F. Franceschi A.R. Subramanian v CONTENTS I. tRNA and Aminoaeyl-tRNA Synthetases 1. The Crystal Structure of SeryI-tRNA Synthetase and its Complexes with A TP and tRNASer...1 S. Cusack, C. Berthet-Colominas, V. Biou, F. Borel, M. Fujinaga, M. Hartlein, I.

"Protein Structure Analysis - Preparation and Characterization" is a compilation of practical approaches to the structural analysis of proteins and peptides. Here, about 20 authors describe and comment on techniques for sensitive protein purification and analysis. These methods are used worldwide in biochemical and biotechnical research currently being carried out in pharmaceu tical and biomedical laboratories or protein sequencing facilities. The chapters have been written by scientists with extensive ex perience in these fields, and the practical parts are well documen ted so that the reader should be able to easily reproduce the described techniques. The methods compiled in this book were demonstrated in student courses and in the EMBO Practical Course on "Microsequence Analysis of Proteins" held in Berlin September 10-15, 1995. The topics also derived from a FEBS Workshop, held in Halkidiki, Thessaloniki, Greece, in April, 1995. Most of the authors participated in these courses as lecturers and tutors and made these courses extremely lively and successful. Since polypeptides greatly vary depending on their specific structure and function, strategies for their structural analysis must for the most part be adapted to each individual protein. Therefore, advantages and limitations of the experimen tal approaches are discussed here critically, so that the reader becomes familiar with problems that might be encountered."

Much of the recent spectacular progress in the biological sciences can be at tributed ot the ability to isolate, analyze, and structurally characterize proteins and peptides which are present in cells and cellular organelles in only very small amounts. Recent advances in protein chemistry and in particular the application of new micromethods have led to fruitful advances in the understanding of basic cellular processes. Areas where protein-chemical studies have resulted in interest ing discoveries include the peptide hormones and their release factors, growth factors and oncogenes, bioenergetics, proton pumps and ion pumps and chan nels, topogenesis and protein secretion, molecular virology and immunology, membrane protein analysis, and receptor research. In fact, the key methods are now on hand to unravel many of the major outstanding problems of molecular biology and in particular questions of fundamental interest which relate to devel opmental biology and specificity in cell-cell interaction. In this volume we have assembled descriptions of procedures which have re cently been shown to be efficaceous for the isolation, purification, and chemical characterization of proteins and peptides that are only available in minute amounts. Emphasis is placed on well-established micromethods which have been tested and found useful in many laboratories by experienced investigators. The chapters are written by specialists, and describe a range of sensitive techniques which can be used by researchers working in laboratories with only modest resources and equipment."

"Methods in Protein Sequence Analysis - 1988" - contains selected contributions on modern protein- analytical techniques as presented by speakers at the Seventh International Conference on "Methods in Protein Sequence Analysis," held from July 3rd to July 8th, 1988 in Berlin. The book contains information on new methodologies for sensitive amino acid analysis, N- and C-terminal sequence analysis, and protein and peptide purification. In addition recent mass spectrometric approaches are described, as an alter native technique to the common stepwise degradative sequence analysis of polypeptides by the Edman method. The book presents new possibilities in the design of sequencers and sophisticated equipment for the structural analysis of peptides and proteins. It describes practical approaches for the investigation of protein domains and protein complexes, and contains review chapters on the crystallization of cell organelles as well as on recent theoretical aspects of protein folding mechanisms. The nature of protein folding is not yet understood, but further advances in this area would greatly enhance our present knowledge of protein structure and function. Further, the book gives examples of the application of gene technology to protein characterization and to the design of new proteins. This enables new studies on the structure and function of proteins to be made, and opens up efficient approaches to the design of drugs."